2023-09-29 05:25:00
The time has changed. Thirty years ago, families worried regarding what happened to their children outside the home. Nowadays fear is largely directed at what can happen to them insidewith unlimited access to the internet, alone, in their rooms and through their personal mobile phones. The Generation XXX campaign to protect children from the consequences of early access to pornographydriven the Dale Una Vuelta associationarises to warn regarding this problem and to try to remedy it.
The lack of digital protection of childhood
The Internet is like a great ocean, an unknown world where we can find great beauty, but also monstrous content. This is how minors experience their first access to pornography, as something horrible and monstrous. It should be taken into account that, in Spain, The first contact with this type of images is between 9 and 11 years old on average.. An age of innocence and naivety that is interrupted by the emotional shock that this abrupt and premature discovery produces at such an early age.
Other information: one in ten does it before the age of 8a stage in which they believe in the Tooth Fairy and which they complement with access to degrading explicit sexual content that implies brutal objectification. A devastating contrast. The result: emotions of fear, shame, bewilderment and guilt, mixed with excitement. A Molotov cocktail that can leave a mark for life.
The most recent research indicates that the age of first access might condition the development of a porn addiction in the future, and the earlier it is, the greater the risk. In fact, almost 4 out of 10 boys and 2 out of 10 girls are at risk of evolving into problematic porn use. An addiction characterized by the need for gratification, dependency, lack of control, tolerance and the negative impact on the emotional-sexual lives of the youngest. And the not so young ones.
Pornography is more accessible today than ever and there is no type of regulation | Source: Canva
A campaign for change
These alarming data are what have motivated the recent Generation XXX campaign. This is an initiative promoted by the association Give it a spin, a social project that has been raising awareness regarding the dangers of pornography addiction for eight years and training families and teachers to delve deeper into everything related to sexual education. It has recently been presented to the Spanish Office of the European Parliament and Its intention is to call on the high political officials of our country and Europe to demand immediate regulation of minors’ access to unlimited explicit sexual content.
In the year 2023, pornography is more accessible than ever, without any regulation. The news programs and the front pages of newspapers are filled with news related to a sexuality that is out of control, aggressive and violates people’s privacy. For this reason, Dale Una Vuelta asks that those minimum mechanisms to control and verify age of the people who access it.
Regulation is urgent and necessary, since More than 30% of teenagers accidentally access this type of content. They do not even look for them deliberately, they do not yet have that sexual awakening that motivates them to consume them. It’s the pornography industry that’s out to get them, whether they want it or not.
The consequences of overexposure
This repeated and frequent exposure has a direct impact on the emotional-sexual development of adolescentswhich manifests itself as explained below:
Unrealistic expectations and frustration in real sexual life. Deterioration of the self-esteem and body and sexual self-concept. Facilitation of aggressive and sexist models. Incorporation of gender stereotypes. Experience of sexuality without intimacy. Empathic disconnection.
Risky sexual behaviors. Impact on the quality of emotional-sexual relationships. Development of addiction and compulsive sexual behavior.
Also in studies carried out with adults who have been consuming pornography for years, it is observed neurobiological modifications. They highlight the alterations in the reward system, the frontal cortex and other brain areas that also appear altered in substance and behavioral addictions. In the youngest, these cognitive impairments can be translated into sleep problems, decreased academic performance, mood changes, and increased tendency to isolate.
A better future
With the hope of building regulated and controlled scenarios, this Generation XXX campaign. Through it, they have developed different actions, which we can find on their website. Furthermore, they have emphasized a fundamental aspect for the Dale Una Vuelta association regarding this matter: education and prevention. For this reason, they have also prepared a guide called The ABCs of Generation XXXcontaining resources and tools to offer families and educators. Among these contents, proposals such as:
Hopefully in a few years we will stop seeing newspaper covers full of news like the ones we see now. I hope we instill in the youngest a highly sensitive sexuality capable of taking care of the emotional needs of the other. A sexuality with emotional responsibility, with the search for a shared pleasure and with musical notes of reciprocity, equity and respect.
Alejandro Villena Moya
Psychologist and clinical sexologist
Clinical and research director of the association Give it a spin
Author of the book: Why not?
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