Is Porn Just a Part of Sexual Development?

In today’s episode of Digital Parenting Live, we look at whether porn is really something parents should be concerned with or if it is just a normal part of sexual development.

Transcript

Hey guys, and welcome to Digital Parenting Live for Thursday, June 21st. Now, this is our last episode of Digital Parenting Live because we are making a transition to the Digital Parenting Podcast. We’ll talk about that more in just a bit. First, we want to take a question from a viewer just like we always do on Digital Parenting Live, so let’s take a look. Is porn really that damaging to kids or is this just a normal part of them learning to express themselves sexually? Now this particular question came from a live event with a question that a parent had, and I think this is a great question because let’s face it, the reality is all of us know that our kids, whether they’re at our home, at other places, they’re constantly surrounded by devices that can allow them to very easily connect to pornography, which is a big change from when a lot of us grew up. Because of that, we need to know that if it’s prevalent and it’s something that we know, based on data, that our teens are being exposed to and our kids are being exposed to, should we take it seriously?

I think there’s two general camps people fall into. There’s kind of the laissez-faire approach where people, again, just see it kind of like this question takes about, as just something that’s a normal part of development. Then there’s the other camp that actually looks at a lot of the data that’s coming back and saying no, this can have significant impacts on future relationships. Because of that, we want to take this seriously. I certainly fall in the camp that believes that this is a danger that parents need to be hyper-vigilant about. If you discover that your kid, irrespective of their age, has been viewing pornography, it’s something that you need to take action on. In addition to that, it’s something that because you know it can affect them long term, because you don’t want them to develop something that could be an addiction that’s going to negatively affect their marriage down the road, this is something that needs to have a lot of care and attention focused on it. One of the things that we talk about at our live event is we look at a lot of the studies that go through and actually show that there’s a negative correlation between relationship quality and pornography viewing.

The more that you view pornography, the less quality of your relationships long term. That’s actually one of the reasons that I even got into doing this and focusing on digital parenting, was I looked around and saw that now there’s an entire generation coming up that’s going to have difficulty in building solid relationships because of some of the ways that technology can hamper communication and some of the ways that technology can ultimately negatively affect how couples are able to relate sexually. Because of that, I believe this is an important issue for all parents, and you shouldn’t take the laissez-faire attitude. You should be able to jump in and say, “This is something. I believe it’s important. I care about my kids and their ability to form healthy relationships long term.” Thanks for the question.

Next, let’s just go ahead and talk about what’s going to be happening next for DigitalParenting.com. As mentioned, the Digital Parenting Podcast is going to be launching on Monday, July 9th. Now, the great thing is the podcast has already been released out to places like Apple Podcast, the Google Play Store, TuneIn, Stitcher, so many others. Most anywhere you go to consume podcasts, you’ll be able to find us. Just go search for Digital Parenting Podcast, and you’ll be able to find us. Go ahead and subscribe so that you are ready when we launch on July 9th. We’ve already been here in the studio cutting some bits of the first few episodes, and so I’m excited that we’re going to be able to share that with you just a few weeks away on Monday, July 9th.

I also want to remind you, if you are not yet subscribed to our email list, you can go to DigitalParenting.com and we’re going to send you a weekly update each week. Again, only one email per week. We’ll give you some news that you need to know, access to some free resources. We think that’s a great thing. We want to be sure all of you guys know about it and that you’re taking advantage of it. As always, feel free to connect with us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Again, we just want you to be connected to get as many of the resources that we have. Thank you for joining us today’s episode and the last episode of Digital Parenting Live as we transition to the podcast for Thursday, June 21st.