Porn and Young People

Porn has never been more available than it is now. Young people can access porn on their phones, in magazines, on the internet and on the TV. Young people either watch porn willingly to explore and learn about sex and sexuality (rightly or wrongly), or are curious occasional consumers, or are exposed to it without their consent. Porn and sexually explicit media can range from page 3 or music videos to BDSM pornography. Most young people now also have the means to make their own porn or sexually explicit materials.

Often the harms of porn are overstated and often we under-estimate how much young people do actually know and understand. There is little reliable evidence to demonstrate that sexually explicit materials can be harmful to young people. However many practitioners have concerns about young people watching or being exposed to this kind of material and rightly feel that they should tackle it as part of a sex and relationships programme.

For practitioners keen to help young people to navigate the difference between Planet Porn and Planet Earth, Bish has a number of resources and services. There are the free resources at bishuk.com/porn featuring videos, articles and cartoons about porn, sexting, body image, the law and ethics.  Also I also have the Educational Guide to Porn which is the only leaflet available in the UK for young people about porn.

There is also the resource pack Planet Porn which is a comprehensive teaching/training resource pack for educators. A free pdf sample of this is available here The whole training pack costs just £10.50 for an instant download (which includes a pdf and powerpoint version of the pack, for flexibility).

Additionally there is the Bish training course about porn for practitioners. This is a fun and practical course where participants learn skills and knowledge whilst exploring their own values and attitudes. It’s a fun but powerful course. The final exercise in the course invites people to create their own porn scripts which demonstrate equality, promote diversity and safer and wanted sex. Pictures of this from my latest course (with the consent of the participants) are below.

For details of the Working With Young People Around Porn training course click here to book a course or for any other information email justin@bishtraining.com (courses booked and invoiced before the financial year can be delivered after April).