Watching porn: does it do real harm or is the reaction merely moral panic

I've never felt the need to use porn or even "erotic" literature ,I worked in a studio with page 3 girls in the 70's and they certainly didn't think what they were doing was porn.From what I see on tv and read in the press the porn available to young people is light years away from simple topless photographs .The attitude of the boys in the Sex Ed programme I watched horrified me,luckily my GS who is almost 15 has a brilliant relationship with his mum and she knows he gets the right information FROM HER ...and doesn't rely on dodgy web pages ...sadly there are huge numbers who dont have this advantage

I am surprised that you are convinced by the pre-porn interviews vq.

Often these days you see the girl/s being interviewed before and after the filming. They're relaxed and at ease. I never watch anything from Eastern Europe or the Far East. A lot of easy access porn is home made. Just couples having fun and showing the world. Not sure why they choose to do that but each to his/her own. I guess it's warmer than dogging lol.

It also depends what type of porn you choose to watch. Like all films it has categories from sex in a loving relationship with lots of caring and cuddles to real hardcore bdsm. There is also gay porn which again crosses all categories. Porn isn't always the nasty stuff that people usually think of sometimes it's films made by sex therapists to help people who are struggling in their physical relationship.

Tbh I prefer to read porn rather than watch it although that's not saying I never do. I'm the same with mainstream films. I'd much rather read the book and use my own imagination.

However porn should not be easy available and accessible by children and young people.

Sorry - phone problem.
Seems our tolerance levels have changed over the years and things unheard of in the public arena are now considered acceptable. I am not a prude but certainly would not expect anyone to be watching porn at work. I would consider this a sackable offence.
What adults do in the privacy of their homes is up to them. Unfortunately things escalate with some people and they want to access harder porn. There are the people with mental health issues some of whom cannot deal rationally with porn.
How do we prevent our children being open to porn ? I don't have the answer.

Seems our tolerance levels have

vampire - how exactly do you make sure that the porn you are watching has been filmed with willing actors?

To go back to original post, if I saw someone watching porn at work I would tell them that if they continued I would report them to the employer. And do just that if it continued.

Please explain why watching porn degrades me. A lot of porn actresses earn good money. I accept that some porn is created by abusers just as other aspects of the sex industry are prone to abuse but not all porn is made by victims.

I would happily ban porn to protect our children from being sexualised early but we as I posted previously we have to look at society in general. For example, what happened to the watershed? A lot of soaps have totally inappropriate story lines for the time they are on.

We, as a society, can force our children to grow up or allow them to enjoy their childhood. At the moment society seems to think it's OK to limit childhood. Hopefully we'll turn full circle and let our children enjoy their innocence for longer but I don't see how that will happen with all the access to technology.

Sigh.

With other teachers on a computer course I noticed one young man accessing porn. I was surprised he would do that. I lost the respect I'd had for him. It was neither the time nor the place.
He's now a primary school headteacher.

I completely agree with day 6, and worry a great deal about the sort of world my eight year-old granddaughter is growing up in. Mary Whitehouse was the butt of so many jokes, but we could certainly use someone like her to help protect our young people, not only from inappropriate sexual behaviour but also from violence and foul language which are common coin in the modern world.

Porn degrades the people who are involved - mostly unwillingly if you read the news - and those who watch it. It has nothing to do with real, passionate love, and is only about empty sexual stimulation. Day6 you don't sound prudish; it is quite frightening to see what children are exposed to now, and things seen cannot be unseen. So yes, if a colleague of mine was watching porn I would do something about it - possibly warn them that if it didn't stop I would take it further and report them.

Totally agree. Keep them innocent for as long as you can. They grow up far too quickly these days for my liking.

whitewave - to reply to your 2nd and 3rd questions - in the past I've said on here that it's dangerous to let children as young as 2 and 3 have use of tech. devices as they're addictive. There was opposition from many people so I shut up.
Later the addiction can lead to curiosity about porn sites.
Caring parents can find out how to put blocks on their children's phones, computers etc to prevent access to these things.
And as others have said, talk about it openly to their children.It's a huge problem that's not going to go away.

The parents have to block the sites. Any one can say they are 18 + . Simple .

'pornography objectifies people, particularly women. Children are being exposed to sexual acts that are non consensual and dangerous with no filter.

My main worry is that as a society, we appear be sexualising very young children.'

Iam64 I completely agree.

I do worry that children are growing up in a world where the body is flaunted as a sexual asset. Men are seen as toned and hunky and desirable for being that shape and young women singers on TV often wear outfits that look more at home in cheap porn flicks.

I may sound prudish but I loathe the way the video is how a singer garners interest and female stars twerk, pout, thrust, lick their lips and pose provocatively, wearing next to nothing. I have seen men watching those videos with their tongues hanging out. It's not-so-soft legalised porn. Not only that you see five year old girls dancing as they do.

It sounds prudish maybe but I think childhood is such a precious time and children need to be protected from a part of life they are not yet ready for and should know little about.

Also Luckygirl, how many children and women/boys/men are exposed to porn as a means of exciting them and encouraging them to get involved in sexual activity that they are reluctant participants in

This is what I'm saying.If I was to buy any one of my three DC a laptop for example ( not they were even heard of them ), before I even handed it over I would have set the parental control. This is No Pornography No swear words etc etc. That's all that has to be done to stop the kids getting hold of it.

I have no problem with adults making their own choices, but this seems to be confined to the viewers and not to many of the participants who have no choice.

NannyTee, I don't agree that 'bullied' parents are buying laptops, tablets and phones. When I was 11 hardy anyone had a telephone in their home, we had one because dad's work put it in. Some of my school friends saw phones as so exotic, they'd arrange to call me from a phone box just because they could. We had nothing to say other to each other because it was indeed, exotic.
My 2 year old grandsons can swipe and play games on my mobile. Nope, they aren't addicted but to them, it's the same as doing a jigsaw, painting or playing with play do at the table with me.
They enjoy face time with each other when one is away and face time mummy and daddy at work when they're here. It's with us, whether we like it or not.
Porn should only be available to those who can prove they are over 18 years of age. It must be possible to block sites.

I’m not happy about children and young adolescents watching porn, which is basically fantasy, and getting a distorted idea of sex with no experience of reality.

However, I believe adults should be able to make their own choices. People’s sexuality is varied and complex and I don’t believe it should be regulated, beyond the protection of the young or mentally/physically vulnerable.

Or is it anything for a quiet life ??

It's the parents. All of these tablets,android phones laptops are obviously bought by the parent. Every one of these has parental control on. Any parent could set it. Then any porn or filth could not be watched by the child . Easy . Too many bullied parents if you ask me.

Anyone watching the news about children on live chat?

What the hell is going on?

I saw the programme about sex robots too. I was horrified. There is more to sex than the act. The man who loved his dolls didn't seem to understand that and I felt very sorry for his wife who verbally said she was OK with it but her body language told a totally different story.

As much as I enjoy the odd bit of porn (and no I wouldn't feel degraded if it was my daughter as long as it was her choice and she was being well paid) I would rather it became virtually impossible to access if it helped to protect children. Sadly young people are not just swayed by pornography but also by what they see on the television and in magazines which promote a body shapes that are impossible for the majority of people to attain.

We need to ask ourselves what we want for our children. Do we want the next generation to grow up not only with a warped view of sex and love but also what their bodies should look like or do we want them to form healthy, loving sexual relationships and be happy with themselves rather than constantly striving to achieve the unachievable. If we want the latter then we need to flick the switches on porn sites so that they cannot be accessed without being a member of the site and payment. We also need to change the mindset of magazines and tv programmes that promote 'perfect' male and female bodies, stop all adverts that use sex to sell (I'm thinking perfume adverts, Diet Coke etc which use female and male bodies), the Scum and the Star and any other paper that uses Page 3 type images and get certain 'adult' magazines back on the top shelf or better still only available from adult shops.