Porn: What's the Harm?

This programme contains some scenes of a sexual nature.

Pornography is everywhere

and with smartphones and tablets making it easier than ever to get hold of,

there are fears that each generation is seeing porn earlier than the one before.

So what's the impact of seeing so much pornography so young?

To find out, we've carried out the biggest survey of its kind ever done in the UK.

Over 1,000 people aged between 16 and 21 took part,

answering questions on everything to do with porn.

How old they were when they first saw it, how often they watch it now

and how they think it affects what men and women expect from sex.

Their answers were sent anonymously to a market research company.

And then we got two of the country's leading experts on pornography and sexualisation

to help us analyse the results.

It was an opportunity to really go to a large number of young people

in the UK, where there hasn't been a lot of research in the past,

and really get them to tell us what they thought, what they felt.

I also talked to young people across the country to get their views.

It boosts confidence of men a lot more and makes them think,

"Well, you know, it looks quite easy. I could do that."

My brother, he's 13, and I wouldn't like the idea at all of him

looking at porn and sexual things like that

because I don't think it's real life.

It's all an act and it's not really, sort of, sex.

I think the first time people see porn they're probably around 12 or 13,

like going into the first and second years of high school.

Obviously secondary school is a big influence on the kids.

Older kids around the younger kids have a big influence on what they see and stuff.

I think the age where you start high school, 11 or 12,

because you hang around with different people,

they're doing different things and they might have watched porn

and that's made you want to watch it.

Our survey asked young people why they look for porn.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the most common reason given was that

men and women use it for sexual stimulation.

However, around 10% of the 1,000 young people said

that while men look at porn for sexual pleasure,

young women do it in order to learn about sex.

As one young woman put it, women for education, men for arousal.

And that worries me because if porn is being used as sex education,

how much of it is a true reflection of what sex is really like?

I talked to young people from a school in south London

where they discuss pornography in workshops about sex and relationships.

When young people watch pornography,

do you think young people feel pressured?

The girls watching it might think they need to act like that

-and the same for the boys.

-How do girls act in porn?

-Like they're liking it.

-They put it on a little bit, I think.

-A little bit?

Quite a lot, I think.

Do you think it means that young people have different expectations of what sex is going to be like?

Yeah, because I think young people will see it and think they can treat a woman that way

and it's not right to treat a woman that way.

Porn videos last long, innit?

If you have sex for the first time, you're not going to last 25 minutes, are you?

-No.

-More like ten. Maybe.

-Seconds!

THEY LAUGH

Our nationwide survey also showed that when young people see porn online,

they haven't always deliberately sought it out.

Of the hundreds of young people who took part,

only 22% were looking for it on purpose the first time they saw porn online.

The rest saw it accidentally or were shown it by someone else.

And in their day-to-day lives, young people continue to be

bombarded with these pornographic images.

Nearly a quarter said they see porn online

when they don't expect to at least once a week.

Some of the most commonly reported ways

were when they were searching for something else online. Someone said,

"I click on a game or a website that says it's something else, but then it's porn."

So there's no escaping it.

I was on a laptop and it was a pop-up.

I thought I'd follow the link to see where it would take me

and it took me to a site where you could watch free pornography.

It makes you feel a bit embarrassed

because I don't want to look at stuff like that.

To other people it will be as if they have to click on it

because it's come up on their Facebook and stuff

so they want to check out what it is

but to me it makes me feel a bit awkward because I don't really want to.

Politicians and parents often worry about the effect

that viewing pornography might have on young people.

In our survey of 1,000 16 to 21-year-olds,

we discovered there's a big difference in the views

and experiences of young men and young women.

There are clear gender differences in how young people first see pornography,

how they feel when they first see it,

why they look for it, how often they look for it,

and how it effects what they expect from sex.

In our survey, 30% of the boys said the first time they saw porn online,

they'd looked for it on purpose, compared to just 12% of girls.

And nearly 20% of the girls told us

they had never seen porn online compared to 4% of the boys.

And those differences between girls and boys persist.

So a quarter of young men say they go looking for porn

all the time, so every couple of days.

A quarter of young men say they look for porn some of the time, so at least once a week.

And 50% of women say they never go looking for online pornography.

It seems one reason for that could be

that young women don't like what they see in porn.

In our survey, 229 of our 1,000 young people

told us there is nothing good about porn.

Almost three quarters of them were women.

Why do you think girls watch pornography?

Do you think it's the same reason as why boys do?

-It's hard to see girls watching porn, man.

-How come?

Normally stereotypically you associate porn with boys.

I've watched porn with a girl and it just made it awkward.

-She didn't want to talk about it or nothing.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Do you think it's good for girls to watch porn or not good?

-No.

-Why not?

-Most girls find it disgusting. Like, "Ugh, porn, man."

I'm not saying it's bad to watch it if you're a girl anyway, but I don't know anyone that does.

I don't want to sound sexist

but I think it's more of a boy thing than a girl thing.

I think boys would watch it more than girls

because girls often think it's kind of gross and boys...

I don't know.

They just enjoy it more, I guess.

One of the most worrying results from our survey was when we asked the question

do you think pornography affects what young people expect from sex?

Nearly 75% said young men's expectations of sex are affected by porn,

while 53% said young women's expectations of sex are affected.

We then went on to ask those who took part to tell us how.

The most common answer that we got back was that young men

expect women to behave like sex objects

and young women expect to be treated like sex objects.

So we have this wealth of quotes from young people.

I picked out a few that I thought were quite poignant.

A 19-year-old young woman said,

"Because I think porn is so easily obtainable and the fact that more boys than girls watch it,

"that men expect girls to be like the women in porn."

Which I can see is completely true.

A 17-year-old boy said guys would expect the chance for rougher sex

or for a girl to be very flexible etc.

A 16-year-old girl said, "Boys think all girls will behave like the girls in porn

"and that quite a lot of the extreme stuff is totally normal.

Do you young ladies feel like there's a pressure among girls

to maybe behave like the porn starlets?

If we started behaving like a porn star we'd get called slut.

But if the boys do it...

-It's true!

-It is true.

When girls go around having sex with boys,

the boys call her a slag but when a boy...

It's like an achievement.

-They'll be like...

-It's just boys. But with a girl it's not good.

-Do you think that promotes young people using that language about women?

-Yeah, it does.

-Do you agree with it?

-Depends what they've done, innit?

If you just hear about a girl sleeping with loads of boys,

you're not going to be attracted to her, are you?

I think some boys, the way they speak about girls sometimes,

they forget that when they're older, would they want boys to speak about their daughter like that?

That's true. I started to think about that recently as well.

Would I like it if another boy was talking about my sister like that or doing things with my sister?

It's hard to gauge what harm is done when people watch pornography at a young age.

But many experts believe that pornography can play a role in abuse and violent crime.

We do know from the work we deal with at Rape Crisis

that a lot of women who have survived sexual violence,

whether that be rape or childhood sexual abuse,

that pornography has been used as part of that abuse.

Pornography helps to create this normalisation around violence against women and girls

and creating attitudes which support violence against women and girls and that's what we hear a lot of.

In a recent major European survey, one in three women

said they had experienced some sort of physical or sexual abuse since the age of 15.

Many experts believe that porn helps to shape the attitudes of men who carry out this kind of abuse.

Sally is in her early 20s.

She says she was raped by someone she thought was a friend.

She was drunk at the time and was slipping in and out of consciousness.

She's convinced pornography played a part in the attack.

I actually came across a blog that they had

and it was mostly made up of pornographic images

and that made it quite clear to me how his mind worked

and the opinion that he had of women,

that they just existed to be used in porn.

It just made me realise that for certain people that do these things,

it's just so ingrained in their mind that that's OK.

-You mean rape?

-Yes.

Sally didn't report the rape to the police

because she didn't think she'd be believed

but she did support seek support from Rape Crisis.

What nature of pornography was on his blog?

It was mostly soft porn

but there were other images that were quite graphic

and a lot of them revolved around women being used and being abused.

Women having no control over what was going on.

So do you think that had an influence on what he did to you?

Yeah, because I feel as though seeing that made it clear to me

that was what he was interested in

and he thought that that was completely normal

and for him to just think that I was an object that he could use

seemed so similar to the images that I saw.

In our nationwide survey of 1,000 young people aged 16 to 21,

we asked how porn affects what young men expect from sex.

One of the top three most common responses

was that boys expect girls' bodies to look like they do in pornography

with no pubic hair and with large breasts.

An 18-year-old boy said that they want skinny women with big boobs.

A 16-year-old boy said that boys expect girls to have

a perfect shaved vagina like porn stars.

That's quite a lot of pressure for young women.

We want you to be able to make informed decisions so that you're safe.

That's something that Leila from the Limes College in South London knows only too well.

A lot of the students that come here have got low self-esteem,

especially about their body image.

They watch pornography and they see women with breast implants,

women that are very slim, women with hair extensions, women with fake tan.

A lot of our girls here, for example, will go on diets,

they'll go on sunbeds, they'll lose weight very quickly

because they think it's a way of gaining attention

and they think it's a way of making themselves feel good.

There are often reports in the media linking porn to a dramatic increase

in the number of women asking for labiaplasties,

which is a cosmetic procedure where the inner labia or vaginal lips are reduced.

And what's worse, gynaecologists like Dr Gail Busby

say more and more young girls are now requesting this procedure.

If a girl comes into my clinic requesting this,

I have a very long consultation with her and explain that she's still

developing and I explain the range of normal, that's the other thing. And that what she's seen,

if she says she's seen it in a television programme or in the media,

it is not necessarily an accurate representation of the vast population.

So we strongly believe, myself and my colleagues,

that education is the answer from a fairly young age

to prevent girls from developing this concept that they are abnormal

when in fact they are absolutely normal.

We've invited a group of teenage girls to take part in a workshop with Dr Busby.

-Do we know what the correct name for your down-below bits is?

-Vagina.

Vagina? Anyone else?

The vagina is actually the bit that's inside that you can't see.

The bit on the outside that you can see is called the vulva.

Dr Busby is going to use a sculpture called 57 Women

from the Great Wall Of Vagina series by artist Jamie McCartney.

He made plaster casts to show the wide range of normal vaginas or vulvas.

Although they look very different, they are all normal

and none of them need surgery.

So these are all actual vulvas from actual women.

Although dozens of girls under 18 ask Dr Busby for labiaplasty

because they think they are abnormal, none of them has needed surgery.

-Is it really common?

-Yes, it's common and getting more common.

It's definitely noticeable and getting younger and younger as well.

Really? So what's the youngest age that you would have a girl

worrying about the size and shape and wanting to alter it?

The youngest, somewhere between 12 and 14.

In my clinics I see many girls your age who come along

asking me to operate and remove bits of their vulvas.

And do you think that would be a good idea in a 15 or 16-year-old? No?

Why do you not think it would be a good idea?

-It could change by the time they grow up.

-That's exactly it.

That growth and development keeps going on until adulthood,

so if they had an operation when they were 16,

it may grow again and they'd need another or another.

These women don't need surgery because there's nothing wrong with them.

Sending a naked or semi-naked photograph of yourself to someone

you are in a relationship with, might seem like an OK thing to do.

The trouble starts

when explicit photographs or videos taken on phones are passed around

or posted on a social media website

like Facebook or Twitter.

-Hi.

-Hi.

These students are ambassadors for a project in Manchester

which aims to warn schoolchildren about the dangers of sexting.

People are becoming more used to seeing, like,

indecent images of people.

They therefore think its OK for them

to take a half-naked photo of themself.

And boys are getting a high expectation of women

and what they think they should be doing, what they should look like,

then asking for that off girls.

Then girls feel like they need to live up to this standard.

Then that's when, they maybe start sending things round.

Obviously, since the emergence of Snapchat, things have become a LOT worse.

Because people send them and think it's like only for a couple of seconds,

but then you can screen-shot it,

you can replay it, and then it just reappears.

People will save it, send it, Facebook, Twitter...

Like, before the end of the night if you send it, say, at 7pm -

8pm it could be everywhere.

In cases we know in two days it's travelled from,

like, another part of the country into our area and...

like, we've seen these images and we're, like,

"Oh, we used to know them. We knew them."

Oh, my word!

Why do you think no-one talks about this at school?

Adults sometimes try to ignore it a little bit.

Thinking it doesn't really happen.

Especially teachers who work in schools -

I mean, they're not stupid, they see that sort of thing going on every day.

Bullying between people...

But, I just think, because it's a quite sensitive issue,

and it's quite a new issue, as well, they just kind of try to ignore it.

Nationally, there's been very little research into

how many young people are sending and receiving sexual images.

But in Manchester,

the advice service Brooke and the Healthy Schools team,

questioned 500 children about sexting.

We found that about 66% of young people researched

had received an image,

and 22% had sent an image.

And 45% of young people researched,

knew someone who'd been bullied as a result of it.

Which is the worrying thing.

So, it's not everybody who's doing it,

there are a number of young people who ARE doing it,

but it seems among those who do do it,

it can get out of hand quite quickly.

How bad does the attention get, and your experience?

We've had young people who've had suicidal thoughts, self-harm,

bullying, had to move schools...

The whole spectrum, really.

Sophia is a 20-year-old student from Blackpool.

When she was 14, a boy she was seeing persuaded her

to text him a naked photo of herself.

We were texting and got a bit rude and I reciprocated,

and then he asked me for, basically, a naked image of myself.

And you're 14 years old - what was your reaction?

Well, initially I was quite reluctant to send anything.

I played it quite coy. "Oh, no, I don't want to do that!"

I was quite shy with it, but because he was so consistent with asking,

I eventually gave in.

So what did he do with the image?

He showed his friends, first,

and they said, "Oh, will you send me that image?"

And he was, like, "Yeah, sure, why not?"

And then what happened?

They sent it onto their friends, and so forth and so forth...

I sent it him on the weekend,

and then I'd say by Wednesday,

all the local schools had it.

How did you feel? I mean, everybody has got a picture of you naked.

You're 14 years old.

I felt completely stripped of my value.

I felt like I was completely accessible.

It's like they... It's like...

It felt as though people were having intimate relationships with me,

that I wasn't even engaged with.

Because they'd seen me in that light.

Were people mean, at all? Were they cruel?

-Girls were mean. Girls were awful.

-What happened?

In the street, they'd be like, "Oh, that's so-and-so,

"that Sophia girl - she sent that naked picture."

They'd call me a slag, they'd call me a slut, camera-whore...

How did it play out?

I'd say for a good year-and-a-half,

people still associated me with the girl that did that at that school.

-A year-and-a-half?!

-Yeah. Yeah.

-That's insane!

-Yeah. No, they did.

Why do you think young girls still do it?

To be desired is to feel empowered.

I think that's what I felt when I was younger.

I thought, "This person wants me, therefore I'm sending out this image,

"therefore I am empowered as a female because I am desired."

When, in fact, it is weakening your image.

As soon as something becomes accessible, it loses value.

If everyone's got it, nobody wants it any more.

And you feel somewhat worthless.

But being talked about and bullied is not necessarily the worst thing

that can happen if someone under 18

sends or posts an explicit image of themselves.

For starters, they could be arrested and charged.

Because what they're doing is classed as

generating and distributing a child-abuse image.

And anyone else who resends or reposts that image,

could also be prosecuted.

So what kind of trouble can you get in for posting a picture

of someone under 18 naked?

You could be put on the sex-offender register.

-What is that?

-It's, like, for paedophiles, and people like that.

And it stays with you for your whole life

and can hinder you getting a job.

You can never work with children your entire life.

Studies have found that young people across the UK

are unaware of the legal implications of sexting.

But police in Devon, along with other forces in England,

are going into schools to try and change that

by showing a video and discussing the risks.

"I wanted to show how much I liked him."

"I wanted to do it."

# Why don't you take a picture of me...? #

Thinking about that film,

do you think any laws were broken in the film?

I think that she broke the law by sending them,

her boyfriend broke the law by keeping them and sending them on,

and then everyone kind of broke the law

by looking at them and keeping them on their phones and...

sending them around, and setting up a page and stuff.

OK.

'We've certainly found that since completing the presentations

'in a number of schools now,

'it is clear that young people have, unfortunately,

'fallen foul of having sent an image to another.

So, we're certainly seeing an increase.

It does appear to be almost perceived as

a normal part of a relationship,

so unfortunately, it does appear to be quite an up-and-coming issue

that we're facing now.

I'm not going to tell you not to share information online,

because that's your choice to do that. The most important...

The police will normally take a softer line the first time

a young person is caught sexting

or posting sexual images of themselves or another under 18.

The way that we would deal with that situation,

is to speak to the young person and almost treat them as a victim,

because actually they have made a mistake -

they didn't appreciate the consequences.

However, if people then repeat the same behaviour,

and clearly haven't listened to the advice they've been given,

we will look at treating them a different way.

'I'm not going back there.

'It's not going to stop.'

End of the day, you're responsible for what you post online,

and what you comment on online,

and that's what young people need to start exploring about.

How are they going to respond appropriately to that.

Any sexual image of someone under 18,

counts as a child sexual abuse image -

even if the person shown took the photograph or video themselves,

and posted it on their own social networking page.

Not only could the police be involved,

but once that image is on the internet,

it can be taken and used in a way

that whoever posted it would never even think of.

This is the headquarters of the internet Watch Foundation, or IWF.

It's their job to identify and remove child sexual abuse images

from the internet.

Last year, their hotline received

50,000 calls and e-mails

tipping them off about child abuse images on the net.

And analysts here are finding that more and more of those images

are photographs and videos originally posted by young people

on social networking sites.

We've certainly seen a big rise

in the last few years in the amount

of self-generated content featuring young people.

This would be an example of an adult website

which accepts user-generated content.

The reason everything is so pixilated, right now,

is because we would be committing an offence

-by looking at these images...

-That's right.

-..and downloading them.

These are images that have been taken from a Facebook profile,

and you can see, it says here,

"This is dedicated to self-shot amateur teams."

Again another adult website with collections specifically of young teens.

Several descriptions of the type of content you can expect to see there.

So, anyone can go onto Facebook or Twitter

and let's say someone doesn't have a protected account,

they can just take that picture off and then they can put it anywhere.

So where is the worst place that these photos can end up?

We have seen, over the last couple of years,

this content is starting to migrate onto

the traditional commercial child sexual abuse sites, which are...

-So they can be sold, the images?

-..run by criminals.

And this content is now being sold commercially.

This is a sanitised screen shot of an extremely prolific

commercial child sex distribution website.

It claims to have 723 webcam captures available for purchase.

The youngest victim is between the age of three and six.

The three-to-six year old would not have generated that themselves?

Well, not generated by them,

but there are other individuals in the room,

who were assessed as being slightly older.

Other children being involved...

-They were all...

-..performing sex acts.

-They were all children.

I didn't expect to learn quite so much today.

I knew what they did was so incredibly important,

I knew it was very serious,

but I don't think I realised how accessible

such explicit material is.

Also, I found it quite staggering

to realise the consequence of something so simple as a sext.

And realise how fast the process is.

That it can literally just take over your life.

If you are under 18, and an indecent photograph

or video of you has been posted on the internet,

the IWF can work with the police

and international agencies to take it down.

You should contact ChildLine,

who would help you provide the information that the IWF needs.

If you could give a message right now to a young teenager who,

watching this right now, is about press send,

on a picture of their private parts,

what would you say?

-Don't.

-Don't.

-Don't be crazy.

-Would you still send it, if your mum could see it?

-Yeah!

THEY LAUGH

Really strong. Really strong.

Thank you so much.