For most families, sex is a touchy subject, and a new study has found that most teens and young adults are learning about it by watching porn instead of their parents. According to researchers, despite younger teens getting sex information from “the talk,” young adults, on the other hand, have turned to the internet for answers.
Boys are more likely to get sex education by watching porn
A National Survey of Sexual Health and Behaviour indicates that young adults aged 18-24 years turn to pornography for sex education. At least 25% of this age group consider porn helpful when they want to learn how to have sex. The number of young adults seeking sex education from their friends, parents, healthcare professionals, or media is small. Some indicated that their sexual partners were the ideal source of sex education.
Interestingly, the study indicates that young women are likely to get information about their sexual questions from their partners compared to men. Therefore, this implies that heterosexual men are more likely to seek their sex knowledge from pornography.
Emily Rothman, the study lead author, stated that evidence shows that young adults, especially heterosexual men, don’t prefer talking to their parents about sex. Most of them believe that one can be good at sex even without feedback from a sex partner, which is a belief they are getting from porn.
Teens rely on parents for sex information
Rothman and her Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington team evaluated a 2015 survey featuring answers from around 324 teens aged 14-17 and 357 young adults aged 18-24 years. The subjects indicated that they had received vital information regarding having sex.
For teens, parents are the top source of sex education. Kids between 14 and 17 also relied on a friend for answers. Only 8% of the teenagers indicated that porn helped them learn how to have sex. Remarkably, 23.4% of the teens that don’t get information from their parents rely on media while 12.8% say that a sex partner is the primary source of sexual knowledge.
