a SciTechnol journal Research Article Rasmussen et al., J Genit Syst Disord 2017, 6:2 DOI: 10.4172/2325-9728.1000171 Journal of Genital System & Disorders All articles published in Journal of Genital System & Disorders are the property of SciTechnol, and is protected by copyright laws. Copyright © 2017, SciTechnol, All Rights Reserved. International Publisher of Science, Technology and Medicine Adolescents Show Sex-Speciic Preferences on Media when Pornography is a Major Source of Sexual Knowledge Anna Lund Rasmussen, Rebekka Oxenvad Svarrer and Finn Friis Lauszus* Abstract Aim: Reports are rare on sexual knowledge associated with consumption of pornography in adolescence. Methods: A questionnaire was presented to all pupils in 9 th grade in the municipality of Viborg without prior notice to teachers or pupils. We wanted to explore the knowledge on sexual matters with focus on pornography and what media was used. Pornography was divided according to ive media subcategories. Knowledge on sexually transmitted infection (STI), pregnancy and abortion and their associations with pornography were explored. Results: Pornography was reported as the second largest source of knowledge on sex (61%) only surpassed marginally by closest of friends as source (63%). Girls reported more use of pornographic written media as source of knowledge than boys (p=0.002). Sixty-eight percent (218 of 320) of the girls reported having their knowledge on sex from magazines without explicit photographs; thus, these magazines constituted a major source for adolescent girls. Girls knew the gestational age of legal abortion in Denmark and had their knowledge from non-explicit magazines while this was not the case for boys (p=0.004). Pupils who stated their knowledge on sex from these magazines knew the irst sign of pregnancy (menostasia), the correct facts of legal abortion, and STI. Conclusions: Pornography in different media is used in the vast majority of adolescents and its use is sex-speciic. Knowledge on STI, pregnancy, legal abortion was variably associated with the type of media. Keywords Media; Pornography; Adolescents; Sexually transmitted infections; Sex debut; Legal abortion *Corresponding author: Finn Lauszus, Associate Professor, Research Specialist Gynecology Department, Herning Hospital Gl, Landevej 61, DK- 7400 Herning, Denmark, Tel: +45 78 43 46 14, +45 28 49 56 40; Fax: +45 78 43 46 36; E-mail: inlau@rm.dk Received: February 06, 2017 Accepted: March 27, 2017 Published: April 03, 2017 Abbreviations: HIV: Human Immunodeiciency Virus; HPV: Human Papilloma Virus; STI: Sexually Transmitted Infection Introduction Sot-core pornography in printed and screen media is increasingly part of popular culture, readily found in fashion magazines, commercials, and music videos. he deinition is commercial still photography or ilm, which contain a pornographic or erotic component, but that is less sexually explicit and intensive than hardcore pornography, which shows sex in a very detailed, explicit way [1]. Whether pornography is an accepted part of young people’s daily lives is debatable but magazines that target adolescents in their early teenage years and with an explicit sexual content are a fairly recent phenomenon [2-7]. Health professionals have witnessed increased access to pornography and increasing explicit sexual contents in the media [3,4,6,7]. Several approaches have shown little, if any, long-term efectiveness at regulation of exposure to sexual content in media; the aim was to inluence attitude and behavior in adolescents or various demographic subgroups [4,5]. hese initiatives have a hint of moral panic and color the professionals’ perceptions of their efect. Obviously adults and their adolescents express concerns on media inluence very diferently: from concern of potential harm to experimental curiosity [7]. However, some use of pornography may be educational and merely entertainment [8,9]. In a review the evidence for correlations between pornography consumption and a range of social and health outcomes were inconclusive, with little replicability across studies [10]. Numerous reports on pornography are not media-speciic and lack in what lessons were learned from pornography [2-5,11]. One crucial point is that the link and timing of the behavior with pornography may be decades apart and may relect the result of multiple other inputs that may be via diferent media, educational institutions or human interaction. Others found a sex-speciic use of pornography for reasons of simple curiosity, sexual arousal or masturbation [12,13]. he contents of these media, however, are not the aim of this study, but rather the type of media and what may be the efect on knowledge of its use. Implications of gaining knowledge through pornography may lie in expectations about partners and each other’s behavior and whether anything is learned with regard to pregnancy or concerns of transmitting infections. he latter end- points are skewed towards that girls are expected to know more on that part of the sexual physiology. In our 2007 survey the pupils used the opportunity to comment on answers and helped us in attending the available resources in use [12]. he media have undoubtedly an efect on adolescent sexual attitude and behavior but little evidence-based public policy has been implemented [11,14]. Although television is subject to ongoing tracking of its sexual content, other media are not. So the data are rare on which media is sought out and who seek out particular issues; similarly, little is known on concomitant sexual knowledge associated with adolescent exposure to various media [14-17]. Studies on adults estimate that pornography is consumed by the majority of men, with only slightly lower rates for women [11,18]. We did not hypothesize that sex-speciic preferences existed on pornography as these may have cultural and social roots; instead, the diferentiation and focus were on which particular media was used. Our hypothesis was that use of pornography would be associated with knowledge on sexual issues and that boys watched screen-based pornography more than girls. he aim of our 2014 survey was to explore the knowledge on infections, fertility, hormonal cycle, pregnancy, contraception, and abortion. he descriptive study was expanded on the use of pornography and in which media. We were aware that