Education

Education needed to reduce impact of pornography on youth

&NewLine;<p>Over two thirds of 14 to 17 year olds have been exposed to porn&comma; and the <br>Sexual Abuse Prevention Network wants schools to tackle the issue&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Office of Film and Literature Classification’s survey of over 2000 New Zealand teens aged 14-17 year olds for the major research project <em>NZ Youth and Porn&colon; Research findings of a survey on how and why young New Zealanders view online pornography<&sol;em> revealed that over two thirds of 14 to 17 year olds have been exposed to porn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Sexual Abuse Prevention Network General Manager Fiona McNamara says &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;While the data presented is concerning&comma; we can reduce the impact of pornography on young people and society more broadly by refocusing how we have conversations around consent&comma; healthy relationships and positive intimate relationships with our young people&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The response that is needed is to ensure that comprehensive sexuality education is available to all young people in Aotearoa&period;”<&sol;p><cite><br>Fiona McNamara <&sol;cite><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Alongside education for young people&comma; there needs to be education for adults who have young people in their lives – this includes parents&comma; teachers and community workers&period; Adults need to be equipped with the skills to talk to young people about pornography and how to view it critically&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The research shows that young people think pornography is too easy to access and that it is influencing their sexual behaviour in harmful ways&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>McNamara says &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Young people themselves have said they need better education to support critical thinking around sex and sexuality rather than allowing pornography to be their main source of sexuality education&period; It is imperative that this need is met&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There need to be alternative positive narratives about sex and sexuality that are even more available to young people than pornography&period; Young people need to learn about consent&comma; healthy relationships and positive intimate relationships so that there are clear better alternatives to the false constructed narratives in pornography&period;”<&sol;p><cite><br>Fiona McNamara <&sol;cite><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><br><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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