According to a recent study, the average age of a child first viewing pornography is eleven years old.
It goes without saying this is typically an online encounter, where the child is pursuing another interest or activity like gaming or homework. Suddenly, whether through a pop-up, misspelled URL, or a stealth site, the child sees images that can be emotionally confusing.
All at once the child may feel sexual arousal, mixed with fear, shame, disgust, comfort, and pleasure. They may feel something life-giving right alongside feelings that something is being taken. This was certainly the case for me when I was exposed to porn at four years old.
Years later, as a counselor, speaker, and author, I regularly hear stories from men and women about their first encounter with porn.
For the who came of age before the internet and online porn, it may have involved finding a Playboy magazine in a field, or behind a dumpster at the corner store. Some discovered a stash of “girly magazines” while babysitting or visiting a relative, while some grew up in homes where porn magazines and videos were in plain sight.
The internet has changed everything in terms of how porn is distributed and accessed. And though the stories vary concerning how a person first viewed porn, the idea of an unwanted, unsolicited encounter is more common than ever.
The difference, is that finding a Playboy in a field is a whole different experience than seeing three people having sex on your computer screen sitting in your living room. If magazines and videos of years past were like the Wright Brothers plane at Kitty Hawk, the online pornography of today is like a supersonic jet.
How old were you when you first viewed pornography? Can you relate to any of the above scenarios? How did being exposed to the images effect you?