Young adults find porn most helpful source to understand sex

New York

"The bad news is that young adults are misunderstanding what porn is there for. Most free, online pornography is there for entertainment and to make money for the creators," said study lead author Emily Rothman, a professor at Boston University.

"It isn't there to teach you what you are supposed to do when you are having sex," Rothman added.

For the study, published in the journal 'Archives of Sexual Behavior', the research team analysed responses from 357 young adults (18-24 years old) and 324 adolescents (14-17 years old) who said they have got helpful information about how to have sex.

Among 14-17-year-old adolescents, parents were the leading source of information, followed by friends. Only 8 per cent of the adolescents said porn was the most helpful source of information. However, among adolescents who had never had a helpful conversation with parents about sex, media (23.4 per cent) and sexual partners (12.8 per cent) were their primary sources of information.

Like their older peers, boys are also more likely than girls to report that porn is their most helpful source of information about how to have sex.

"The evidence suggests that young adults and in particular heterosexual men, undervalue talking to their partners about what is pleasurable -- too many of them may believe that it's possible to be 'good at sex' independent of any feedback from a particular sex partner, which is a belief they may be getting from pornography," said Rothman.

From a public health perspective, Rothman says it is worrisome that a sizable percentage of young adults consider porn a helpful source of information about how to have sex. "Comprehensive sex education that teaches what I think of as 'sexual social skills', or interpersonal communication about sex, is needed and important, and research that helps us determine how to teach young people how to have fulfilling, safer, consensual sex is crucial," the researcher said.