Foundational Concepts - Understanding the Impact of Porn Culture on Youth

Series Overview and Purpose

The Blank Children's STAR Center seeks to improve outcomes for child victims of abuse by providing educational opportunities for members of our professional community at no cost to attendees. The purpose of the Workshop Series is to impact the systemic coordination of services for children and families through increased professional knowledge and skills surrounding developmentally appropriate, child-focused interventions.

Intended Audience

The Workshop Series is intended for professionals involved in the child protection field including: Department of Human Services professionals, law enforcement, attorneys, victim advocates, medical and mental health providers, family service professionals, nurses, school-based professionals, and foster parents.

Morning session 8:30 AM-12:00 PM

Session Description: Foundational Concepts - Understanding the Impact of Porn Culture on Youth

*This session consists of the following two presentations: *

Growing Up in a Porn Culture & Harms to Youth Description:

Prior to 2000, most young people, especially boys, would first encounter pornographic images in magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse. Their access to these (mainly) soft-core images was limited, so it was not a pivotal issue in terms of the sexual health and development of young people, and pornography did not serve as the primary source of sex education. Since 2000, the internet has become the main vehicle for porn, and hardcore porn is just a click away—it is free, violent, and based on the degradation and abuse of women and children. The proliferation of the smartphone, together with the growth of teen-targeted social media sites, has opened up yet more avenues for teens to access hardcore porn. This presentation will explore the most popular social media platforms accessed by young people today, linking the social media and porn industries and the harmful effects of their exposure on young people. Today, online porn has become a primary source of sex education for young people around the world. Researchers from across disciplines, using a wide range of methodologies, have shown that viewing pornography is associated with:

● increased anxiety and depression

● poor academic performance

● risky and problematic sexual behaviors

● decreased capacity for empathy, connection, & healthy relationships

● lowered empathy for rape victims

● lowered likelihood of intervening in a sexual assault

● increase in committing domestic violence

● increased likelihood of engaging in sex at a younger age

● increased likelihood of contracting STDs.

Focusing on the public health approach, this presentation will highlight how Culture Reframed helps parents and professionals who work with young people to navigate this precarious terrain of hypersexualized social media and pornography. We will discuss our research-driven online courses and resources for parents and professionals, including our Porn-Critical Sex Education Curriculum. 

Objectives:  

·     Gain a nuanced and research-based understanding of the social, emotional, and cognitive impacts of hypersexualized pop culture and pornography on young people. 

·     Understand the ways the pornography industry targets youth via social media platforms.

·     Develop an awareness of the cultural impact of pornography, and how it impacts family and peer relationships. 

·     Debunk the most prevalent myths about kids and pornography. 

·    Understand the public health approach to the porn crisis as the basis for the development of CR’s courses and resources.  

·     Gain practical skills, tips, and strategies to address the harms of pornography. 

Social Media, Gaming, & Pornography Description:

In the last two decades, screen time has doubled for young people, with 10-14 year olds spending eight hours per day and older teens even more on screens. The question is not if they are using social media and gaming platforms, but when, and what are they seeing? This presentation will explore the most popular social media and gaming platforms accessed by young people today, with discussion of the hypersexualized images and pornography they are exposed to. I will link the massive social media, gaming, and porn industries through their explicit content, shared platforms, and common marketing tactics that serve as a fertile hunting ground for predators, exposing the harmful effects of their exposure to young people. Finally, I will highlight how Culture Reframed can assist parents and caregivers with free courses and resources to help them build resistance and resilience to hypersexualized social media and pornography. 

Objectives:  

·     Understand the ways the social media, gaming, and pornography industries target youth and serve as a hunting ground for predators. 

·    Gain a research-based understanding of the social, emotional, and cognitive harms of hypersexualized images and pornography on young people. 

·    Develop strategies for safe, gentle conversations to engage young people in talking about hypersexualized social media and pornography. 

CEUs (some CEUs are still pending):

This program is approved for 3.0 CEU hours for Special Populations by the Iowa Board of Certification.

This program is approved for 3.0 CLE hours by the Iowa Supreme Court Commission.

This program is approved for 3.0 hours of group foster parent training by DHHS.