Age of Onset of Pornography Use / Exposure
Introduction
I noticed that someone made a post on Reddit asking people what their age of first use or explore to pornography was. This is noteworthy in a subreddit like r/PornAddiction because people are usually there to kick the habit.
The scientist in me went back to the post later to see what people had given as their first use or exposure. And I counted up the figures: 39 people replied with a number that is statistically useful. So I thought, why not run the numbers and see what happens?
Results
So I ran the numbers. The data
totalled 39 participants, total number 375, divided by 39, which
leads to 9.6 as the average age of first exposure
to pornography.
Limits
I would be amiss to not discuss the limits of such statistical analysis.
The first limit is that of self-reported surveys. It's possible that people are remembering wrong, or indeed could have blanked out earlier traumatic exposure to pornography. So we cann't be 100% sure they are remembering perfectly.
Second, it's the internet. While it's highly unlikely that people's replies were tampered with, it's still not 100% certain that didn't happen.
Third, it was not an official scientific survey, so people could have potentially misunderstood the instructions.
Fourth, there is no directionality or
causation implied here. Further studies would need to
differentiate between accidental exposures, intentional
exposures, and exposures as the result of child hood sexual
abuse.
Discussion
There is a growing concern about the
potential effects of exposure to pornography under the age of
18. Psychology is still studying the potential effects and
correlations between early exposure to pornography and the
results. This study exists to explain to parents why they
should monitor their devices to ensure their kids are not being
exposed to any inappropriate material.