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.

-How old were you when this happened?

-Eight.

You were eight?!

So how much porn do kids REALLY see?

I haven't even had to prove my age yet

and some of the most explicit images I have...

EVER seen are on this website.

And what does that mean for a generation

that always has porn at their fingertips?

I've seen some pretty scary stuff on the internet.

To us, it's just normal, because we've seen it that many times.

To discover the truth about kids and porn, we've done an exclusive survey

with over 1,000 teens giving it to us straight about what they've seen.

Who watches porn?

-Me.

-Me.

-I'm not going to lie, innit?

-Yeah.

-All of us do.

-Yeah.

And how it makes them feel.

It sort of makes you feel a bit embarrassed, er,

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

I'll meet the people behind some of what the kids are watching...

I think people need to understand that, that it's not real. It's...

It's not how I would have sex at home at all.

..and find out if they're worried about who's watching.

GASPS: Aw!

'I definitely wouldn't change it.'

I'd do it again, if I could go back in time to do it.

And as I hear about the effect some say porn has had on them...

For him to just think that... that I was an object

that he could use seemed so similar to the images that I saw.

..I'll discover whether teaching kids about porn is the answer

and, if so, at what age should that start?

When we said we were going to school,

I didn't know it would be primary.

I mean, these are kids who are sort of 10 and under.

My name's Jameela Jamil.

I'm a writer, a presenter and a DJ

and, every week, I host the Radio 1 Official Chart.

Last week, I announced that

Calvin Harris, Alleso and Hurts topped the official chart.

MUSIC: "Feel So Close" by Calvin Harris

I've been working in the music industry since I was 19,

and I'm in touch with thousands of teenagers

through my blog and on Twitter.

So, although I'm now in my twenties,

I still like to think I know what's going on.

But it seems there's one area

where I don't know quite as much as I thought I did.

I think the first time young people see porn,

they're probably around 12, 13,

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

I don't really watch it,

but my friends tell me some of it is really disturbing and they might...

Like, say if they wanted to try it out and...

I don't think that'd be good.

My mum can't even access the computer and if she knew how to

and if she went on the sites which young people were looking at,

she'd just be horrified. Cos it is, in my mind, it's disgusting.

When it comes to sex and relationships,

I'm pretty open minded. And although I don't use porn myself,

I know a lot of adults who do and I don't have a problem with that.

But like most people, I've seen all the scare stories

about how much young kids now watch it too.

So I want to know if that's true

and if we really do have a generation growing up watching porn.

I remember I was 15 the first time

I ever came across proper pornography, because it was

at a time really before the internet was as huge as it is.

I was at a friend's house and they were watching it,

and I had a little look and I'm not going to get too graphic,

but the things that I saw done with a cucumber and a woman

genuinely made me not eat a salad for 12 years.

That was in 2002 and, to be honest,

I haven't really seen much porn since.

But today's 15-year-olds have grown up in

an age of smartphones and tablets,

and it's reckoned that a quarter of 9 to 16-year-olds

will have seen porn in the last 12 months.

So what exactly is pornography?

Legally, it's defined as an image that's

"assumed to have been produced solely or principally

"for the purpose of sexual arousal"

I've genuinely never searched for porn before, but I'm now so curious

to see what it is that young people are seeing out there

and, more so, how easy it is to actually access.

So OK, I'm just going to type in the word porn...

I know this seems really basic, but I'm just going to type in

the word porn into a search engine and just see what happens.

OK...porn.

There are 436 million results in 28 seconds,

so just an abundance of free porn sites have come up.

So I'll click on the first one.

OK, I haven't even had to prove my age yet

and some of the most explicit images I have...

EVER seen are on this website.

There's a lot of use of the words "teen slut".

It's just...

-It's lot of really...

-SHE SIGHS

..sort of distressing images of women

looking like they're in quite a lot of pain.

Just performing these unbelievably explicit sex acts.

They all look really young.

I'm not even a parent yet and I'm already terrified

of the idea of having children knowing what's out there.

I completely get why people would be concerned

about their children going on the internet. This is unbelievable!

'But easy access to porn is

'something that ordinary families have to deal with every day.'

-Hi.

-Hi.

-I'm Jameela.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Do come in.

Alison and her husband James have two sons -

Cameron, aged 10, and 18-year-old Brandon.

It's only an eight-year age gap, but in terms of access to porn,

these boys might as well come from different worlds.

When Brandon was ten,

he'd have been playing on a little games console. No wi-fi,

no internet. I don't even think we had a computer when Brandon was 10.

Certainly no smartphones.

So there wasn't... We were still doing the thing of

"Don't walk backwards up the slide, cos you'll bump yourself."

How young do you think it is

that young people can start watching pornography or do start

coming across at least pornography, even if it's accidental?

I would've said about 8, 10.

We actually had an incident here where Cameron was upstairs

and we only found out by chance, because of the phone bill.

And one of his friends had gone upstairs

and put the porn channel on.

'I'm intrigued by this revelation,

'so I decide to have a little chat with ten-year-old Cameron.'

My friend came over to my house one time, we put on my TV,

and he said, "Put this porn channel on."

And he rang the porn channel up and it cost money.

-How old were you when this happened?

-Er, eight.

You were eight?! And your friend knew about the porn channel,

-what it was and how to get onto it?

-Yeah.

So after your friend had shown you the pornography,

how did it come about, like how where you able

-to talk about it? What happened next?

-Um...

I went downstairs feeling confused.

-I didn't tell my mum, but...

-How come?

-Um...

I didn't feel safe about it, I didn't know what it was,

so I didn't feel right to tell her about it.

But then, a phone bill came in

and my mum started questioning me about it.

-So what did your mum do? How did she react?

-She was furious.

18-year-old Brandon is concerned

about what else his little brother might be exposed to.

I do worry about him. I do worry about the stuff out there

that he hasn't seen, because of the explicit material out there.

So it's just a worry of if he's going to see it,

when he's going to see it, cos, one day, he most likely will

and how it's going to affect him.

I just hope that it doesn't affect him too much.

So is it inevitable that online porn

will become part of every teenager's life?

To find out, I need to hear from kids themselves.

And first, I've come to one of the very few schools

where pornography is openly discussed.

This workshop is run by Rape Crisis South London.

-Who watches porn?

-Me.

-Me.

-I'm not going to lie, innit? Yeah.

-All of us do.

We'd be lying if we told you we didn't.

Every single teenage guy watches porn.

-You think every single guy watches porn?

-Yeah, definitely.

-True story.

There's not a guy out there who doesn't watch porn?

-I'd be surprised.

-You'd be surprised? OK.

'I'm sitting in on sessions with boys and girls and, like me,

'they're shocked to learn that the porn industry is worth billions!'

4 billion by the end of 2012

was spent on pornography via mobile phones.

When young people watch pornography,

do you think young people feel pressured?

Well, the girls watching it might think, like,

they need to act like that, and the same for the boys.

-How do girls act in porn?

-Like they're liking it.

Yeah, they put it on a little bit, I think.

-GIRL: A little bit?!

-Quite a lot, I think.

Do you think it means that young people sometimes

have different expectations of what sex will be like?

Yeah, because I think young people will see it

and think they can treat a woman in that way

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

Like, with porn videos, they last bear long, innit, yeah?

But if you're having sex for the first time,

you're not going to last, like, 25 minutes, are you?

-No.

-More like 10...

-Maybe.

-Seconds.

LAUGHTER

And do you, young ladies, feel like there is a pressure among girls

to maybe behave like the porn starlets?

If we started, like, behaving like a porn star,

we'd get called slut.

But if the boys do it...

GIGGLING

-It's true!

-Yeah, it is true.

When girls go around having sex with boys,

they're called a slag, but when boys do it...

-It's like an achievement, yeah.

-An achievement. They'll be like...

-It's just boys!

-It's like, "Good on you, mate,"

but with a girl, it's not good.

Do you think that that promotes young people

-using that language about women?

-Yeah, it does.

-Do you agree with it?

-It depends what they've done.

Like, obviously, if you hear about a girl sleeping with loads of boys,

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

-Mmm.

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

sometimes, they forget that, like, when they're older,

would they want boys to speak about their daughter like that?

That's true. I've 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?

'I'm amazed that these 15 and 16-year-olds

'seem to know so much about the porn that's out there,

'and that they understand the impact that it's having on them.'

'But it's no surprise to people like sex educator Lynnette Smith,

'who work with teenagers every day.'

I've been involved in sex education for about 20 years now

and it was literally one summer, one summer we saw a change,

and that was summer 2002. Now most of the classes,

-at that time, we worked just in senior schools...

-Yeah.

..in year nines and year tens, which is 14 and 15-year-olds,

and up until that, in a class of 30, we would maybe have

three lads out of the 15 in the class that had accessed pornography,

and that would have been through Fiesta magazines,

-that type of...

-Yeah, yeah, top shelf.

-Yeah, that's the thing.

And then, after that summer,

when everybody seemed to get the internet piped into their homes,

in the September, the October, we found that it was only

three lads out of 15 that HADN'T actually accessed pornography.

SHE CLICKS HER FINGERS It was literally that quick.

And now, one in three 9-16 year olds in the UK

has access to the internet via their mobile phone. So the days

when porn had an age limit that could be enforced are long gone.

The Government says it's clamping down on easy access to porn,

encouraging internet providers

to introduce new filters only adults can lift.

But some say it's too late and that countless children

have already been exposed to shocking images

at an age when I was still playing with dolls.

So how do we know for sure

just how much online porn teenagers are seeing?

And what effect does that have on them?

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.

What was so exciting about this was it was an opportunity to really go

to a large number of young people

in the UK, which is 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.

The answers that young people gave us in the survey were

so interesting, so inspiring, so thoughtful.

This is the biggest survey in the UK that has been done

of young people's experiences and really gives them a chance

to talk about what they think about pornography and they did.

They had really interesting, thoughtful things to say.

At the same time, I also talked to dozens of teenagers aged 14 and up

from all over the UK, so we could get the most accurate picture yet

of the truth about young people and porn.

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

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

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

like, looking at porn and sexual things like that,

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

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

Most young boys, they, like, before they actually go to have sex,

they do, like, watch porn to get a bit of experience

and knowledge in the whole game.

First in our survey, we asked people to tell us how old they were

when they first saw porn online, including downloads.

The average age for first time porn viewing

turned out to be 14 years old.

But that doesn't give the whole picture.

Just over 60% of those who answered the question

told us they were 14 years old or younger

the first time they saw pornography online.

Nearly a quarter were 12 or younger.

And 7% said they were 10 years old or younger.

Having seen how easily accessible it is,

I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that 7% of our respondents

were 10 or younger when they first came across porn,

but I am. I'm still horrified.

As a grown woman, I'm horrified seeing these images.

I can't imagine seeing that through the eyes of a child.

Our survey also 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

or as an aid to masturbation.

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

said that, while men look at porn for sexual pleasure,

young women do so in order to learn about sex.

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

And that worries me. Because if they're turning to porn to learn,

how much of what they're seeing

is a true reflection of what sex is really like?

I'm going to meet a woman who should know.

She describes herself as Britain's highest paid porn star.

-Hello.

-Hi. How are you?

-I'm good, thank you.

-I'm Jameela.

-Nice to meet you.

-How's things?

-Good, thank you.

Gemma Massey appeared in more than 20 porn films

over a two year period, but she's now left the industry.

-THEY LAUGH

-Oh, my God!

-Your shoes have a bedroom!

-I know!

-This is amazing!

-A whole bedroom just for my clothes and shoes.

-That's a weapon! That's not at shoe!

-LAUGHTER

'Although Gemma stopped working in porn two years ago,

-'her films are on the web for ever.'

-MOANING ON VIDEO

-Would you ever go back into porn?

-No.

-Why?

-Cos no-one would else would pay me that sort of money to do it

and I would never do it for the standard going rate.

-What is the standard going rate?

-300 quid.

-For what, what would you do for 300 quid?

-For a scene.

-How long does a scene take?

-Er...

Some companies, 12 hour days. Some girls may need money and think,

"I'll do anal, cos I'll get a bit more,"

and they're not doing it cos they want to do it,

they're doing it cos they need to do it, cos they need money or whatever.

Then, that's when I'd be like, "No."

I don't want to end up how some of the girls have ended up.

-What have they ended up like?

-Mad in the head.

-In what way?

You know, some might have to take drugs to then do the job,

which, again, I would never want to do that.

-So they can be, like, in another place?

-Yeah.

-What I want to know is do you think that porn reflects real sex?

-No.

-Why?

-And I think people need to understand that it's not real.

It's...it's not how I would have sex at home at all.

'Although Gemma wants people to understand that porn isn't real,

'I'm not sure she's faced up to the reality

'of how young a lot of her audience is.'

How do you feel about the fact that 11-year-olds now

-are watching your films?

-I know, that is quite disturbing

that it's getting younger and younger. Um...

They can't really stop it, can they?

What do your family think about the porn?

My mum and dad wasn't too happy about it when I told them,

like most parents, I suppose.

What parent would want to see their daughter doing porn?

It's kind of one of those ones. It's not the most normal...

-So you do recognise it's...

-Oh, yeah, I know that it's not normal.

That's why I want to get out of it and do something different, because,

if I was to stay in that industry and carry on,

mentally it's just going to mess you up in the head,

doing that all the time. You can't do porn for ever.

'That wasn't what I expected. I've never met a porn star.'

So I thought I was going to come in here

and she was going to be a dominatrix and be really fierce and sassy,

'the way that she's portrayed in films and online.

'She was nothing like that. She's really sweet.'

There's some pictures of when I was younger, going from four boob jobs.

'There's something about her that's almost just not completely there.

'She's lovely, she's adorable,'

but she's just almost like in a fantasy world of thinking it's OK

and that's the same fantasy I feel kids have when they're watching it.

When we talk about young people seeing porn online,

it's often assumed they're looking for it.

But our nationwide survey showed this isn't always the case.

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 just continue to be bombarded with pornographic images.

Nearly a quarter said that 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're searching for something else online.

Someone said that, "I click on a game or website

"which says it's something else, but then it's porn,"

so there's no escaping it.

'And these days, you don't even have to visit an explicit site

'to see pornographic images.'

We've got six new entries and four re-entries, including tracks

from Pharrell Williams, James Arthur and Mariah Carey.

'Sexual images are everywhere - in adverts, magazines,

'and, more than ever, in music videos.'

And this at number 26 is Miley Cyrus and that big old Wrecking Ball.

# I came in like a wrecking ball... #

Music stars, like Miley Cyrus, Kanye West,

Rihanna and Robin Thicke,

are often singled out for criticism, accused of using pornographic images

and editing techniques in their videos.

But it's grime artist Skepta

who's taken the sexual imagery in music videos to a whole new level.

# We were chilling then we had sex... #

The video for his single All Over the House

features him singing as two porn actors have explicit sex.

This is a hardcore porn film labelled as a music video.

'In fact, with close ups of genitals,

'the images are SO explicit, we can't even show them.'

So talk me through the decision to use a porno as a music video.

I always think to try and do something what nobody else has done.

I didn't think too much about it or how big it would be or whatever.

I just did it. I never tweeted that video once. I never spoke about it.

-I never did anything...

-Yeah, but it's the internet.

Right, so it found its way back to me.

I just didn't want to promote it. I know that I have young fans...

-Mm-hm.

-..that follow me on Twitter, so for me to put that on there,

it is a stupid thing for me to do, so I kind of left it for people to find.

-So if people find it...

-But it's so easy to find.

Literally, you Google it, if I even write in "Skepta",

the first thing that comes up is All Over The House, then they say

you have to be 18-plus to watch it, but I mean, I could be five

and could've gotten through to that. It just comes up immediately.

OK, you found it, but you still clicked it.

Do you know what I mean? That's what it was for me.

-Now you know how many kids have seen it...

-Yeah.

-..how do you feel?

I don't feel any different. I definitely wouldn't change it.

I'd do it again if I could go back in time to do it.

I didn't put that much thought into it when I did it in the first place

and I do a lot of stuff in life, just wanting to do something different.

# She came closer

# I popped up like bread in a toaster... #

'Skepta was happy to appear in the video

'and for it to show real sex, but I'm curious

'as to why he wasn't prepared to be filmed having sex himself.'

I think there's a quite lot of reasons. That's probably

-why I can't pinpoint what it is.

-Well, I'd love some of them.

One is because I'm me. That is definitely one.

-It's because of who I am.

-What about you?

-Um...

-Like my mum would be very upset if I did it.

-Why?

-Because...

I know my mum, innit? So I know she wouldn't like me to do that.

A quick search on the internet

shows just how shocked some young fans were by Skepta's video.

LOUD GASPS

Oh, my God!

'This girl was filmed on webcam as she watched it for the first time.'

Eugh!

# She knows I've got this Open it up like a locksmith... #

What the hell is wrong with this man?!

First of all, what I would say, yeah, straightaway,

this girl's an attention seeker, definitely.

So are you! Look at your porno video.

# All over the house All over the house... #

'I met up with Naomi, the girl who found Skepta's video so shocking.'

Eugh! How can you be doing that?!

SHE LAUGHS

'She told me her friend had sent her the link to the video

'without telling her it had explicit sex in it.

'Naomi posted her reaction online.'

Do you remember that reaction? Do you want to tell me a bit about it?

Yeah, that reaction was genuine. I was like, "What the actual hell?"

Like I expected a music video, and I got a porno and, like,

if I'd knew it was going to be a porno, I'd have put headphones in,

so that it wouldn't be out loud for my mum to hear.

-It was just shocking.

-When I showed the video to Skepta,

he felt like you were just attention seeking.

Were you just attention seeking or was that genuine?

I was shocked. I was too shocked to hold it all in.

My mouth... The way it was open the majority of the video,

it was literally like, "Oh, my God, this is nasty!"

What he was trying to do was

almost as if he knew controversy would come with it.

Therefore, whether it's good or bad, you're going to get attention.

# She knows I've got this

# I'm-a open it up like a locksmith... #

But despite such hostile reactions,

Skepta says he still doesn't regret his porn music video.

He's says it's up to parents

to educate their kids about the internet.

These parents need to take time out,

get off the couch and leave the Kardashians and the X-Factors alone

and go and chill with your child.

Why do children of today connect more with me than their own parents?

You shouldn't watch my video or you shouldn't watch a video

and not feel comfortable to go back to your dad or your mum

and say, "What's going on here?"

# Let me show you something you won't forget

# Just hold me around my neck... #

That was really intense, because I know him

and he's someone that I respect and really like and it was a video

that was very poignant to me when it first came out,

because I felt uncomfortable about its existence,

knowing the audience that were going to watch it.

Even though I believe he didn't have any intention for kids to see that,

and he didn't think it would become as viral as it did,

you have to think, with our platform and our responsibility,

you have to think, you have to be responsible.

In our survey, we wanted to find out more

about the impact that online pornography has on teenagers.

And we discovered there's a massive 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 affects what they expect from sex.

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

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

And nearly 20% of girls told us

they have never seen porn online, compared to only 4% of 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 let's say every couple of days.

A quarter of young men say that 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.

'At the Salmon Centre in South London,

'they provide a space for teenagers to meet,

'let off steam and get support. And as I discover,

'some of the older boys have strong views about porn.'

Why do you think young people look at porn?

-Develop their understanding of sex.

-So you think they learn about it?

-Mm-hm.

-Some schools, you have sex education, innit?

So it's just like verbally explaining it to you,

whereas, if you were to watch porn, you can see what's actually going on.

Sometimes, it helps. It's like theory and practical.

And where do you guys find porn? Where do people...?

-Where do young people find porn?

-Internet or like...

You know they have them vine videos and, you know, they have girls...

-You know?

-Doing what?

-Like, you know, doing sexual things, innit?

And people just click on it.

When you watch one link, it leads to another link and it just carries on.

Do you think girls and boys see porn differently?

-I think that it affects boys more.

-In what way?

-In a sexual way.

-It makes you more eager to have sex.

-Yeah.

-When you watch porn, you want sex straight away.

-Trust me.

-Honest.

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?

You'd normally, stereotypically, you'd associate porn with boys,

like...

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.

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

-No.

Why do you not think it's good for girls?

-Most girls find it disgusting.

-It's unattractive.

-They're like, "Eugh!"

Schools in the UK don't have to cover issues like pornography

in sex and relationships classes, so most don't do so.

Which makes this workshop for 14 and 15-year-old girls

at a school in Cardiff extremely unusual.

I'm going to say the word "pornography" to you

and I want you to think about what comes to mind.

You can discuss it between yourselves,

but just write something down on the paper.

So there's pens there and paper.

So what comes to mind when you hear the word "pornography"?

All done? Would you like to start?

-Um...sex was the first one that came to mind.

-OK.

-Sex.

-Sex?

-Sex.

-Sex?

-Sexual video.

-Sexual videos. OK, well, that...

'It's interesting that, like the young men in South London,

'these girls think that porn is for boys.'

So I'll read out a statement. Go with your own gut reaction, OK?

"All young people are interested in pornography."

So what do you think there?

I don't want to be sexist, but it's sort of mostly boys.

-Mostly boys? Not all young people, but maybe mostly boys?

-Yeah.

-OK.

And how do young people come across...

different types of pornography, generally?

When you're 11-12, you have a page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

and, um, the little advertisements will come up on the side

without you necessarily wanting to look at porn

and they'll have an advert and, if you click on the advert,

it'll take you straight to a pornography website.

Is it quite explicit, what you see?

It's sort of half-naked men and half-naked women.

How do you think young women like yourself

feel when they're suddenly, like, confronted with that image?

It sort of makes you feel a bit embarrassed,

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

and, um, like, to other people, sort of...

it'd 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, cos I don't really want to.

But if many young people are having to deal with sexual images

earlier than they ever did in the past,

what exactly might be the consequences of that?

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 by porn. When we asked young people

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 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.

I mean, that's quite a lot of pressure for young women.

I often see reports in the media linking porn to a dramatic increase

in the number of women asking for labiaplasty.

That's 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.

She believes education is the key

to stopping media images giving young people

such limited views on what a woman's body is like.

So we've invited two groups of teenage volunteers -

one boys and one girls - to take part in a workshop.

Dr Busby starts by correcting

a common misunderstanding about female genitals.

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

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

Dr Busby is going to use a sculpture

called 57 Women from the Great Wall of Vagina series

to show the wide range of normal vaginas or vulvas.

The artist, Jamie McCartney, took plaster casts of real women.

Although they look very different,

they are all normal and none needs surgery.

So these are all actual vulvas from actual women.

-They're horrible!

-They're horrible?

-ALL: Yeah.

-They're all different.

-Yeah.

-OK. What makes them horrible?

-Some are like saggy and...

-GIGGLING

The one in the middle looks weird. That one there.

-That one?

-Yes.

-OK.

-That one looks dodgy there.

-This one looks dodgy.

-This one?

-Yeah.

-It's a bit bigger!

-It's a bit larger? OK.

-Yeah, yeah.

'Although dozens of girls under 18 ask Dr Busby for labiaplasty,

'because they think they're abnormal,

'none of them have needed surgery.'

-Is it really common?

-Yeah, 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 you would have a girl worrying about

the size and shape of her vagina and wanting to alter it?

Um, the youngest, somewhere between 12 and 14.

Is this the first time that you have seen images of adult women's vulvas?

Unless it's been all over Facebook.

SOME GIGGLING

You don't really take much notice of what they look like.

Unless it's seen, like on social networking sites, stuff like that.

Sorry, do you guys see a lot of vaginas on social media?

-It's not pictures, it's videos.

-How do you see videos?

-They just pop up!

-They all scroll and people share them

and put them on, like, Facebook and stuff.

-So people your age share videos of their own vaginas?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Like a page...

-There's a page on Facebook.

-And they put them on.

So what do those vaginas look like?

They stick things up themselves, so you can't really see it.

In my clinics, I see many, 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, 16-year-old?

-No.

-No? Why do you not think it would be a good idea?

-Because it could change by the time they grow up.

-That is exactly it.

If these are all our age, well,

it's just you haven't gone through development yet,

so it's just going to mess up your system more, to be honest.

I couldn't agree with you more. They might change. They're still growing.

That growth and development keeps going on until adulthood.

So if they had an operation when they were 16, it may grow again.

-Yeah.

-And they may need another or another or another.

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

But porn doesn't just affect the way young people think they should look.

It also influences how they behave.

In our survey, after we asked if porn affects

what boys AND girls expect from sex,

we 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 had this wealth of just quotes from young people.

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

A 19-year-old young woman said that,

"I think that because 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,"

you know, which I can see is completely true.

A 17-year-old boy said that, "Guys will expect the chance

"for rougher sex or for a girl to be very flexible, etc."

Um, a 16-year old girl said that, "Boys think that all girls

"will behave like the girls in porn

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

For me, one of the most worrying things about all this

is that sexual images have become so normal, that many young people

don't see a problem with creating and sharing their own.

The trouble starts when explicit photographs

or videos taken on phones are passed around or posted

on social media websites like Facebook or Twitter.

-Hi.

-Hi.

'These students are ambassadors for a project in Manchester,

'which aims to warn school children about the dangers of "sexting".'

People are becoming more used to seeing, like,

indecent images of people and therefore thinking it's OK for them

to take, you know, sort of a half naked photo of themself.

And boys are getting a high expectation of women

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

and then asking for that off girls.

Yeah, and then, girls feel like they need to live up to this standard.

That's when, you know, they may start sending things round.

Obviously, since the emergence of Snapchat,

things have become, like, a lot worse, because obviously send them

and they're like, "It's only a few seconds," but then,

you can screen shot it, you 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 at 7 o'clock,

-8 o'clock...

-Yeah.

-..it could be everywhere.

I mean, there's been cases we know where, in two days,

it's travelled from another part of the country into our area

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

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

-Oh, my word!

SOME LAUGHTER

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

Adults sometimes try to ignore it a little bit,

think that 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.

-Mmm.

-Bullying between people, but I just think,

because it's a sensitive issue, and it's quite a new issue as well,

they just kind of try to ignore it.

'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.

'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 re-sends or re-posts 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 offenders' register.

-And what is that?

-For people like paedophiles and people like that.

It stays with you your whole life, can hinder you getting a job,

you can never work with children your entire life.

Studies have found that kids 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 him how much I liked him. I wanted to do it.'

Thinking about that film,

do you think that any laws were broken in that film?

I think 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 we've started

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 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've made a mistake that they didn't appreciate the consequences.

'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'd been texting and it got a bit rude and I reciprocated it

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

You were 14 years old. What was your reaction?

Well, initially I was quite reluctant to send anything.

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

I was quite shy with it.

But then because he was being so consistent with asking,

I eventually gave in.

So what did he do with the image?

He showed his friends initially 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 on to 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 were...

It's like, I felt almost 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 that so-and-so, that Sophia girl.

"She sent that naked picture."

And they called me a slag, they called me a slut, a 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, a year and a half later.

Oh, my God! That's insane.

Yeah, no, they did.

Why do you think young girls still do it?

To be desired is to feel empowered,

and 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'm empowered as a female because I am desired,"

when in fact it's 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.

'Because any sexual image of someone under 18

'counts as a child abuse image,

'once it's out there 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 such 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 pixellated right now is because

we would be committing an offence

-by actually looking at these images and downloading them.

-That's right.

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 teens."

"All teens, all curvy, with big tits only."

Again another adult website

with collections, specifically of young teens.

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

And down there we have "Jail bait collection."

So anyone can go on to Facebook or Twitter,

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

-they can just take that picture off...

-That's the problem, yes.

..then they can put it anywhere.

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.

So they can be sold?

And this content is now being sold commercially.

This is a sanitised screenshot 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.

It was not generated by them but there are other individuals

in the room who are assessed as being slightly older.

Other children being involved, performing sex acts.

They're 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 as simple as a sext and realise how fast the process is,

'that it can literally just take over your life.'

I am so glad that every boyfriend I've had before now

was before picture messaging.

I can't even tell you. It's terrifying.

'If there are clear consequences for young people

'when it comes to sexting and posting sexual images,

'the effects of childhood exposure to porn are harder to gauge.

'In February, news broke that a 12-year-old boy

'raped his seven-year-old sister

'after watching hardcore pornography on the internet.

'Blackburn Youth Court heard that he'd watched it with friends

'and gained "a desire to try it out."

'With other sexual crimes frequently linked to porn,

'it's easy to see why parents and politicians are so concerned.

'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.

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

and the opinion that he had of women.

That they were... 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?

-Yeah. Uh-huh.

'Sally didn't report the rape to the police

'because she didn't think she'd be believed.

'But she did seek support from Rape Crisis.'

So what nature of pornography was on his blog?

Erm, it was mostly soft porn.

But there were other images that were quite graphic.

And a lot of them sort of revolved around women being used

and being abused, and women having no control over what was going on.

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

Yeah, because I feel as though seeing that,

it made it clear to me that that was what he was interested in

and that 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.

'Everything I've seen and heard makes me convinced

'that children need to learn about porn,

'so they can understand the risks and put it into context.

'But most schools don't want to teach it,

'partly because it's so controversial,

'but also because they can have so much trouble

'teaching even the most basic sex education.

'Regulator Ofsted says the sex education

'in a third of English schools isn't up to scratch,

'while in Scotland there's no obligation to teach it all.

'But there are schools like the Limes College in South London

'where they believe the dangers of porn can no longer be ignored.'

"Pornography shows men and women

"as equal partners in a sexual relationship."

They're not equal partners at all.

If you see a porn video, the woman is like the dogsbody.

The man can do whatever he wants to that woman.

No respect towards a woman at all.

You guys agree?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

'Sex education consultant Lynnette Smith has been going into schools

'in North Lincolnshire for 20 years,

'and she is concerned about what she's hearing from teenage boys.'

We're asked quite often,

and this is not just at one school but several schools...

"If I'm being intimate, or if I'm trying it on with a girl

"and she doesn't like it,

"if I keep going and going, she will finally like it, won't she?"

When we first started getting these questions,

we started exploring this,

and it links back to what they're seeing on pornography.

'When porn is something so many kids are being exposed to,

'I can see why people like Lynette

'say schools need to adapt what they teach to keep up with that.

'But just how young should the process start?

'I'm about to get a shock.'

I'm slightly surprised cos when we said we were going to a school,

I didn't know it would be a primary.

I mean, these are kids who are sort of 10 and under,

and we're having a sex education lesson today.

It's going to be...I mean, the kids are going to be

learning about pornography, which is slightly terrifying

that there is even a need to educate such young children about porn.

This should be interesting.

'And then I discover that it's the Year Ones, five-year-olds,

'who will be getting this lesson.

'So, not surprisingly,

'that means worried parents need to be reassured.'

I always like to have a meeting with parents

so you know exactly what I'm talking about to your children.

'I never work in a primary school'

without at least first having a session with the parents

because if I was the parent I would want to know

who was teaching my child about pornography at five and why.

When we were all young,

we couldn't access the things that children can access now.

Even though there may be fear,

there may be suppressed anger and shock at the beginning,

parents come round when they suddenly realise,

"Yeah, this is necessary. This is needed."

From ages three to six

they're interested in the differences between boys and girls.

It's the whole title, "Porn and Pornography"

and those words that are terrifying for parents.

Now I've been in and learned what it's going to be

and that it's in the right context, I'm at ease with it.

My husband was terrified thinking his little girl's

going to be taught about pornography, but it's not.

'After 45 minutes reassuring the parents,

'it's time to bring in the five-year-olds.'

I find this so interesting cos I don't know how you explain

where babies come from to a five-year-old.

It's a lot easier than you think.

Oh, really? Cos I'm 27

and I don't think I've still spoken about it with my parents.

Would you like to just sit down here, please? Let's have a little line.

I've got lots of you. That's brilliant, isn't it?

Now what we're going to do today

is we're going to talk about keeping safe.

Does anybody know the correct scientific word

for what a boy's got?

The penis.

Excellent, that's said like a proper scientist or a doctor or a nurse.

-Yes.

-I know the other one.

-You know what a girl's got, do you,

-the correct scientific word, and what's that?

-Vagina.

Excellent.

'So far so good, but I'm still not sure how Lynnette is going to

'broach the subject of porn with five-year-olds.'

Now, we've got a boy taking a picture of another boy.

-Is that OK?

-Yeah.

-Yes!

But I want you to look closely at this picture.

-Is that OK?

-No!

KIDS GIGGLE

Shh.

That's not OK, is it?

-No!

-No!

-No.

Nobody should ever take photographs of you like that

or the private parts of your body.

Let's have a look at this next picture.

If you look at that, somebody's got a phone or a tablet,

-and can you see on that phone or tablet?

-It's women!

-It's a woman with no clothes on, isn't it?

-Naked!

-Yeah.

Right, if any older children

try to show you photos or pictures on their phones like that,

you need to tell an adult or a grown-up.

I really think we owe it to children and young people to keep them safe,

and, as we all know, knowledge is power.

But if we can't get over the basics of straightforward sex education,

how on earth can we tackle these stronger issues like pornography?

Nobody should touch us there between our legs,

and nobody should touch our bottoms.

KIDS GIGGLE

We need to take this far more seriously.

It's not an optional extra.

We've got to wake up and realise that it's becoming a big, big issue.

Now what I want us to do very quietly

is to go back to our class room.

KIDS LAUGH AND CHATTER

When I first walked in, you know, it being a primary school

and then finding out it was five-year-olds

broaching the topic of pornography,

I was a little bit reluctant because I thought...

It felt slightly unnecessarily young.

And yet within about five minutes of the lesson

you realise how armed they are with knowledge.

'What I found really interesting

'was that in the sessions with the youngest children,

'the word "pornography" wasn't even used.

'So I can see that if these ideas are introduced carefully early on,

'it could make a big difference

'when kids come across real porn as they get older.

'And certainly many of the teenagers I've met

'wish they'd been better prepared for what they've seen.'

I heard a group of, erm, Year 8 boys talking about...

They'd been watching porn and they're only, like, 12, 13,

and they were saying stuff like,

"Oh, is this normal, is that normal?" and stuff like that,

so I don't think they really understand that

not everything that you see on porn is normal and what's expected.

I think it would be a good idea to teach kids about porn

and what it's all about and the things that they watch,

they shouldn't be expecting that in real life.

I have seen some pretty scary stuff on the internet.

If parents did see that they'd be like, "Whoa, why is that on there?"

Or, "That shouldn't be on there, that's disgraceful."

And to us it's just normal cos we've seen it that many times.

So I don't think parents have any idea

that that type of stuff is out there.

I don't think there's ever going to be a way of protecting all children

from seeing online pornography.

The internet's too big, it's too vast and it's way too accessible.

But there is a huge difference between the kids who are scared

and affected by what they see

and those who aren't necessarily, the ones who put it into context

and they really understand what it is that they're seeing.

We have to understand that this is something that is in the homes

and in the lives and in the minds of our children,

and we have to protect them by discussing it

and educating them about what it is that they're seeing.