Exploring Italian adolescents’ perspectives on online pornography and perceived harms

Bibliographic Data

ID6443560
AuthorsC M Scarcelli (0000-0002-0384-6250, University of Padua, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume27
Issue5
Pages2513-2531
Publication date2025-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448251333730
OpenAlexW4411256245
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited55

The evolving technological and social landscape offers adolescents new avenues for engaging with digital content, particularly in the realm of intimate activities. Public discourse often oversimplifies the intricate relationship between adolescents and online pornography. The prevailing narrative tends to portray pornography as detrimental to health and well-being, relying on a limited exposure and effects model that fails to grasp its nuanced significance in young lives. Online pornography, easily accessible to young individuals, is criticised for potentially replacing informative sex education with representations of violent and risky relationships. Employing media and cultural studies tools, this research positions porn consumption within the broader context of new mediated intimacies. The study aims to unravel how young Italians (15- to 18-year-olds) perceive and interpret harms in relation to online pornography. Findings reveal that despite a critical perspective, many participants maintain stereotypical views on gender and age dynamics, reflecting broader societal discourses about effects and addiction

Internet privacy · Pornography · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology

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