Study: Porn, Sexting Increasingly Popular with Canadian Teens

CANADA—Results from a survey of over 5,000 Canadian teens indicate that many of them are increasingly watching porn and sexting, though questions related to pornography were only asked of kids in grades 7 through 11. The survey was conducted by MediaSmarts, an Ottawa-based digital literacy outfit, which has been conducting youth surveys for years. The current survey, the results for which are contained in a recently issued report titled Sexuality and Romantic Relationships in the Digital Age, was completed in 2013 by "a total of 5,436 students in grades 4-11 from all provinces and territories across the country." Part of a Young Canadians in a Wired World research project begun by MediaSmarts in 2000, the surveys allow the project managers to identify trends among teens. "When we launched Phase III of the research in 2011," the current report states, "the young people who participated in our focus group discussions told us that networked media have become an important way of learning about and participating in romantic relationships. The findings also revealed highly gendered patterns around behaviors like seeking out online pornography and sexting." Questions in the 2013 survey were designed to build on previous findings by further "addressing sexuality and romantic relationships," including the amount and frequency of porn consumption and sexting among teens. Results indicate a steady rise in each, especially among males. "Although a significant majority of students in grades 7-11 (77 percent) report that they have never looked for pornography online," the report states, "boys are much more likely to have done so (40 percent compared to 7 percent of girls). Moreover, boys who do seek out pornography are more likely to do so frequently than girls who do this." The trend-line toward greater usage is being met with concern if not some alarm, especially where the boys are concerned. "Eighty-eight percent of boys who report that they look for pornography do so at least once a  month or more," the report continues. "This suggests that not only are boys more likely to look for online pornography, but those boys who do consume quite a lot of it. Girls who seek out pornography, on the other  hand, are roughly equally likely to do so once a year or less as they are to do so more often. "Comparing overall percentages between the 2005 and 2013 Young Canadians surveys, the number of students who actively seek out pornography online has increased from 16 percent in 2005 versus 23 percent in 2013," it added. However, usage by teens has to also be considered within the context of technological advances, and in that regard an increase of 7 percent over the past eight years of the number of students who seek out porn may not seem particularly extreme or unexpected, especially when one considers the ease with which all people are now able to access online content, including porn, via a myriad of devices. Some of the data culled from the survey also resists universal application to all teens, implying as it does cultural factors unique to Canadian society. For instance, the report states that "French language students in Quebec are more likely than English language students in the rest of Canada to report that they look for pornography daily or weekly (French 25 percent, English 12 percent)." While an intriguing finding, more research would be needed to explain the particular diversity. Similarly, the finding that students from households with rules about websites that are off-limits are more likely to deny ever searching for porn may hold for all households, but aspects of it may also be unique to Canadian households. That said, MediaSmart does not claim that the results are intended to reveal any trends but those applicable to Canadian teens. Matthew Johnson, director of education for MediaSmarts, expressed concern about the findings. "There is a significant number of students, and boys obviously in particular, for whom [porn and sexting] is a really frequent behavior," he said, adding, "They are still developing their sexuality so heavy exposure to pornography can be problematic in all of these areas." It should also be noted that the higher use percentages were experienced by older teens, those in the 11th grade. And while no one would likely argue with the claim that heavy exposure to porn by very young people could be problematic, according to this data, only one percent of seventh graders said they looked for porn once a week, the same percentage said they looked once a month, and 2 percent said they looked once a day. While a modicum of concern about those numbers may be warranted, the study does not itself claim a causal connection between the admitted porn viewing and disturbing behavior on the part of the students. In fact, the study contains no conclusions at all regarding the impact that either porn viewing or sexting has or may have on the students who took the survey. For that reason, any alarm or concern manifested by the study results would be based on conjecture and hypothesis rather than the research.