Nearly four out of ten 13-14 year olds receive advertisements for online pornography, according to the Norwegian Media Authority's Children and Media 2022 survey. Many people say they received the advertisement through Google and TikTok.
– We expect global platforms to take more stringent measures to stop pornographic advertising aimed at children, which is also illegal in most cases under Norwegian law, says Mari Velsand, director of the Norwegian Media Authority.
Pornography ads are most commonly obtained through illegal sites that download or stream movies, music, and computer games. Four out of ten of the 13-18 year olds who received pornographic advertisements received them from such channels.
– Children and young people should avoid receiving pornographic advertisements, which in most cases are also against the Marketing Act. We think such marketing is unfortunate because it can make many people get their first impression of sexuality through porn. We expect global platforms to take action to protect children from such advertising,” says Velsand.
Half of young people watch pornography online
According to the Norwegian Media Authority's Children and Media 2022 survey, half of 13-18 year olds say they have seen pornography online. This is roughly the same as two years ago. More than half of the 13-18 year olds who saw pornography online first saw porn before the age of 13.
In the report "Distorted view of what sex is like" by Redd Barna in 2020, many young people fear that watching a lot of pornography before having sex for the first time can create false expectations and pressure about what sex should be like. Several boys admitted that they were surprised that reality often did not match what they saw in porn.
"If young people learn more about what pornography is, for example through teaching in school, it's easier for them to have a more realistic and healthy attitude towards sex," says Velsand.
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Source: Norwegian Media Authority
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