Does porn screw up a minor's mind?

[Straha]

Would watching porn "twist" a young man/woman's (assuming we're talking a pubescent or adolescent aged person) mind? And if so, how so?

[Rogue 9]

Well, I'm inclined towards the "let them be kids" position, but I don't know how far that'll fly here. Let them enjoy their innocence.

[Mayabird]

I would expect that sheltered (especially the dominated by overprotective fundie parents who won't tell the kids where babies come from except "from God") kids would be the most warped by it. It's not just the brainwashing of their childhood kicking in sending them into hysterics about how they're going to hell now, but also the fact that they won't know jack shit about it and might think that whatever weird crap they're seeing (and you have to admit, there's a lot of weird crap out there) is realistic.

But then, most young people don't know much about what would be realistic and would probably get kinda warped ideas from them. Heck, they watch stupid "teen dramas" on TV and get warped ideas on how relationships work from those. At least, the ones I knew in school did. So, is it really that good of an idea to let 13 year olds watch porn when they think that "The OC" gives them a realistic view on how to act in life?

(PS I've never actually watched "The OC" but I was told it's a popular teen drama type program. It might actually be good. I don't know. But you know what kinds of shows I'm talking about.)

[18-Till-I-Die]

What ideas did they get from teen dramas?


On the topic, i say that kids should find out on their own. I didnt even know what sex was until i saw an anime movie (Outlanders, IIRC) and i...uh...you get the idea. I was, by the way, ten.

Was i warped? Well, i like anime porn now. Hentai turns me on. But as it is, i'm not a rapist or a psychopath because of it. Personally, i dont think porn can 'warp' anyone. If someone is truely mentally impacted by some rough sex, i feel sorry for them, becuase as soon as they discover the internet and are bombarded by 'Enlarge Your Penis!' ads and 'Free p00rn! Click Here!' they'll be driven insane.

Now i do not perscribe someone showing a child porn. I watched Outlanders because my brother liked to show me his anime videos. But i doubt it would seriously harm them.

[Mayabird]

What ideas did they get from teen dramas?


On the topic, i say that kids should find out on their own. I didnt even know what sex was until i saw an anime movie (Outlanders, IIRC) and i...uh...you get the idea. I was, by the way, ten.

Was i warped? Well, i like anime porn now. Hentai turns me on. But as it is, i'm not a rapist or a psychopath because of it. Personally, i dont think porn can 'warp' anyone. If someone is truely mentally impacted by some rough sex, i feel sorry for them, becuase as soon as they discover the internet and are bombarded by 'Enlarge Your Penis!' ads and 'Free p00rn! Click Here!' they'll be driven insane.

Now i do not perscribe someone showing a child porn. I watched Outlanders because my brother liked to show me his anime videos. But i doubt it would seriously harm them.

Note: I lived around some REALLY stupid people. I mean, they were so dumb that they wouldn't ever get into the Darwin Awards because they wouldn't have the creativity to get themselves killed or sterilized in an entertaining fashion. Anyway, they would watch those TV shows and behave in ways that they obviously got from the shows. Even if I hadn't actually seen said shows, I could tell when they were acting like a teen drama character. Too long to explain (which means "The mere memory of some of the idiocy I witnessed makes my eyes burn again"), but lets just say that fake acting in real life looks even stupider.

Oh, and that's my bad aunt you're talking about, the one who goes insane after getting the "FREE pr0n" spam. She boycotted a family reunion (and made a good amount of the rest of the family follow suit) because it was hosted at the house of my good aunt, who is lesbian.

[Solauren]

It really depends on the child in question (upbringing and the childs personality type)

I am sure somewhere, there are kid's that would be warped by watching pornography, especially the more.... exotic stuff.

By the same token, there are probably 10 year old's out there that could watch stuff that would make Darth Wong a little uncomfortable and go "meh, can I go back to playing a 3-D Shooter now?"

Your average kid looks at it and is probably uncomfortable, and would need explaining as to what it was, and why that wasn't real (the more exotic stuff)

Personally, I think the best idea is to not avoid the sex topic. Around 8 or 9, let them find out in a safe way. (Easier if you have pets). 10 is probably a better age, depending on the kid and all that.
By 12 however, I think all a porn is going to do is turn your average male on, and your average girl going 'why don't guys look at me like that'
(Not being a girl, I have no idea how they should act, but that's why the girls in my Grade 6 class reacted like.... LONG story, pun intended)


However, any kid under 8, keep stuff like that out of there reach. Hell, if you have it in your home, keep it in a locked box under something they'd stay away from.

I plan to keep mine in the bedroom closet under an "itchy"-blanket

[h0rus]

Would watching porn "twist" a young man/woman's (assuming we're talking a pubescent or adolescent aged person) mind? And if so, how so?

Btw, by twist, do you mean like turn into a sexual predator or something along those lines? There are plenty of people, who watch porn without becoming such. Yes, that includes kids.
In my experience it opened a can of sexual attraction and lust. But, to be honest, why would I care about the porn in the first place if I already didn't have those feelings? Attraction is hard wired, it was only a matter of time. That's why I don't buy into that whole bullshit about porn jacking someone up. If you look at it through the christian-all-sex-that-doesn't-lead-to-marriage-is-bad blinders, then naturally you're going to see it that way. I don't see why sexuality should be considered a bad thing. It doesn't mess up the mind, no more than dreaming or thinking of a hot girl and jacking off does. The burden of proof is on a lot of these wannabe psychiatrists to show that watching porn at a young age really fucks with your mind, whatever that means.

[Darth Wong]

Porn is very much like any other kind of exposure to the world outside the Bubble: it will only have a harmful effect on you if you have been left totally unprepared for it for delinquent parents.

Sheltering a child against all knowledge of sex is like sheltering a child against all knowledge of crime or death. It's downright negligent; the longer you try to keep your kid in a bubble, the more harmful it will be when he gets out of that Bubble. And trust he, he will get out, and sooner than you might think.

[kojikun]

many sexual predators (a huge number of them, actually) are not sex crazed. they come from the internal emotional conflict between their fear of being evil sinners and the enjoyment they get from sex. thats why so many rapists actually treat women like their worthless during the attacks, rather than like something they really want but could never have.

sexual predation is not about sex, and has nothing to do with pornography.

[Darth Wong]

The "sexual predator" angle is stupid, but the harm that might theoretically be done to a person's personality by porn is that it gives them grossly unrealistic ideas of what sex should be like. However, this would, as previously noted, only be a problem if the child has been kept in a Bubble by misguided parents.

[h0rus]

Porn is very much like any other kind of exposure to the world outside the Bubble: it will only have a harmful effect on you if you have been left totally unprepared for it for delinquent parents.

Sheltering a child against all knowledge of sex is like sheltering a child against all knowledge of crime or death. It's downright negligent; the longer you try to keep your kid in a bubble, the more harmful it will be when he gets out of that Bubble. And trust he, he will get out, and sooner than you might think.

In my case, I improvised and stole porn from my father. The jury is still out on whether or not it had any adverse effects. Somehow though I find it hard to really believe that some people are truly sheltered from porn. I can just see it now, a bunch of rebellious kids getting together and sharing the latest magazine which was jacked.

[kojikun]

My mom has this thing where she thinks she might have let me be too exposed to things, and that she needed to protect me from the cruelties of life when I was younger. I repeatedly tell her that if she had done that, I would grow up completely unprepared for life, and once I get out there I'd be shocked and frightened, and completely destroyed by all the cruelties, because I had no idea how to deal with them. Things like teasing, or such. The same goes for porn. The more you shelter a child from reality, the more the child looses the ability to learn how to cope.

[1337n1nj4]

The "sexual predator" angle is stupid, but the harm that might theoretically be done to a person's personality by porn is that it gives them grossly unrealistic ideas of what sex should be like.

Dude, you mean that girls won't immediately have sex with me just because we happen to be alone for more than 30 seconds, or with her four best friends?

Damn, no wonder I keep getting slapped.

[The Yosemite Bear]

It's bad when I was exposed to the Kama Sutra when I was six.

I didn't loose my virginity till I was in college...

meanwhile down the block the very conservative all sex is bad, masturbating is a sin, types became sexual active in high school, and ususually involving rape by altered condition (drugging/getting drunk), or rape by force in the course of a social gathering "Date".

[General Zod]

I don't think it's a bad thing unless the parent makes out sex to be something that's 'evil' and shouldn't be done unless you're married, etc. etc. Demonizing sex isn't really going to help prepare your kids or anything. I mean, i started digging through my parents nudie mags when i was ten, and i turned out more or less fine. Depending on who you ask anyways.

[Master of Ossus]

I tend to think that a significant fraction, and probably a good majority, of people between the ages of 13 and 15 have already watched porn. Unless you consider them screwed up (and examining today's youths, a case can be made for that), then I don't think it's that harmful. That being said, I believe that pornography is almost certainly not responsible. As Mike noted, I think that parents are much more likely the cause of the difficulties adjusting.

[Dooey Jo]

I saw a program on TV where they said that kids could get porn from the Net very easy and for free, and made it out to be some kind of disaster. Through the whole program I was waiting for them to explain why this was such a bad thing, but they never did. They just assumed it for some reason. None of interviewed kids seemed to be very screwed up, either. They also made the porn industry out to be one of the world's greatest evils (without explaining why, of course)...

[General Zod]

anyone with half a brain can get free porn from the net if they bother looking. what those asshats didn't bother mentioning is that if parents don't bother spending time with their kids and monitoring their internet habits then it's their own bloody fault if their kids happen to stumble across something they don't want them seeing.

It would be like turning a kid loose in a bookstore with nudie mags on display for anyone to browse through, without supervision, then blaming the store when their kids come across them.

[Ghost Rider]

No.

Unless said child lives in enclosed fanasty world and is sheltered from any form of outside interference he/she has exposure and will have some idea of it. Now if brought with ideas that this is either evil or some other taboo...possibly but that is more an influence of teachings then anything.

[Ace Pace]

No, I look at porn (rarely), and i'm not screwed up or anything.

[Icehawk]

I was 13 when I first started peeking at softcore nudity online (this was within 2 weeks of us first getting the internet ). By the time I was 14 and in my first year of highschool, I was looking at the XXX stuff whenever I was alone in the house. All through my teens up to now Ive looked at or downloaded porn.

Needless to say, NOTHING happened to me. I had good parents who raised me well as a child and in my teens. I was able to deal with porn or with whatever came my way because I was able to discover it on my own and at my own pace. Their was once when I was 16 and my mom got angry after she discovered a few hardcore pictures I had printed off but neither she nor my dad ever tried to restrict me from looking at porn.

Obviously its not a good thing to openly expose young kids to graphic porn, but by the time they are 11 or 12 and puberty is just starting to come around, its best to let them discover sexuality on their own (while providing them with basic "common sense" knowlege about certain things). Ignorant restriction and sheltering is not the way to go and it will cause more problems than solve.

[Frank Hipper]

If a kid's behavior is going to be altered unduly, and negatively, by exposure to porn, then it's possible that practically any form of entertainment that's highly stimulating would have an undue, negative influence.

I would try and prevent any prepubescent (5-12yo) youngins from having access to it, definetly.
Throbbing hardons and gaping, spread ginnies might be a little disturbing to younger children, I'd think.

[HemlockGrey]

Well, I'm not particularly screwed up, nor are any of my friends, so I'm inclined to say "no".

[NapoleonGH]

id actually be willing to guess that if a teenage boy isnt looking at porn there is something wrong with him...(i cant comment on girls, not being one)

[PrinceofLowLight]

I fully agree with "let kids be kids." And you know what? Kids are intensely curious and if you go out of your way to restrict access to something, especially if it seems completely harmless, will only drive them on a mad quest to see it. I first discovered porn at 7, and I can say with certainty it did not "screw me up" in any real way.

To a kid, porn is just another thing that they'll want to know more about because that's exactly what their parents don't want, like fireworks and too much candy or pets that terrify your sister. That's why if you don't want a problem with something, you explain it rationally instead of locking inside the secret mystery closet. You can't stop them from being exposed to it in a tiny way, and whenever a kid encounters a new thing, they'll figure out SOME way to see it more if it's not readily available.