“Prohibiting access to minors is only half the answer to the problem”, pleads a child and adolescent psychologist

Half of boys aged 12-13 will consult a pornographic site at least once a month: this is what the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) reveals on Thursday May 25, 2023, which publishes a study conducted with Médiamétrie on the use of “adult” sites by minors. In concrete terms, 600,000 more minors visit an adult site compared to 2017.

>> Pornography: under-18s spend an average of 49 minutes per month on X-rated sites

Among the major lessons of this study, Arcom also reveals that more than half of boys (51%) go each month to sites for adults from the age of 12. At the same age, a third of girls (31%) visit them.

“When I spoke with girls, I only spoke with my sexual urges”

This gap between boys and girls increases with age. This is confirmed by these young Parisians: “It was around 10-11-12 years old for the first time, with a mobile phone…, they slip a little embarrassed. “Despite the ‘Are you over 18?’ button, it can still be accessed. It’s a bit young, there are some dirty videos“, admits one of them, when another specifies:”It doesn’t really show what sex is. They’re actors, it’s not really lover”.

In terms of time spent on X-rated sites, people under 18 spend an average of 49 minutes per month on pornographic sites, and 7 minutes daily. From the age of 12, boys devote almost an hour per month to these sites (57 minutes), compared to 49 minutes for girls. “I felt like it was something bad. When I talked with girls, I only talked with my sexual urges“, confides a teenager. “Porn movies are not reality, this is not how you should behave with a girl! I am supervised, I have a big brother, my parents… And it’s not a taboo subject at all, we talk about it“says another.

The ban issue

Arcom recalls that it has given formal notice to ten of the most popular pornographic sites, including the Pornhub or XVideos platforms. The authority asks them to implement concrete measures to prevent minors from accessing their content.

A measure that actually only partially addresses the problem, according to Samuel Comblez, psychologist specializing in childhood and adolescence, director of operations for the e-Enfance association. “Denying access is half the answer to the problem. The second mission of adults is also to be able to inform minors about the questions that arise with regard to sexuality, to direct them to sources that are reliable, “he says.

“Minors do not have the psychic capacity to accept the violence of these images, the trauma they can cause.”

Samuel Comblez, director of operations of the E-Enfance association

at franceinfo

The specialist explains: “It’s true that digital tools have made this access a lot commonplace. But that doesn’t mean that going backwards isn’t possible. I would even say that it’s absolutely necessary because it creates, once again, a very biased representation of sexuality And pornographic sites must make their access more complex so that minors cannot consult them too easily.“

Among adults, 55% of men and 20% of women consult a pornographic site every month, with an average of nearly 1h54 per month and 16 minutes per day.