How are you preparing your teenager to live in a society where pornography is so available? This week we spoke to Dr Michael Fllod from the University of Wollongong who told us the results of his research on porn and children: younger children are distressed by it, teenagers are liberalised by it and are more prone to sexism, and for adults there's a greater propensity for sexual violence.
The broader issue seems to be our young people’s access to sexualised images, and the impact it’s having on them. This week Mission Australia released a report, which found that the primary concern of young people aged between 11 and 24 is body image. Young people are more concerned about body image, than they are about family conflict, bullying, stress, drugs and alcohol.
Melinda Tankard Reist, from Women’s Forum Australia, has told News Limited that young girls are facing all sorts of pressure to look like women in porn films, whether it be through the clothes they wear, through to even considering having plastic surgery.
Do you talk to your teenager about issues relating to sex and the media? How do you even begin to discuss it? What’s worked – and what hasn’t worked?
