Director knows what to do

Pornography on the internet: how to explain it to your child

On average, children come into contact with explicit content online at the age of twelve.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/khosrork, Akhilesh Sharma – stock.adobe.com)

It's almost everywhere on the internet and allegedly the subject of one in four search queries: pornography. As a result, even children are coming into contact with explicit content more frequently and at an increasingly early age, posing a major challenge for parents: "How do I explain what I've seen to my child?" Porn director Erika Lust knows what to do.

According to a survey conducted by the Universities of Hohenheim and Münster in 2017, the first contact with sexually explicit material takes place at around 14 years of age. According to the Austrian initiative Saferinternet.at, it can even be assumed that boys as young as twelve have already actively searched for and watched a porn film at least once.

Educate at an early age
According to saferinternet.at, the problem is that porn usually depicts exaggerated sexual fantasies of adults, which can impair and unsettle children and young people in their sexual development. What is seen is often interpreted as normal sexual behavior, resulting in "insecurities in the perception of one's own body and sexual desires, confusion about the process of sexual initiation, sexual pressure to perform, misinformation".

According to the advice center, it is therefore "very important" to "not sweep the topic under the carpet". The earlier pornographic content is discussed with children, the better they can deal with it. But how should parents approach the topic? The model of bees and flowers seems to be outdated.