WHAT IMPACT DOES IT HAVE ON CHILDREN?
There are millions of free pornographic videos on the internet which anyone, regardless of their age, can access without any restrictions. Online pornography is just as accessible as Barnkanalen. Here you can read about what pornography is like today, what impact it can have on children and how you can get started with prevention in time!
PORNOGRAPHY IN THE 2000s
Playboy versus Pornhub
Many of us who are parents today remember how giggly and exciting it was when we leafed through a porn mag for the first time at the mythical “porn hiding place” under a rock in the woods. However, the things we saw in softcore pornographic magazines then is not what children see today when they google “porn” or “xxx” – often as young as primary school age.
When we talk about pornography, we always mean the mainstream pornography that’s free to access on the large popular porn sites, because that is primarily what children are exposed to. There is often extreme material on the home pages, as soon as children enter, depicting various acts of violence, degradation and misogyny that can be frightening and traumatising for children to see. For example, it’s extremely common to see hard strangulation and pornographic videos that allude to incest in their titles.
To gain a better understanding of what it’s like to grow up today with hardcore pornography just a few clicks away on your phone, you can, for example, watch the YouTube documentary entitled “High Speed Internet pornography and the Experiment Generation” by Dani Lind and Felix Thurfjell, aged 21, who recommend it for children from the age of 13. Here you’ll also find the report entitled “Strypsex är det nya normala” [Strangulation sex is the new normal] by young girls from the organisation named SNAF – Sexualkunskapen Ni Aldrig Fick [the Sexual Education You Never Got] on what it’s like to grow up as a girl in today’s pornography culture.
Another way to get an idea of what children are exposed to today, even if you don’t want to see pornography yourself, is to read titles and categories on the start pages of the major porn sites such as Pornhub, Xvideos and Youporn.
FACTS ABOUT PORNOGRAPHY: STRANGULATION SEX
“The brain makes up just 2% of the body, but needs 20% of the body’s supply of oxygen. The effects are immediate. After 6–7 seconds, the person could lose consciousness. After 15 seconds, the person loses the ability to retain urine. After four to five minutes, the person is brain dead. It takes less pressure to cause serious and fatal injury than it does to open a soft drink can.”
Children’s and teenagers’ consumption of pornography today
Children have always been naturally curious about the body and sexuality. Whereas we learned about sex from Kropp & Knopp in Kamratposten, pornography has become the primary source of many children’s sex education today. The excitement itself and children’s natural curiosity is a strong motivator for them to Google – and there are millions of free porn sites just a few clicks away. In this way, the pornography industry has hijacked the children’s natural development process.
According to a Swedish study with 4,339 participants, around 98% of Swedish boys had looked at pornography during their childhood or adolescence (Svedin, Åkerman and Priebe 2011). (1) In another Swedish study, around 75% of girls had looked at pornography (Mattebo et al. 2016). (2)
In 2026, the brain researcher Katarina Gospic described in Malou efter tio(3) how smartphones had changed the consumption of pornography. Previously, the stimulation took place for a limited time, only in front of a computer. Today, we have access to online pornography in our pockets at all times since we almost always have our smartphones with us.
Children are often exposed to pornography as young as primary school age
There are many indications, pointed out by professionals and organisations working with children in particular, that children’s first exposure to pornography is happening at gradually younger ages. Porrfri Barndom is often contacted by school staff and parents who report that children have already been exposed to pornography at primary school age.
The exposure often takes place through them being shown pornography by an older sibling or a friend at school. It can be difficult to sit through a scary experience on your own. That means that the child often wants to share it with a friend – which can be easier than telling an adult.
Another reason for showing pornography is that you want to be seen as cool by showing your friends what the big boys and girls do. At schools we visited, they talk about peer pressure where “cooler” students egg others on to start watching pornography when they’re around ten years old.
It’s common for guys to force girls to watch pornography
Porrfri Barndom receives reports from school staff all over the country that it’s common for boys in particular to harass girls by forcing them to watch pornography. The Chairperson of the Municipal Executive Board in Falkenberg, Per Svensson, contacted us after a father had sent in our pre-written citizen proposal on pornography-free working environments for children (available to download here).
The Municipality passed a resolution in favour and, according to Per, one contributing factor was the fact that the Municipality received around ten reports per year of incidents in which boys, as young as primary school age, forced girls to watch pornography on their phones and on the school’s digital equipment. He told us that it’s an extremely widespread problem with a large number of unreported cases.
INCEST-PORR,
TEEN & BARELY LEGAL*
Stor trend på mainstreamporrsajterna
En stor trend på mainstreamporrsajterna de senaste åren är porr med familje-tema, så kallad "incest-porr". Det finns miljontals filmer på det här temat och olika specifika kategorier som "stepdad", "stepmom", “stepbrother” m.fl. Det finns även kategorier som går ut på att tjejer i filmerna ska se ut som unga tonåringar eller ännu yngre, framför allt i de två kategorierna "teen" och "barely legal". Här framställs ofta tjejerna i barnmiljöer med nallebjörnar och leksaker.
När barn kommer in på populära porrsajter som t.ex. Pornhub, Xvideos och XNXX ligger den här mycket populära typen av porr ofta synlig högt upp på startsidan som är gratis och öppen för alla att titta på oavsett om man är 7 år eller 70 år.
Ett par exempel på “incest-porr” och “teen” är: “VIRGIN LITTLE STEPSISTER TRIES SEX – ALEX ADAM”, 99% likes, 8,7 miljoner visningar, (noterad Juni 2023 på XNXX ) eller “STEPFATHER FUCKS TINY TEEN BECAUSE HIS WIFE WOULD NOT”, 10.9M visningar, 87% likes, (noterad 11 januari 2023 på PornHub).
* Källor:
The Guardian, Gale Academic, Springer link
Teen och barely legal nämns i forskningen.
Taylor & Francis online
Här kallas det “incest porn”: EBSCO
Normaliserar övergrepp på barn
Exponering för porr med incest-tema, och med personer som ser ut som barn, normaliserar att barn utsätts för sexuella övergrepp. Lena Morin är generalsekreterare på Unizonjouren nxtME, som ger stöd och hjälp till personer som har utsatts för incest. Lena förklarar att barn som exponeras för porr med personer som ser ut som barn och incest-tema kan få svårare att förstå att det är fel om vuxna eller familjemedlemmar utsätter barn för sexuella övergrepp.
“Porrkategorier som “Teen” och “family porn” sänker barns resiliens mot att utsättas för övergrepp eftersom den normaliserar övergrepp. Det minskar sannolikheten att ett barn berättar för en trygg vuxen om övergrepp som det utsätts för”, säger Lena Morin.
“Det händer även att barn som har exponerats för porr med personer som ser ut som barn legitimerar övergreppen för varandra: ‘Det där har jag sett i porr, det är så man gör med barn, det är okej att göra så’.”, berättar Lena Morin.
Influenser i sociala medier och populärkultur
MILF “Mother I Like To Fuck” är en populär porrkategori som återspeglas i sociala medier. Videos med ungdomar som flörtar med äldre kvinnor trendade bl.a. hösten 2022 på TikTok. En sökning på “Mature miilf”, med två i, på TikTok ger ca 1 miljard träffar. En känd svensk TikTok-profil har även börjat sälja kläder där det står “MILF Hunter”. Många av skämten angående MILFs riktar sig till kompisars mammor, ofta som ett sätt att retas. Det har även blivit vanligt att tonåringar skämtar om snygga vuxna som de kallar “MILF”:s och “DILF”:s “Dad I Like To Fuck” eller “Daddy”.
“I vår generation just nu är “MILF”- och “Daddy”-porr väldigt normaliserat och utbrett. Om man ser en snygg förälder pratar man ofta om dem som “MILF” eller “Daddy” utan att det är något konstigt, det är det många kallar en snygg vuxen”, säger Christine Gandal 23 år, student vid Uppsala universitet och tidigare praktikant hos Porrfri Barndom.
Orden ”Daddy” & ”Mommy” har sexualiserats
Något som har varit ett barns sätt att säga mamma och pappa på engelska har blivit sexualiserade och mycket vanliga begrepp av porren. Det har ungefär samma innebörd som “MILF” och “DILF” förutom att detta anspelar på att den vuxna kvinnan eller mannen ska vara mer dominerande och bete sig som en förälder oavsett om de har egna barn.
“Det är vanligt att ungdomar även kallar andra ungdomar som beter sig dominant eller omhändertagande för “Daddy” eller “Mommy” med en sexuell underton, det är supervanligt och sällan någon tycker att det är konstigt,” berättar Christine Gandal.
Barnsliga attribut såsom flätor
Bland annat NBC News rapporterade hösten 2022 om en TikTok-trend där servitriser prövade att ha två flätor på jobbet. Servitriserna visar i sina TikTok-filmer hur de upptäcker att de får betydligt mer dricks om de har flätor till skillnad från när de har frisyrer som inte på samma sätt associeras med yngre tjejer och barn.
“Det är vanligt att tjejer i porren har på sig knästrumpor och sätter upp håret i flätor som anspelar på “school girl”-looken för att de ska se ännu yngre ut. Jag märker att unga som tycker om att klä sig så till vardags ofta får kommentarer om det och sexualiseringen gör så att tjejer inte alltid vågar ha den stil eller outfit som de gillar”, säger Christine Gandal.
UNBURDEN THE CHILD OF ANY FEELINGS OF GUILT AND SHAME
It’s common for children to feel ashamed to talk about pornography with adults and therefore it’s important to always unburden the child of any feelings of guilt and shame that they may feel.
Our experts will help you strengthen, support & protect your child!
Talk, support & protect!
Here are some simple expert tips on how to talk in an individual and age-appropriate way to children in preschool class & at primary school, junior school and secondary school.
THE IMPACT OF PORNOGRAPHY
ON CHILDREN & TEENAGERS
As we well know, children often learn by watching adults and copying what we do. It’s clear that pornography is no exception to this, as indicated in witness statements and reports such as Ett år med ungarelationer.se (4) and Det här är inte ok! (5) from Unizon. Just as cigarette advertising can normalise smoking among children and encourage them to smoke, the content of pornographic videos can normalise and encourage children to copy what they see in pornography. Research shows that around 70% of boys who watched pornography more or less every day would like to try out what they’d seen in the videos (Svedin, Åkerman and Priebe 2011). (6)
In what ways can children be affected by pornography?
En stor europeisk studie visade att det finns en koppling mellan att kontinuerligt exponeras för nätporr och någon typ av våldsutövning i intima relationer (Stanley et al. 2016) (7). Pojkars utövande av sexuellt tvång och övergrepp var signifikant kopplat till regelbunden porrkonsumtion. Det ökade också sannolikheten för att de skulle ha skickat sexuella bilder eller meddelanden betydligt. Sannolikheten att bära på könsstereotypa uppfattningar var också signifikant högre för pojkar som regelbundet konsumerade porr.
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT CONSENT
Adults who are around children need to provide a clear counterweight to pornography and show the equal and inviolable value of all people. We need to make it clear that no-one may abuse another person and anyone who takes the initiative to physically touch another person must always get consent first.
In the video, Nikita Uggla and Stefan Popov discuss the impact of pornography on young people's sexual relationships.
The impact of violent pornography on young people's sexual relationships
Young people’s own voices
In spring 2020, the national support and knowledge platform Unga Relationer, which received over 216,000 unique visitors between the ages of 15 and 20 in 2019, issued the report entitled Ett år med ungarelationer.se (8) – experiences and knowledge about boys’ violence against girls and violence in young people’s relationships as partners. The report shows that unregulated spaces in which children come into contact with pornography are a significant generator of violence by boys against girls.
Through previous experience of support work and work to prevent violence, Unga Relationer has clearly seen that pornography is a constant factor in young people’s lives. Nevertheless, what emerged in the report, through the stories of over 1,600 young people, was remarkable and needs to be noted and paid specific attention – particularly with regard to the sexualised violence to which the girls are subjected.
Some quotes from the report entitled “Ett år med ungarelationer.se”:
“I’m afraid of my boyfriend. He sometimes hurts me when we’re having sex. And it’s also tough because he watches a lot of porn and wants us to do what he’s seen in the videos. Sometimes it can be very nasty stuff.”
“He kind of makes me say yes, persuades me somehow, to do a lot of weird sexual stuff – strangulation, peeing in my mouth, sitting on my face, shoving various dildos in my mouth until I throw up, and so on. Sometimes he even strangles me when we’re not having sex.”
“He’s addicted to porn. He says he feels like a man when he does those things to me. I told him to stop but he got angry. He sat on me and got me in a stranglehold. Then he spat at me and told me not to resist so much, for my own good."
It’s clear that pornography is also present in same-sex relationships:
“I want to strangle my boyfriend when we have sex but he doesn’t want me to and then we argue. It started when I began watching porn. I get turned on from having that power, so I kind of can’t stop because in that moment it feels so good to be the one who finally gets to kick someone."
GET STARTED WITH PREVENTION IN TIME
Have the talk before the first exposure
The younger children are when they’re exposed to pornography, the greater the discomfort they feel, according to research by (Livingstone et al, 2014) (9). It’s therefore important for adults to start talking to children in a preventive way before they risk being exposed, i.e. before they gain access to the internet and search engines. But always in an individual and age-appropriate way, without mentioning the word “porn” to the youngest.
Many adults think that it seems premature and uncomfortable to have to build up resilience to pornography in children as young as primary school age. We agree that it’s unpleasant and sad that children are at risk of exposure at such a young age. There’s no optimal solution to the problem, but we can work together to find a way that works as well as possible.
If it’s difficult to initiate the conversation, bear in mind that it’s worse for a child to be exposed without having received any help from an adult to build up as much resilience as possible before exposure and to make it as easy as possible for the child to dare to tell an adult when it happens and be able to get support by talking to an adult. As parents, we’re all in the same boat – but we help one another!
The Barnombudsmannen [Child Ombudsman] “Kartläggning av kunskap om pornografins inverkan på barn och unga“ (10) [Survey of knowledge on the impact of pornography on children and young people] report from 2021 states as follows:
Young people think that critical conversations about pornography and its content and production need to be held at an early stage to enable them to make informed choices about their consumption. Adult stakeholders in civil and public society also see a need for this.
They also write that:
Children and young people point to parents’, guardians’ and others’ responsibility to protect children when something happens and to increase children’s skills and knowledge by creating a space for learning, being there to support them by talking to them and building up trusting relationships.
Don’t expect someone else to have the talk for you
The conversations won’t happen if adults don’t initiate them. According to Swedish research from 2016 (Mattebo et al. 2016) (11) “almost none” of the respondents had talked to an adult about pornography. Nor had the vast majority of children in Sweden received digital child protection in 2016.
Students need good sex education in school to act as a counterweight against pornography, but it often comes several years too late and sometimes not at all. From autumn 2022, consent and criticism of pornography will be included in the new sex education programme, which will be renamed “Sexualitet, samtycke och relationer” [Sexuality, consent and relationships] (read more at Skolverket [the Swedish National Agency for Education]). We have put in a great deal of work to promote it and are very pleased to have contributed to it. But not all teachers have received training in this or feel comfortable teaching about sexuality, consent and pornography.
Unfortunately, sex education also sometimes falls through the cracks because it’s not a subject in its own right. So don’t expect anyone else to have the important conversations about bodily privacy, consent, sex, pleasure, relationships, abuse and pornography with your child.
Here you’ll find some expert tips on how parents can talk regularly in an individual and age-appropriate way to children at preschool class & primary school, junior school and secondary school. Together!
THE PORNOGRAPHY TALK
Age-appropriate pornography prevention
There are millions of hardcore pornography videos online that are free and can be accessed and watched by anyone. Get started with age-appropriate porn prevention for your child with our simple expert tips. Let's help each other!
STEFAN & NIKITA HAR ORDET
Doreen Månsson intervjuar kompisarna Stefan Popov & Nikita Uggla om hur det var att växa upp i dagens porrkultur och exponeras för porr redan i lågstadiet.
Våldsporrens påverkan på ungas sexuella relation
Bristande undervisning kring sex & samlevnad
Snacka, stötta och skydda mellanstadiebarn
Snacka och stötta tonåringar
References:
1) Svedin, Carl Göran; Åkerman, Ingrid och Priebe, Gisela (2011). Frequent users of pornography. A population based epidemiological study of swedish male adolescents, Journal of Adolesence, no: 34 (4), pp: 779-788.
2) Mattebo, Magdalena; Tydén, Tanja; Häggström-Nordin, Elisabet; Nilsson, Kent och Larsson, Margareta (2016). Pornography consumption among adolescent girls in Sweden, The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care, no: 21(4), pp: 1-8.
3) TV-programmet Malou efter tio (2016)
4) Unga Relationers rapport "Ett år med ungarelationer.se" (2020)
5) Unizons rapport "Det här är inte ok!" (2020).
6) Svedin, Carl Göran; Åkerman, Ingrid och Priebe, Gisela (2011). Frequent users of pornography. A population based epidemiological study of swedish male adolescents, Journal of Adolesence, no: 34 (4), pp: 779-788.
7) Stanley, Barter, Wood, Aghtaie, Larkins, Lanau, and Överlien (2016). Pornography, Sexual Coercion and Abuse and Sexting in Young People’s Intimate Relationships: A European Study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1–26.
8) Unga Relationers rapport "Ett år med ungarelationer.se" (2020)
9) Livingstone, Smith (2014). Annual Research Review: Harms experienced by child users of online and mobile technologies: the nature, prevalence and management of sexual and aggressive risks in the digital age, p: 643.
10) Barnombudsmannens “Kartläggning av kunskap om pornografins inverkan på barn och unga“ (2021)
11) Mattebo, Magdalena; Tydén, Tanja; Häggström-Nordin, Elisabet; Nilsson, Kent och Larsson, Margareta (2016). Pornography consumption among adolescent girls in Sweden, The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care, no: 21(4), pp: 1-8.
