Influence of Pornography on Youth
Chapter One
Preamble of the Study
Modern living heavily relies on technology. Technology is the manifestation of humankind’s brilliance and ingenuity by applying the knowledge that was harvested from past experimentations, observations, and “eureka” moments that helped humanity to come to where they are today. Technology is beneficial because it helps humanity do things easily, effectively, and efficiently. Furthermore, technology brings possibilities to things that were once thought impossible such as flight, media, medicine, telecommunications and many more.
One of the mighty products of technology is computers and these includes smart phones and tablets. These technologies are responsible for bridging information towards the world because of its accessibility and an intuitive design that makes it easy to understand and use. In addition, personal computers, smart phones and tablets present digital media art to people such as videos, photos, and digital designs that were once inaccessible in a softcopy due to technological constraints.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter presents the literatures that are reviewed by the researchers that further the current undertaking. The information garnered will serve as guide for the researchers to understand the topic more by exploring the facts and data that are presented by past texts. In addition, this chapter also includes the comparison of this study to the said literatures that the researchers are reviewing, the framework that shows how this study will be completed, and the definitions of terms that are necessary in this current study.
Conceptual Literature
The following literatures that came from books, newspapers, published works and other sources served as guide for the researchers to better comprehend topic and develop a study that will describe a phenomenon in the society.
“Today, the Internet plays an important role in the lives of young people especially for pupils and students, who are still forming. Many studies show the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet in education. Capabilities of the Internet and its use in education is increasing daily. From its original base, which included military and research institutions spread to universities, primary and secondary schools. Internet is not a school in the usual sense, but it takes on a major part of the business, which has so far dealt regardless of age.” (Iskrenovic-Momcilovic, 2015).
Although the Internet has been a platform for distribution of information to vast viewers, some contents in it are unsuitable for some age groups. These contents includes pornography, violence, extremist behavior and many more (“Inappropriate Content,” 2017).
Pornography branches out into two: pornography production and pornography consumption. Pornography production refers to the creation of platforms that is specifically built for pornography consumption. On the other hand, pornography consumption refers to the use of the said platforms that have sexual content to prompt stimulation or even orgasm (Bradley, 2015).
The World Health Organization (2006) identified sexuality as: “… a central aspect of being human throughout life encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours, practices, roles and relationships. While sexuality can include all of these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed. Sexuality is influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, legal, historical, religious and spiritual factors.” The expression of sexuality is very vulnerable in the adolescent’s stage of an individual.
Adolescents’ sexuality begins with physical changes happening as they transition from childhood to adulthood. By this stage, adolescents’ minds begin to wander sexually with physical investigations are being done occasionally. Furthermore, this is also the stage where teenagers try to create warm relationships with partners (Tulloch and Kaufman, 2013).
Most teenagers are exposed to internet pornography and are consuming pornography. This may stem from the fact that they are in the stage wherein they experiment and start to learn about sexuality. However, pornography is not an educational tool about sexuality. “The organizing principle of pornographic communication [pornography production and pornography consumption] takes as its telos, its final and ultimate end that remains structural even if it isn’t realized (fully) in any particular act of consuming pornography, the arousal and ultimately the orgasm of the viewer. No producer of pornography would for a moment protest otherwise. Indeed, every ‘directorial’ decision made in the production of pornographic material aims precisely at the arrangement of any and all elements of the product so as to result in a stimulus that will arouse the viewer sexually. That and nothing else is the ‘point’ of pornography, which under this definition properly includes literature and other non-visual representational imagery meant to induce sexual arousal.” (Bradley, 2015).
Chapter THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research design, subjects of the study, research instrument, data gathering procedures and the data analysis method used to further the cause of the current undertaking.
Research Design
This section aims to present the type of research design used in the current undertaking. This is beneficial to the study because it enhances the study to create optimal results.
This research study, which aims to know the causes and effects of pornography addiction among teenagers of Yaba, Lagos state uses a qualitative-phenomenological research design. The researchers feel that this research design will give them the best results to explain everyday occurrences happening in the current society.
Qualitative methods are used to answer questions about experience, meaning and perspective, most often from the standpoint of the participant (Hammarberg, Kirkman, and de Lacey). Furthermore, qualitative research is used to comprehend real-life incidences with an individual or groups and cultures as accurately as possible; therefore, the research is done in their natural setting (McLeod, 2017). People’s perception about the world or phenomena, just like the topic of this current study, is a non-numeric data. It is easier and best that the researchers use a qualitative method because it allows them form explanations without the need for incorporating numbers to people’s perception, which is very hard in the first place.
There are many types of qualitative study but for this current undertaking, a phenomenological approach is used. Phenomenology is an approach to qualitative research that focuses on the commonality of a lived experience within a particular group (Chamber, 2013). The topic of the research, which is addiction towards pornography among teenagers, aligns with the purpose of the phenomenological approach, prompting it to be the most appropriate for the study.
Research Instrument
This part presents the instruments used by the researchers to gather data from the subjects in the current undertaking, the reasons for choosing the said instruments, and the processes it undergone before being used by the researchers.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
This chapter displays the presentation, analysis, and interpretation of the gathered data. This chapter also demonstrates how the data collected from the interview of the participants of the study helped to answer the research questions asked in this study.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
This qualitative study dealt with the causes, effects, and possible ways to avoid, decrease, and eventually eliminate pornography consumption among teenagers who study in Senior High School of Yaba.
Specifically, this study wanted to answer these following research questions
- Why do teenagers consume online pornography?
- What are the effects of online pornography consumption among teenagers?
- What are the possible ways to avoid, decrease, and eventually eliminate online pornography consumption?
Furthermore, this current undertaking used six (6) teenagers who are enrolled in Senior High School in Yaba and consumes online pornography frequently as participants of this study. The researchers used a semi-structured interview to collect the data that they needed and used thematic analysis as its data analysis method. This is used to uncover underlying themes to the different responses from the participants of the study.
Findings
After data collection, analysis and interpretation, the following results were revealed from the study:
- Based on the responses from the subjects of the study, the researchers found two reasons about the cause of pornography consumption of These are the following: (1) peer pressure and (2) pleasure provider. The introduction of pornography by peers along with curiosity are the subthemes in peer pressure. On the other hand, pornography as a form of entertainment, stress reliever, and a way to experience sexual pleasure are part of the theme of pleasure provider.
- The effects of pornography consumption to teenagers were categorized into three (3) broad themes. These are the following: (1) change of view to a certain gender, (2) increase in sexual drive, and (3) familiarization of their own sexuality. Under the change of view to a certain gender are the change of attitudes and standards of the participant towards the gender they find Conversely, the subtheme under increase in sexual drive is the sexual thoughts that the participants encounter. Lastly, the subtheme under familiarization of their own sexuality is the way pornography was used to discover their sexual orientation.
- The output of this study is to provide ways to avoid, decrease, and eventually, eliminate pornography Through the responses from the subjects of the study, the researchers formulated four (4) ways to further the said output of the study. These are as follows: (1) do more leisure activities that are not pornography related, (2) block pornographic sites from frequently used devices, (3) commit to a serious relationship, and (4) monitor and diminish bad peers.
Conclusions
Grounded with the findings of this study, the following conclusions were made:
- Pornography consumption among teenagers are present due to influences by peers and to the ability of pornography to induce
- The effects of pornography is wide range and some are even extremely negative such the changes in teen pornography consumers’ in terms of how they view gender that they find attractive, and the increase in sexual drive that may result to sexual Some effects are even perceived as positive just like the way porn introduces teenagers to their sexual orientation.
- To prevent teenagers to become pornography addict, they should try doing more leisure activities, blocking pornographic sites in their most frequently used devices, committing to a serious relationship, and eliminate bad peers
Recommendations
Established from the conclusions of this study, the following recommendations were provided:
- The study revealed that the cause of pornography consumption are somewhat related to unsupervised teenagers in terms of their peers to bond with and their use of devices thus, the researchers suggest to supervise and communicate with
- Communication in terms of sexuality should not be perceived as immoral to talk about inside home, or The researchers suggest to the Department of Education to hasten the implementation of sexuality education to teach teenagers the right way to approach the sexual aspects of life.
The ways to avoid, decrease, and eventually eliminate pornography consumption are just suggestions of the researchers based on the answers from the participants of the study so, the researchers recommend that further study is conducted in that aspect
Bibliography
- Beyens, I., Vandenbosch, L., & Eggermont, S. (2015). Early Adolescent Boys’ Exposure to Internet Pornography: Relationships to Pubertal Timing, Sensation Seeking, and Academic Performance(Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. doi:10.1177/0272431614548069
- Chowdhury, M., Chowdhury, M., Kabir, R., Perera, N., & Kader, M. (2018). Does the addiction in online pornography affect the behavioral pattern of undergrad private university students in Bangladesh? (Unpublished master’s thesis).
- Hassell, M. S. (2016). ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE
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- Maas, M.K. (2010). The Influence of Internet Pornography on College Students : An Empirical Analysis of Attitudes , Affect and Sexual Behavior by.
- Mardhatillah, A., & Kita dan Buah Hati, Y. (2017). Youth Pornography Exposure: Addiction Screening Test and Treatment Recommendation (Master’s thesis, Mercubuana University) (pp. 10-14). International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications.
