The issue of teen access to online pornography is a complex and pressing concern that has prompted significant legal action over the last couple of years. More adolescents than ever are reportedly viewing sexually explicit content online, prompting lawmakers across the country to step in and enact age verification laws aimed at protecting young users. 

However, these measures have recently sparked controversy and faced legal challenges, raising questions about privacy, effectiveness, and the balance between safeguarding teens and respecting constitutional rights.

This article will explore the prevalence of teen online pornography use, the motivations behind it, and the ongoing legal battles, while also considering alternative strategies to address this critical issue.

How common is pornography use among teens?

Source: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/2022-teens-and-pornography-final-web.pdf

Disturbingly, about 58% of teens who reported they had viewed online porn said they hadn’t done so intentionally. 

While almost 1 in 3 teens said they were accidentally exposed to porn because a friend shared it with them, many were exposed by clicking on misleading links, encountering inappropriate content through search engine results, or stumbling upon explicit material on social media and online ads. 

Some of the ways teens reported accidentally viewing online porn include:

These incidents raise huge concerns about how to prevent accidental exposure and who holds the responsibility for protecting teens in the digital space.

What’s really motivating teens to use online pornography?

Studies have found that teens are motivated to use online pornography for a variety of reasons, including mood management, habit, and fantasy. 

The Family Medicine and Community Health study found that some teens seek pornography as a form of sensation-seeking, driven by impulsivity, and those with higher levels of sensation-seeking behavior may be at greater risk of developing problematic use. 

Additionally, that study found pornography can be a way for teens with attachment difficulties or emotional stress to find comfort, feel a sense of belonging, or manage feelings of loneliness, particularly during times of isolation like the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Other common factors influencing teen pornography use in the study included early puberty, minimal caregiver supervision, family conflict, and behavioral problems. 

Teens in the Common Sense Media survey acknowledged that they used pornography for a number of reasons, including to explore and better understand their own sexual preferences. 

Notably, about 45% of respondents reported that pornography provided helpful information about sex, although only about 27% said it “accurately shows the way most people have sex.” 

What are the effects of pornography on teens?

The vast majority of studies and surveys that have looked at the effects of online pornography on teens point out the negative impacts, some of which we’ll outline below.

This seems to suggest that a significant number of teens may be struggling with controlling their consumption of online pornography.

Sexual aggression and violence

Another major concern with teen pornography use is that it can lead to sexual violence. 

One 2010 study published in the journal Aggressive Behavior that surveyed 1,588 adolescents aged 10 to 15 over a 3-year period found that intentional exposure to violent pornography dramatically increased the likelihood of sexually aggressive behavior nearly sixfold. 

In contrast, exposure to nonviolent pornography did not show a statistically significant correlation with such behaviors.

Of course, there’s really no way of knowing whether teens who are already sexually aggressive are more likely to seek out violent pornography or if violent pornography leads to sexual aggression in teens who otherwise wouldn’t have exhibited such behavior. 

The problem is that a significant amount of online porn is violent, and even teens who don’t intentionally seek out violent pornography are still exposed to it. 

In fact, the Common Sense Media survey found that the majority of teens who had viewed online porn said they had viewed aggressive or violent content, with about 52% saying they had viewed pornography in which someone was being raped or otherwise in pain.

Other negative impacts

In addition to increased sexual aggression, a 2023 study published in the general psychiatry journal L’Encéphale highlights several other negative impacts of pornography consumption on teens. They include:

• Poor academic performance
• Increased emotional and behavioral issues 
• Unrealistic and harmful attitudes about sex and sexuality
• Higher likelihood of sexual preoccupation and engagement in risky sexual behaviors
• Reduced contraception use

With that being said, other research suggests that pornography can have some potential positive effects on adolescent sexual development, mainly by helping teens gain knowledge about sexual acts, build sexual confidence, and explore their sexual identity and orientation. 

However, because it’s difficult to argue that the potential benefits outweigh the potential risk of harm, lawmakers across the U.S. have stepped in to restrict teen access to online porn and hold websites accountable if they permit children under 18 to view sexually explicit content.

Steps being taken to limit teen pornography use

To help prevent teens from being exposed to online pornography, many states have recently passed age verification laws, requiring websites with sexually explicit material to verify a user’s age before allowing them to view the content.

Source: https://action.freespeechcoalition.com/age-verification-resources/state-avs-laws/

What are the age verification rules under Louisiana law?

Under Louisiana Act 440, websites that fail to verify users’ ages through “reasonable age verification methods” can face civil penalties of as much as $5,000 a day.

Acceptable methods of age verification include:

1. A government-issued ID card
2. A commercial age verification system that uses data from public or private records, like credit card or mortgage information or other transaction history, to prove a user is over 18

After it was enacted, the Louisiana age verification law faced legal challenges related to constitutional rights. One concern was that it could prevent adults without a Louisiana ID, such as college students, tourists, or workers from outside the state, from accessing pornographic websites while in Louisiana. 

While the U.S. Supreme Court has previously struck down laws that limit access to pornography, considering it protected speech under the First Amendment, a challenge to the Louisiana law was dismissed by a federal judge in October 2023.

Since then, lawsuits have been filed against similar laws in other states, most notably Texas, where an appeal to that law is set to be heard in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2024.

What is the Texas House Bill 1181?

Challenges to the Texas age verification law

The Free Speech Coalition and several companies that operate pornography websites are challenging Texas’s law, arguing that it violates their First Amendment rights. In August 2023, a federal district court agreed, blocking the law just one day before it was set to take effect on September 1, 2023. 

The court found the age-verification requirements to be overly broad, restricting adults’ access to constitutionally protected speech. Senior U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra emphasized that while the state’s goal of protecting children from explicit material is important, it must be pursued in a way that aligns with established First Amendment principles, writing in his ruling,

“The Court agrees that the state has a legitimate goal in protecting children from sexually explicit material online. But that goal, however crucial, does not negate this Court’s burden to ensure that the laws passed in its pursuit comport with established First Amendment doctrine. There are viable and constitutional means to achieve Texas’s goal, and nothing in this order prevents the state from pursuing those means.”

The court also raised concerns that the law did not adequately protect user data, potentially leading to a chilling effect on free speech, writing,

“The State does not address the district court’s concerns that government entities and third-party intermediaries are not required to delete users’ data. H.B. 1181 prohibits commercial entities and third parties performing age verification from retaining identifying information, but the bill imposes no burden on governmental entities nor ‘any intermediary between the commercial websites and the third-party verifiers’ to do the same. Simply claiming that the ‘age verification preserves online anonymity’ does not make it so.”

As a result, the court issued a preliminary injunction, preventing the law’s enforcement.

Texas then appealed the federal district court’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In March 2024, a 3-judge panel partially overturned the original injunction, ruling that the age verification requirements of the Texas law are constitutional. 

The court determined that the age verification requirements were “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in preventing minors’ access to pornography” and, therefore, did not violate the First Amendment. 

However, the court upheld the injunction against another part of the law that required pornography websites to display a health warning on their landing pages and advertisements, agreeing with the lower court that this provision unconstitutionally compelled speech.

The Free Speech Coalition and adult websites immediately requested emergency relief from the Supreme Court, arguing that the 5th Circuit’s ruling contradicted previous Supreme Court precedents and conflicted with decisions from other appeals courts reviewing similar laws.

In a press release, Alison Boden, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, said, “Despite proponent’s claims, age-verification online is simply not the same as flashing an ID at a check-out counter. The process is invasive and burdensome, with significant privacy risks for adult consumers.”  

She added, “Adult sites are the canary in the coal mine of free speech, and we look forward to defending the rights of all Americans to access the Internet free from surveillance.”

On July 2, 2024, the Supreme Court agreed to review the case, with arguments scheduled to begin in October.

What’s behind the pushback for requiring age verification for online pornography?

The pushback for age verification on pornography websites largely stems from concerns about privacy, safety, and overall effectiveness.

The idea of having a digital record of who has accessed certain types of content also raises concerns about potential government surveillance and the chilling effect it could have on free speech. Users may hesitate to access legal content due to fears about their privacy being compromised.

Additionally, there is concern about the potential for these systems to overreach, inadvertently capturing and storing more data than necessary or even tracking users’ online behavior beyond what is required for age verification. 

This kind of data collection could lead to a broader erosion of privacy rights, as it normalizes invasive practices under the guise of protecting minors, which, while important, should not come at the cost of individual privacy and freedom.

Safety concerns

Another significant concern with age verification requirements is that they may inadvertently push users toward illegal or less safe websites. While the new laws have prompted mainstream platforms like Pornhub to implement strict age verification protocols, some users may simply seek out alternative sites that don’t enforce such measures. 

As Pornhub noted after the Louisiana age restriction law was passed, “Consequently, traffic to Pornhub dropped by approximately 80% in Louisiana, but we know that people didn’t stop consuming porn overnight because of this new law. They just very easily moved to pirate, illegal, or other non-compliant sites that don’t ask visitors to verify their age.”

This shift is problematic because these unregulated sites often lack the safeguards that more reputable platforms have in place. For instance, in January 2024, Pornhub implemented a policy requiring consent forms for everyone appearing in videos uploaded to the site. 

It says the measure has significantly reduced the presence of illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material and recordings of sexual assault. Pornhub argues that illegal and non-compliant sites are less likely to enforce such stringent policies, potentially exposing users to harmful content and increasing the risk of exploitation.

By driving traffic to these less secure platforms, age verification laws may inadvertently create a more dangerous online environment, especially for young and vulnerable users.

Efficacy concerns

Another key concern with age verification for online pornography is its overall effectiveness, particularly when it comes to preventing teens from accessing adult content. Despite the implementation of various verification methods, such as government IDs, public records, or facial recognition technology, these systems are not foolproof and often have significant loopholes.

For example, using government-issued IDs for age verification may seem robust, but teens can sometimes circumvent this by borrowing or stealing IDs from older siblings, friends, or even parents. Public records, such as school or financial data, are also not entirely secure, as they can be accessed or manipulated, especially by tech-savvy teens. 

Additionally, facial recognition technology, while increasingly sophisticated, is not perfect and can be tricked or may fail to accurately assess the age of younger users, especially if they appear older than they are.

These loopholes highlight the reality that age verification systems, while well-intentioned, may not effectively keep teens from accessing pornography. Instead, determined teens can often find ways around these barriers, either through exploiting weaknesses in the system or by turning to illegal or unregulated sites that do not enforce such restrictions.

Without addressing the inherent flaws in current age verification methods, these laws may end up providing a false sense of security and ultimately failing to achieve their intended purpose, all while jeopardizing legal users’ privacy and safety.

Privacy concern or profit?

The question of whether pornography websites, like Pornhub, prioritize privacy concerns or profit when they resist age-verification laws is complex but revealing. 

On one hand, these companies might argue that they’re protecting user privacy by avoiding the collection of sensitive personal information, such as government-issued IDs, which could be at risk of data breaches or misuse.

However, is profit a more pressing concern?

Strict age-verification measures could significantly reduce the number of users accessing these sites, particularly younger audiences who may not have the means to verify their age. Pornhub itself confirmed this when it noted traffic on its Louisiana site dropped by about 80% after the passage of the age restriction law in the state. 

This reduction in traffic will directly impact advertising revenue and overall profitability on pornography websites. Additionally, the ease of access to pornography has been a key factor in the industry’s growth, so tightening access controls could disrupt this model.

While privacy concerns are a factor, could the resistance to age-verification laws be more heavily influenced by the potential impact on profit margins?

Alternate strategies for limiting teen access to online pornography

Perhaps one of the most underutilized tools for preventing teens from accessing online pornography is parental control. 

In its study, Common Sense Media found that only about 32% of teens reported having content filters or parental controls in place at home, and another 15% indicated that these controls had been used previously but were no longer active. 

Interestingly, the use of these controls decreases with age: 42% of teens aged 13 to 14 reported that parental controls were currently in use, compared to just 24% of teens aged 15 to 17.

These statistics highlight a strong need for parents to create a safe and non-judgmental space where teens feel comfortable discussing their concerns and questions. Engaging in open discussions can undoubtedly help shape healthier behaviors and beliefs, providing guidance that technology alone simply cannot offer.

In addition to parental controls and open communication, other alternative strategies could include:

By implementing these alternative strategies, parents, educators, and communities can work to create a more comprehensive approach that protects teens from the potential harms of online pornography while also safeguarding the rights and privacy of others.

Final thoughts

The widespread consumption of pornography among youth, with 75% of boys and 70% of girls reporting exposure, is a deeply concerning issue for parents and society at large. The developing brains of young individuals are particularly vulnerable to the potentially harmful effects of pornography, which can distort their perceptions of relationships, sexuality, and self-worth. 

The ease with which an average 12-year-old can access explicit content, the normalization of pornography, and the aggressive targeting of young minds by the industry are deeply disturbing.

Protecting our children and instilling values that encourage critical thinking and self-respect are crucial. Age verification laws are a necessary first step, but they’re far from sufficient. Regulation tends to be reactive rather than proactive, often coming into play only after problems have become widespread and deeply entrenched. 

As a society, we must ask ourselves: Where do we go from here?

A strong family unit provides the guidance and support that children need to navigate the complex world they’re growing up in. Parents must be empowered to educate their children about the realities and risks of pornography, fostering open communication and mutual trust. Schools, communities, and governments also have roles to play in creating environments where children can grow up with healthy attitudes toward sexuality and relationships.

Ultimately, protecting our youth from the dangers of pornography requires a concerted effort from all sectors of society. This is about more than just enforcing the laws. It is about cultivating a culture that values respect, dignity, and the well-being of the next generation.