Last summer, the Barna Group, the conservative Christian research and polling organization, was commissioned by Josh McDowell Ministries, also conservative Christians, to research the observation and use of pornography in today’s highly sexualized culture. One result of the landmark study was the understanding that teens & adults under 25 were more open and accepting that folks viewed porn. Those same groups sought out and viewed porn more than any other generation interviewed in the surveys.
The study tried to differentiate between actively seeking out porn, as opposed to casually coming across porn during random surfing of the internet. To differentiate the two, Barna tried to assess the participants intention when viewing porn. Participants were asked if they were actively seeking out porn, as opposed to coming across porn in their daily use of the internet, without the intention of seeking out porn.
The research also pointed to a correlation to actively seeking porn and how often one casually came across porn. The higher the percentage participants reported actively seeking porn, the higher percentage that same group reported casually encountering porn without having sought it out.
When participants were asked to determine whether certain actions were moral or immoral on a 1 to 5 scale, teens and young adults viewed porn as less immoral, by at least 10%, than other generational cohorts over age 25. The results also correlated the ready acceptance of the use of porn by younger folks by their ease in casually and openly discussing porn with friends and acquaintances.
The Barna group sums up the research in a number of negative observations about which we should all be mindful. Perhaps the most alarming being that the introduction and active use of pornography at a young age, prior to actually being sexually active with others, bodes for trouble in young folks future interpersonal and sexual relationships.
You can read the entire article regarding the research at the Barna Group website.
The images are from the research article.