A recent study, “Sexual Media Exposure, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Violence Victimization in Adolescence,” published in Clinical Pediatrics (June 13, 2014) has revealed that children who are exposed to sexually explicit material are much more likely to become victims of sexual abuse than those children who were not exposed to the same material. According to the researchers: 47% of youth reported that many or almost all/all of at least one type of media they consumed (i.e., Web sites, music, games, and/or movies) depicted sexual situations, compared to 45% who said that some did, and 8% who said almost none/none of all of the media that they consumed did. Most startling: “The relative odds of coerced sex victimization were 6 times higher for youth who reported that some of at least one media they consumed and 7 times higher for youth who reported that many or almost all/all of at least one media they consumed depicted sexual situations, compared to youth who reported that almost none/none of the media they consumed depicted sexual situations among otherwise similar youth.”
Link to original report: