Survey Says

There’s a certain irony about asking permission from parents when doing a study about the online viewing habits of teens and preteens especially when it comes to pornography. After all, most parents would like to think that their precious, innocent twelve year olds are not being exposed to smut let alone actively seeking it out. But if researchers at the University of New Hampshire wanted to draw some conclusions this was the necessary first step. And the results may surprise you. In this month’s issue of Pediatrics, the study found that an overwhelming number of young people discovered these images not because they went looking for them but they – the pornographists – found them. Through the usual arsenal of marketing tactics – pop-up banners, search result listings, creative but misleading wordplay - it would appear that young people really are inundated with sexual imagery. But, surprisingly, roughly 66% of them did not express any interest in, nor did they actively seek out, the images. Emily Duhovny, 17, of Marlboro, N.J. seemed to sum up this generation’s attitudes best when she remarked, “More than anything, it’s just annoying.”
Annoying?
When I was in my teens I would go to any lengths to view sexual images. I even got a subscription to Sports Illustrated in the naïve hope that I might catch a glimpse of some rugged baseball player’s erection. (I never did.) But I never found the images ‘annoying.’ But, perhaps, that is the delicious irony here. Precisely because pornographic images have become so ubiquitous, children seem to have instinctively shied away from them knowing that - if and when they are ready – they will most assuredly be waiting for them. And parents, who incessantly worry about everything under the sun, can for a moment have one less thing to worry about.




--MOC BLOGGER