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5
Children, Media, and Exposure
to Sexually Explicit Material
5.1 CHILDREN AND HOW THEY USE MEDIA
The term "minors" spans an enormous developmental range. Spe-
cialists in child development distinguish between infancy, early child-
hood, childhood, preadolescence, early adolescence, and late adolescence.
Table 5.1 summarizes some important characteristics of different age
ranges.
As a general rule, young children do not have the cognitive skills
needed to navigate the Internet independently. Knowledge of search
strategies is limited if not nonexistent, and typing skills are undeveloped.
These factors tend to limit young children's potential exposure to sexu-
ally explicit material on the Internet until about age 10, the transition from
childhood to the preadolescent years.
The years between preadolescence and late adolescence can be tur-
bulent times in which youth struggle to develop their own identities.
They are eager to be heard, seen, and taken seriously but often lack the
experience and maturity to make responsible choices consistently. They
test boundaries in developing their emerging adult personalities, and
they take risks that adults would deem unwise. They are often socially
uncertain, and they value peer approval highly. And, in pre- and early
adolescence, hormonal changes generally stimulate their interest in
sexual matters. Because of the intensely personal nature of such matters
(both sexual and social), the "at-a-distance" nature of Internet commu-
nication and the anonymity with which one can seek out a great variety
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YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
TABLE 5.1 Some Important Dimensions of Child Development
Age
Characteristics
Infancy (0-2) · Preverbal and early language skills emerging
· Lacks framework for assimilating and understanding sexual
concepts
· Information needs can generally be met by primary care
givers and others in child's immediate environment
Early Childhood · Finds it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality;
(3-5) is more easily frightened by "scary things"
· Continues to lack cognitive framework for assimilating and
understanding sexual concepts, though sexual behavior
such as masturbation may occur
· Information needs can generally be met by those in child's
environment and easily accessible resources such as
children's books
· Begins to have empathy for others
Childhood (6-9) · Increasing ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality
· Typing and writing skills emerging, but poor at younger
ages (e.g., misspellings common)
· Decision-making skills on the Internet (as in many areas of
life) not well developed
.
Some emerging information needs require reference books
and other materials to support research
Preadolescence · Much better ability to distinguish between fantasy and
(10-12) reality
· Better able to use inferential reasoning skills
· Decision-making skills developing in more abstract way
(A 1 (A J
due to metamemory skills (knowing about knowing,
knowing how to know, i.e., strategy)
· Typing and spelling skills still problematic
· Sexual development beginning for many or at least for their
peers; sexuality becoming more interesting; likely a
sensitive period for exposure to sexual content
· Information needs expanding and increasingly require
materials that are not in the immediate physical
environment
Early adolescence · Abstract cognitive skills in place that are the same ones that
(13-15) adults have, though skill set not fully developed
· Decision-making skills and reasoning skills better
developed than in preadolescence, but often impulsive;
faith in own decision-making skills (especially in the face of
parental positions) may well exceed actual skill
· Age of puberty, growing awareness of sexual development
and highly curious about his or her own sexuality; some
become sexually active with intercourse; most will have
some kind of sexual experience (e.g., kissing)
· Information needs are broader and relate to the world at
large, and the availability of some external sources is
important
(continues)
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CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 117
TABLE 5.1 continued
Age
Characteristics
Late adolescence
(16-18)
Highly aware personally of sexual issues and may well be
sexually active (80 percent have intercourse by age 20; the
mean age of first intercourse is approximately 17 I/: years
today)
· Decision-making skills and reasoning ability improved over
early adolescence
· Physically and cognitively mature
· Legal rights approaching those of adults, though rights may
vary by state
· Historically, many were married and having children at this
age
Information needs extensive in scope and depth and
commonly require access to a wide range of resources
beyond the individuals in their immediate environment
.
of information on the Internet are highly appealing to very social but
also sensitive individuals.
Note also that adolescence is a cultural invention in earlier times,
people aged 13 and 14 were regarded as small adults. Children and
teenagers had jobs. Many older minors (minors by today's standards)
were getting married, having sex, and raising their families. Put another
way, these older minors had the rights and the responsibilities of adult-
hood. Also, there is some debate in the scientific literature about how
rebellious adolescents are. For example, even in later adolescence, youth
often agree with their parents on very important decisions such as where
to go to college. The storm-and-stress view of adolescents is tied to par-
ticular theoretical views, namely Erikson's psychoanalytic theory, but not
so much to social learning theory, which argues for more continuity in
development.
American youth from preadolescence to late adolescence are also in-
tense consumers of various media. As do other individuals, youth use
media including the Internet for a variety of purposes, for example,
news, education, entertainment, information, stimulation, relief from
boredom, and emotional arousal. Media use is heavy among adolescents,
with television, music, teen magazines, and movies as well as the Internet
and video games being important elements.
Television use tends to peak at about age 12 and decreases during
middle and late adolescence, and use of other media music, music vid-
eos, magazines, and the Internet increases during this period. Further,
there are some gender differences and differences of socioeconomic status
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118
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
(SES). Adolescent girls read teen magazines and watch soap operas more
than boys do, while boys play video games and watch television more
than girls do. Lower SES tends to correlate with more watching of enter-
tainment television, and African Americans watch more television than
other Americans, even when SES is controlled for.2 Children and adoles-
cents also prefer watching programs with characters from their own eth-
mc group.
American adolescents use various forms of media primarily because
of their entertainment value. But media use also helps to socialize adoles-
cents into various adult roles and relationships, contributes to the forma-
tion of their individual identities as adolescents, provides assistance in
coping with their problems and emotional mood states, and helps to as-
similate them into various youth subcultures. For example, private, soli-
tary use of both music and television by adolescents is important in pro-
viding them an opportunity to deal with the stress and intense emotions
of this stage of development. Teen girls use their bedrooms to read maga-
zines, watch television, listen to music, do their homework, and talk on
the phone. For such girls, the bedroom is a place where they use media to
help them make sense of themselves and their lives. Preference for cer-
tain kinds of music and films helps to connect youth from across the
country and the world into a common youth subculture. In short, media
are part of the process by which adolescents acquire, or resist acquiring,
the behaviors and beliefs of the social world and the adult culture in
which they live.
Most children's media use including time on the computer and
online does not involve parental supervision. Many children have ra-
dios, CD players, a television, and even a computer in their rooms. As a
result, many parents are not in a position to monitor their children's
media activity, nor can they readily provide any feedback or support for
children's online activities.
The Kaiser Family Foundation's report Kids and Media at the New Mil-
lennium: A Comprehensive National Analysis of Children's Media Use (1999)
described the children's media landscape, identifying how much time
1A.C. Huston and J.C. Wright. 1997. "Mass Media and Children's Development." Pp.
999-1058 in Handbook of Child Psychology, 5th Ed., Vol. 4, W. Damon, I. Sigel, and K. Renniger,
eds. Wiley, New York.
2G. Comstock, 1991, Television and the American Child, Academic Press, Orlando, Fla.; J.
Condry, 1989, The Psychology of Television, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J.; and Huston and Wright,
1997, "Mass Media and Children's Development."
3J.E. Brand and B.S. Greenberg. 1994. "Minorities and the Mass Media: 1970's to 1990's."
Pp. 273-314 in Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, J. Bryant and D. Zillmann, eds.
Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J.
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CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 119
young people spend with media and what types of media draw their
attention. The average child spends about 5.5 hours daily using media,
including television, radio, CDs, or the computer. Young people often use
more than one type of media at the same time (e.g., listening to a CD
while surfing the Internet) which means that children do a lot of parallel
processing in their media use. Children aged 8 to 14 tend to spend more
hours using media than do teens aged 14 to 18. This is likely because of
the busier and more diverse schedules of older teens.4
Perhaps surprisingly, time using the computer in all venues averaged
only 31 minutes per day for children aged 8 to 18, with only a portion of
that time devoted to online and Internet activities. Television, by far, was
still the most commonly used form of media, and this age group had the
television on an average of 3.25 hours per day. In this study 62 percent of
children had a computer at home. Of families living in affluent communi-
ties in which the community income averaged above $40,000, 81 percent
had computers compared to 49 percent of families in communities with
an average income under $25,000. Schools seemed to mitigate some of
these differences, often providing access for children who did not have a
personal computer in their homes.5
Of the 31 minutes spent on the computer in recreation, children used
the computer primarily for games but did spend some time in chat rooms,
sending e-mail, and surfing Web sites. Of the group of children who
reported using the computer the previous day, games occupied the ma-
jority of their recreational time online. The 8- to 13-year-olds using a
computer in the previous day logged the longest average recreation times
on the computer (over 1 hour), spending 32 minutes playing games, 14
minutes looking at Web sites, 11 minutes in chat rooms, and 8 minutes
sending e-mails.6 Note also that time spent online may increase in the
future as the result of two factors: a greater dependence on Web-based
information sources and more interaction with online electronic devices
(e.g., Nintendo games) that are not online today.
The amount of time children spend using computers and going online
is likely to increase as computer use continues to penetrate homes and
schools. For example, a 2002 survey by the National Telecommunications
and Information Administration found that 89.5 percent of all children
aged 5 to 17 use computers, and 58.5 percent of all those children use the
4Donald F. Roberts, Ulla G. Foehr, Victoria J. Rideout, and Mollyann srodie. 1999. Kids
and Media at the New Millennium: A Comprehensive National Analysis of Children's Media Use.
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif.
5Roberts et aL, 1999, Kids and Media at the New Millennium.
6Roberts et aL, 1999, Kids and Media at the New Millennium.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
explicit material
120
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
Internet.7 The report also found that Internet use is particularly high for
teens and preteens (75.6 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds and 65.4 percent of
10- to 13-year-olds, up from 51.2 and 39.2 percent, respectively, in 1998~.
Furthermore, computer usage (and possibly Internet usage as well) varies
by age: in one national survey, 26 percent of 2- to 7-year-olds reported
using a computer out of school the day before compared to 44 percent of
14- to 18-year-olds.8
According to a survey by Grunwald Associates, family decisions to
purchase computers and to obtain Internet access were based on parental
perceptions of their children's educational needs.9 While children and
youth are most likely to use the Internet for schoolwork, an important
(and large) percentage of their online time is spent for other purposes,
including e-mail, chat, and entertainment.l° A report by the Pew Internet
and American Life Project found that about half of regular Internet users
of any age (an estimated 52 million) use the Internet for information on
health issues such as diseases, clinical trials, treatment, and nutrition, as
well as for assistance in making health-related decisions.l1 According to
the Kaiser Family Foundation, about two out of three young people (aged
15-24) have used the Internet to search for health information, and 25
percent say they get "a lot" of health information online.l2 These data
suggest that the Internet is of great use to adolescents seeking health-
related information (including information related to sexual health).
5.2 SEXUALITY IN CULTURE
This report is concerned with the protection of children from inap-
propriate sexually explicit material on the Internet. But children share a
cultural space with adults, and so it is helpful to understand a contempo-
7National Telecommunications and Information Administration. 2002. A Nation Online:
How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet. U.S. Department of commerce,
Washington, D.C. Available online at
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 121
rary society in which sexual images and references are common. Media
images of sexuality abound, and the children of today are exposed to a
wide range of images through many media, including entertainment tele-
vision (especially sitcom and dramatic programming in prime-time broad-
casts, soap operas, music videos, and talk shows), magazines, advertis-
ing, film and movies, and news.~3
· In prime-time broadcast television, references to heterosexual in-
tercourse have increased and have become much more explicit in the last
20 years. The dominant messages of these references suggest that sexual
behavior typically takes place between two adults who are not married to
each other and that sexual intercourse does not have the consequences
with which intercourse may be associated in real life (e.g., pregnancy,
sexually transmitted diseases). Talk about sex is more common than the
depiction of sex, and sexual intercourse is often implied by context and
partial nudity rather than being portrayed explicitly (that is, with full
nudity) on the screen. Some programs on cable networks especially
programs carried late at night often push the envelope further.
· Movies (many of them it-rated, and usually available in theaters,
on pay-TV channels, and in video rentals) contain more frequent and
more explicit portrayals of sexual behavior than broadcast TV. As in TV,
the most frequent sexual activity shown is unmarried sexual intercourse.
Sex is often depicted in the context of profanity, alcohol and drug use, and
nudity. And sex is often mixed with violence in an attempt to seek further
commercial success.
· Newsstands routinely carry adult magazines whose imagery ranges
from that depicting simple frontal nudity to very graphic, sexually explicit
acts.
· Soap operas have a long history in broadcast entertainment. The
sexual behavior portrayed usually involves unmarried sexual intercourse
and extended and passionate kissing, with prostitution, rape, petting, and
homosexuality occurring less often. Discussions and portrayals of safe
sex and contraception are infrequent, though recent soap operas appear
to refer increasingly to "taking sexual precautions" and have focused
more on pregnancy, both wanted and unwanted, than in previous years.
· Music videos are increasingly common, and many of the visual
elements are implicitly or explicitly sexual. These videos often combine
sexuality with violence or aggression, and with objectification and sex-
~3Material in the list below has been adapted from Aletha c. Huston, Ellen Wartella, and
Edward Donnerstein, 1998, Measuring the Effects of Sexual Content in the Media: A Report to
the Kaiser Family Foundation, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif.
Available online at .
22
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
role stereotyping. Visual presentations of sexual activity are common,
and a majority of music videos containing violence also contain sexual
imagery. Rap music is particularly explicit about both sex and violence;
MTV frequently shows combinations of aggression, sex-role stereotypes,
and sexual imagery; country music videos also use sexual images, but
common themes include breakups and divorce, dating, and romantic love.
· Informational magazines are an important source of information
about sex, birth control, and sexually transmitted diseases for many teens,
especially teen girls. A significant fraction of the sexual content in teen
magazines is devoted to sexual health, with other topics including a focus
on decision making about becoming sexually active. Magazines incorpo-
rate a substantial amount of information about sexual issues into their ar-
ticles and serve as an important source of information for young readers.
Although sexual images and behavior are common in the media de-
scribed above, most of those media generally do not portray sexually
explicit material involving full frontal nudity. Rather, they are important
elements of a culture at large that seems to accept such portrayals of
sexuality.
On the other hand, media portrayals of easy and loose sexuality are
not generally reflected in the actual sexual behavior of Americans, and in
fact the statistics on actual sexual behavior have changed far less over the
last 30 years than media portrayals of sexual behavior. For example,
Americans do have more sexual partners in their personal histories than
they had two decades ago; nevertheless, most Americans report that in
the past year they had zero or one sexual partner. The reason for this
phenomenon seems to be that on average, Americans are marrying later
but are nevertheless engaging in monogamous sexual activity prior to
marriage.l4
Although 80 percent of individuals have intercourse by age 20, the
mean age of first intercourse has dropped only from age 18 for those born
in the period from 1933 to 1942 to age 17 )/2 years for those born two and
three decades later. Furthermore, teenagers have intercourse only spo-
radically during the teen years. For example, 19-year-old men surveyed
in 1978 had sex on average four times in the past 4 weeks, while a compa-
rable group surveyed in 1988 had sex three times in the past 4 weeks.l5
14Robert T. Michael et al. 1995. Sex in America: A Definitive Survey. Warner Books, pp. 88-
91. Sex in America: A Definitive Survey is based on a scholarly volume by Edward 0.
Laumann et al., 1995, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States,
University of Chicago Press.
15Michael et al., 1995, Sex in America, p. 94.
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 123
5.3 THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN PROVIDING
INFORMATION ON SEXUALITY TO YOUTH16
It is hardly news that adolescents are very interested in matters of a
sexual nature and, beginning in early adolescence, go through a develop-
mental process in which they begin to look for information on sex and
their bodies as they begin to develop a sense of themselves as sexual
beings.
Most people would agree that in an ideal world, young people would
seek out their parents for information on sexuality. Parents and children
would be able to talk about sex, sexuality, and relationships in a mutually
respectful manner in an atmosphere of shared values. In this world,
children could raise questions without fear and parents could answer
them without embarrassment, anger, or apprehension.
However, in practice, parents are often reluctant to talk to their chil-
dren about sex. When they do, the information they provide is often
more about physiological changes than about the emotional terrain that
accompanies sexuality or about managing one's own sexuality appropri-
ately and healthfully. Adolescents are trying to find out if their bodies are
developing normally, and they also begin to have questions about rela-
tionships and how to manage sexual interactions. They want answers to
personal and even embarrassing questions such as, Am I normal? Is my
body normal? Am I developing appropriately at the right speed? What is
a tampon and how do I use it? How do you date? How do you kiss? How
do you say no without hurting someone's feelings? What is a sexually
transmitted disease? How do you use contraception? In addition, be-
cause it is often difficult for parents to talk about passion and desire and
other such matters with their children, young people sometimes find it
difficult to "buy into" a clinical discussion.l7 Considering that young
people are often surrounded by media images of sexuality that are com-
16The discussion in Section 5.3 is based largely on Aletha C. Huston, Ellen Wartella, and
Edward Donnerstein, 1998, Measuring the Effects of Sexual Content in the Media: A Report to
the Kaiser Family Foundation, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif.
Available online at .
17J.D. Brown, K.W. Childers, and C.S. Waszak, 1990, "Television and Adolescent Sexual-
ity," Journal of Adolescent Health Care 11: 62-70; V. Strasburger, 1989, "Adolescent Sexuality
and the Media," Adolescent Gynecology 36: 747-773; J. Strouse and R.A. Fabes, 1985, "Formal
Versus Informal Informational Sources of Sex Education: Competing Forces in the Sexual
Socialization of Adolescents," Adolescence 20: 251-263; and B.M. King and J. LoRusso, 1997,
"Discussions in the Home About Sex: Different Recollections by Parents and Children,"
Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 33: 52-60.
24
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
pletely centered around desire, it is not hard to understand why parents
and children often do not communicate effectively about sex.
Sex education provided in schools also does not provide a compre-
hensive picture. Indeed, sex education in schools is sufficiently contro-
versial that its content is very tightly prescribed in terms that will gener-
rates.l9
ate the least amount of political argument and heat. For example, 14
states have required that sex education (if it is taught) must teach absti-
nence or abstinence until marriage. These states do not, however, also
require that schools teach information about other forms of contraception,
though abstinence-based curricula do emphasize contraceptive failure
In practice, if parents and schools are not providing young people
with answers to the questions that they actually have, many will turn
elsewhere to get additional information about sexuality. These other
sources include their friends who often have much misinformation to
share as well as the media.20 The media may be a particularly appealing
source of information for adolescents because it can be accessed anony-
mously.21 One can imagine (or perhaps even recall) the types of reactions
and resulting feelings of embarrassment that might accompany question-
ing a peer or parent about sexuality (e.g., from a peer, "You mean you
don't know that," or from a parent, "Why are you asking thatch. The
anonymity of the media, and of the Internet especially, offers a way to
obtain information about very sensitive matters about sexuality and
sexual health and allows the adolescent to avoid embarrassing face-to-
18For example, one survey indicated that 72 percent of mothers believed that they had
talked with their teenagers about sex, while only 45 percent of those teens agreed. See J.
Jaccard and P. Dittus, 1993, "Parent-Adolescent Communication About Premarital Preg-
nancy," Families in Society 74~6~: 329-343.
19M. Sutton, J.D. Brown, K. Wilson, and J. Klein, 2001, "Shaking the Tree of Knowledge
for Forbidden Fruit: Where Adolescents Learn About Sexuality and Contraception," Sexual
Teens, Sexual Media, J.D. Brown, J.R. Steele, and K.W. Childers, eds., Erlbaum, Hillsdale,
N.J.; J.D. Brown and S. Stern, "Sex and the Media," Encyclopedia of Communication and Infor-
mation, Macmillan, New York, in press; and Kaiser Family Foundation, 2000, Sex Education
in the U.S.: Policy and Practice, Report No. 3049, available online at
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 125
face encounters.22 (A major disadvantage of media especially Internet
media as a source of sexual information is that its accuracy is often not
verified. School-age children may be far less cognizant of this fact than
would be appropriate, and they are likely to search out information, aware
of the advantages of anonymity but unaware of the disadvantages of
potential inaccuracy.)
In the absence of other comfortable venues for seeking information,
media sources help to fill information gaps for young people, providing
information about topics that parents and schools are not discussing. As
early as 1980, studies documented the strong influence of the media on an
individual's sexual self-evaluation and the lack of influence exerted by
family variables.23 Given the increasing role of the Internet as a source of
reliable information for young people as they conduct research for school
papers and seek homework help, one can imagine that the media's influ-
ence will only increase. In fact, more recent studies have documented that
the mass media is a particularly significant resource for sexual informa-
tion for adolescents.24
Research on print media suggests that turning to the media for infor-
mation on sexuality is also a normative behavior among teens. The major-
ity of adolescent boys have seen at least one issue of Playboy, while girls
tend to turn to women's magazines for example, Seventeen Magazine for
young teens, and for girls older than 14 Glamour and Cosmopolitan. Maga-
zines like Glamour provide very explicit information on topics such as
relationships with boys and content devoted to sex, flirting, and various
romantic aspects of relationships.
The fact that young people often turn to the media to help deal with
some of the issues associated with their changing selves has both positive
and negative dimensions. On the one hand, many young people may find
22On the flip side, the anonymity of the Internet is highly attractive for children actively
seeking sexually explicit materials for fantasy purposes. This anonymity provides a free-
dom to explore a wide range of material without having to reveal one's identity or to
engage an adult to assist in the search. Consequently, the embarrassment or shame that he
or she might feel is absent (though some of those to whom the committee spoke expressed
concerns about "getting caught"), and with it many of the social inhibitions against seeking
such content.
23J.A. Courtright and S.J. Baran. 1980. "The Acquisition of Sexual Information by Young
People," Journalism Quarterly 1: 107-114.
24Brown et al., 1990, "Television and Adolescent Sexuality"; Strasburger, 1989, "Adoles-
cent Sexuality and the Media"; Strouse and Fabes, 1985, "Formal Versus Informal Informa-
tional Sources of Sex Education: Competing Forces in the Sexual Socialization of Adoles-
cents"; King and LoRusso, 1997, "Discussions in the Home About Sex: Different
Recollections by Parents and Children."
32
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
material tends to be among adults and it is a prime channel for the
exchange of child pornography and other highly "extreme" material.
5.4.3 Extent of Exposure
In 2000, the Crimes Against Children Research Center (CACRC) con-
ducted a nationally representative, interview-based survey with 1,501
youths aged 10 to 17 who use the Internet regularly (Box 5.2~. This survey
measured the extent to which young people came in contact with sexually
explicit material, received sexual solicitations from other users, and were
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 133
distressed by the incident.37 Twenty-five percent of youth reported hav-
ing had at least one unwanted exposure to sexual pictures in the year
before the survey was taken. These figures are approximately consistent
with findings of a Kaiser Family Foundation/NPR survey taken in 2001.38
In this survey, 31 percent of children aged 10 to 17 with computers at
home reported seeing a "pornographic" Web site, even if by accident.
Breaking down by age, 45 percent of those aged 14 to 17 had seen such a
site, compared with 15 percent of those aged 10 to 13. Another study by
the Kaiser Family Foundation found that among teens (aged 15 to 17)
online, 70 percent say they have accidentally come across "pornography"
on the Web, though 77 percent said they have never come across it or
come across it "not too often."39
One in 5 young people reported receiving a sexual solicitation or
approach in the last year, and 1 in 30 received an aggressive sexual solici-
tation.40 (In the lexicon of the CACRC study, a solicitation is defined as a
37David Finkelhor, Kimberly Mitchell, and Janis Wolak. 2001. Youth Internet Safety Sur-
vey. Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire. See
34
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
request to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or to give personal
sexual information that was either unwanted or made by an adult whether
wanted or not. An aggressive sexual solicitation is a sexual solicitation
involving offline contact with the perpetrator through regular mail, by
telephone, or in person or attempts or requests for offline contact all of
which constitute a potential risk of physical safety for young people.)
Girls in the survey were targeted for sexual solicitations and approaches
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 135
at almost twice the rate of boys (66 percent compared with 34 percent,
respectively).
In general, the young people participating in this study were not very
distressed by these experiences. Notably, only 6 percent of youth reported
that accidentally viewing a sexually explicit image was distressing to
them, and 75 percent of youth who had experienced an online solicitation
were not very upset or afraid. (Another survey by the Kaiser Family
Foundation found that of online youth aged 15 to 17 who have been
exposed to pornography, 45 percent reported being upset by the experi-
ence, with 55 percent saying that they were not at all upset or "not too
upset.''4l) More young people were very or extremely upset by aggres-
sive solicitations (36 percent), and 25 percent were very or extremely
afraid. Younger users (aged 10 to 13) were more distressed by solicita-
tions than were older users although 22 percent of youth surveyed were
10 to 13 years old, they reported 37 percent of the distressing episodes.
This may suggest that younger users have not learned coping strategies
for such incidents and have a more difficult time shrugging off such
solicitations and that preadolescents are the age group most emotionally
vulnerable to sexual solicitations.
The CACRC and Kaiser reports are generally consistent with what
the committee heard during its site visits. For example, the children to
whom the committee spoke during site visits (mostly older adolescents)
were in general not particularly concerned by exposure to sexually ex-
plicit material. Some were upset by what they saw, but the large majority
brushed it off. (In general, there was a correlation with age those in the
16 to 17 age bracket tended to be much less bothered by sexually explicit
material than those aged 14 to 16.)
Of course, self-reporting can be questioned on the grounds that these
teenagers would not have been likely to tell a group of adults about an
abiding interest in sexually explicit material or about being upset by such
exposure (it would be too "uncool" to do so). On the other hand, what
today's adults remember about their own searches of sexually explicit
material in their own youths does not necessarily apply to the youth of
today. Today's social environment, compared to that of 30 to 40 years
ago, is a more sexual one, and much of the material that today's adults
sought as teenagers is much more freely available and is thus arguably
much less of a "big problem" than in the past.
lion.
4lRideout, 2001, Generation Rx.com: How Young People Use the Internetfor Health Informa-
136
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
5.5 INTERNET EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT
MATERIAL, SOLICITATIONS, AND HARASSMENT
The impact on children of Internet exposure to sexually explicit con-
tent must be seen in the context of a much greater availability and wider
range of sexual content than in the past. Although it has long been nor-
mative behavior for adolescents to seek out images that are sexually ex-
plicit (e.g., viewing one's first National Geographic and Playboy were once
rites of passage for many boys), adolescents are bombarded with sexual
content in everyday media sources that are to some extent difficult to
escape. Images meant to tantalize are embedded in most advertising in
television, billboards, and print media, and programming such as music
videos, soap operas, and movies contains highly sexualized images and
content. Carrying original material and content from many forms of
media, the Internet also has a broad range of sexual content.
For many it would appear that the range of content including nu-
dity, romance, and depictions of sex and intercourse, as well as a variety
of sexual proclivities (rape, bondage, bestiality, and so on) seems to be
larger and more accessible than what was easily available in the past.
Such changes lead some to speculate that there may be a wider range of
social mores and a greater permissiveness about sexuality today.42
Given both a broad range of sexually explicit material on the Internet
and the numerous ways in which this content can be viewed and ac-
cessed, it is worth considering two broad categories of how young people
come into contact with this content. Exposure to sexually explicit mate-
rial on the Internet can occur inadvertently or intrusively (as when one
user deliberately seeks to expose another user to this content), or it can
occur as a result of a young person's deliberate choice to seek and view
sexually explicit material.
Table 5.2 summarizes the various types of inappropriate sexually ex-
plicit materials and experiences discussed in this report.
42One suggestion of such a wider range comes from the case of a Utah video-store-chain
owner who was indicted in 2000 for selling obscene material. At trial, his attorney sought
and obtained records demonstrating a large consumption of erotic video through the pay-
per-view channels of a local hotel chain and through cable and satellite television provid-
ers. According to these records, residents of Utah County by all accounts a highly conser-
vative area of the nation are larger per capita consumers of such material than the rest of
the nation. Thus, his attorney argued, the community standards of Utah County in fact
were not breached by the sales of erotic video, which could not be held to be obscene under
those standards. The chain owner was acquitted on all counts. See Timothy Egan, 2000,
"EROTICA INC. A Special Report: Technology Sent Wall Street into Market for Pornogra-
phy," New York Times, October 23.
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 137
TABLE 5.2 Types of Inappropriate Internet Material or Experience
Types of Material or Experience Characterization
Inappropriate sexually explicit With a few exceptions, such materials are generally
material delivered to a user for passive non-interactive
viewing (e.g., through a Web site or via e-mail).
Child pornography A category of speech unprotected by the First
Amendment, involving material visually depicting
minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct,
including actual or simulated sexual intercourse,
bestiality, masturbation, sadistic or masochistic
abuse, or the lascivious exhibition of the genitals or
pubic area of the minor.
A category of speech unprotected by the First
Amendment, involving sexually explicit material that
the average person, applying contemporary
community standards, would find, taken as a whole,
appeals to the prurient interest, depicts or describes,
in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct
specifically defined by the applicable state law, and
lacks, when taken as a whole, serious literary, artistic,
political, or scientific value.
A category of speech involving material that meets
the legal test of obscenity as applied in the context of
exposing minors to such material. Under the First
Amendment, material in this category is protected
for adults, though distribution to minors can be
regulated.
A broad category of speech involving material that
some party or another finds offensive to his or her
sensibilities (e.g., so-called "indecent" material). If
offensive material does not fall into one of the above
categories, it is protected for both adults and minors
under the First Amendment.
Interaction is by definition interactive the user is an
active participant in a dialog with another human
being.
Solicitations in the absence of physical meetings can
be bothersome or frightening to young people.
However, if such solicitations lead to face-to-face
encounters with predators, the consequences can be
catastrophic.
Harassment (victim thereof) A young person can suffer as the victim of online
harassment. Such harassment can take the form of
threats, taunts, insults, or the public posting of
disparagingly altered images (e.g., a composite of a
head shot grafted onto a picture of an animal) and
may be delivered anonymously or with an identity
associated with it.
A broad category, generally protected under the First
Amendment, into which various parties have placed
materials promoting hate and racism, violence (e.g.,
bomb making), religious cults, and so on.
Obscenity
Material obscene with
respect to minors
"Offensive" material
Inappropriate interaction
with others
Sexual solicitations from
strangers
Other inappropriate material
138
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
5.5.1 Deliberate Search for Sexually Explicit Material
Deliberate access results from a child's conscious choice. For ex-
ample, a child learns of a Web site providing sexually explicit materials
that does not require a password, and uses an Internet browser to view
that Web site. Or he or she may search for sexually explicit material using
a search engine, typing in terms likely to return links to such material
(such as "sex pick". Or a minor in a chat room might broadcast a mes-
sage to other chat room participants asking for pictures with explicit
sexual content. Or he or she may visit a chat room named so as to attract
visitors interested in sexual dialog. Or he or she may sign up to be on a
mailing list known to send sexually explicit images to its members via
e-mail.
Eight percent of those surveyed in the CACRC survey acknowledged
choosing to seek out X-rated Internet sites.43 Less than 1 percent said they
had used a credit card without permission. Of youth who said they
talked online with people they did not know in person, 12 percent had
sent a picture to someone they met online, and 7 percent had willingly
talked about sex online with someone they had never met in person. Five
percent had posted a picture of themselves for general viewing; eleven
percent had posted some personal information in a public Internet space,
mostly their last name. Twenty-seven percent of e-mail users knew that
they had posted their e-mail address in a public place on the Internet.
Some of the paths for deliberate and inadvertent exposure to sexually
explicit material on the Internet are described in Box 5.3.
5.5.2 Inadvertent Exposure to or Intrusion
of Sexually Explicit Material
Inadvertent exposure occurs through no deliberate action on the
child's part. In the reference scenario described in Chapter 2, the student
intends to search for information on a particular (innocuous) topic, but
because the term he uses to search is ambiguous, information on more
than one topic is returned to the user. A poor search strategy or misspell-
ings in the terms used for a search can also result in the inadvertent
receipt of sexually explicit material: links to sexually explicit material
may be returned even if they were not desired by the child. A child may
43Even though the survey was anonymous and privacy was guaranteed to the survey
respondents, such figures are likely to understate the true incidence of such behavior, be-
cause of concerns that promises of anonymity might not be kept and reluctance to admit
this activity to anyone "anonymous researcher or nosy.
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 139
misspell the address of a Web site, and the mistakenly spelled Web ad-
dress points to an adult-oriented Web site that has obtained the misspell-
ing.44 Or domain names that are most likely innocuous may have been
appropriated by owners of adult Web sites.45 Confusion between .com
and .gov or .edu suffixes can also be exploited to the advantage of the
44Note that exploitation of misspellings is a time-honored tradition in marketing. One of
the most famous stories in this area involved the AT&T 1-800-OPERATOR advertising
campaign for collect calls. By dialing 1-800-O-P-E-R-A-T-O-R, the caller was connected to
an AT&T operator. MCI owned the number 1-800-O-P-E-R-A-T-E-R (note the misspelling)
and took enough of AT&T's business that AT&T discontinued the ad campaign and
switched numbers (Business Week, June 13, 1994, p. 78~.
45For example, the name of an indoor professional football team in Texas with a .com
suffix leads to an adult-oriented Web site.
140
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
adult Web site owner.46 A user may also mistype the address of a Web
site, or improperly guess the address of a Web site,47 and receive inappro-
priate material as a result. From time to time, e-mail containing sexually
explicit material can be misaddressed.
Intrusion occurs when another party "pushes" such material on the
child even though he or she has not asked to receive it. Spam e-mail with
links to Web sites containing inappropriate sexually explicit material is
one example. Web sites that have pop-up windows that open as quickly
as a user can close them are another way this exposure can occur. As
stated earlier, users can also send IMs to each other and attach images or
provide a link to a sexually explicit Web site.
Inadvertent exposure is not an uncommon experience. According to
the CACRC survey, one minor in four (about 25 percent) had at least one
inadvertent exposure to sexually explicit images in 1999, with the major-
ity of these exposures occurring to youth 15 years of age or older. In the
vast majority of cases (94 percent), the images involved naked persons; in
a substantial minority of the cases (38 percent), they involved people
having sex. About 8 percent of the images involved violence, in addition
to nudity and/or sex. The children who inadvertently viewed these im-
ages saw them while searching or surfing the Internet (71 percent), and
while opening e-mail, or clicking on links in e-mail or IMs (29 percent).48
Most of these exposures (67 percent) happened at home, but 15 percent
happened at school, and 3 percent happened in libraries.
For those surfing the Web, the inadvertent exposures happened as the
result of searches (47 percent), misspelled addresses (17 percent), and
links in Web sites (17 percent). And, in 26 percent of these exposed-while-
surfing incidents, youth reported that they were brought to another sex
site when they tried to exit the site they were in. For those receiving e-
mail that resulted in inadvertent exposure, 63 percent were associated
with an e-mail address used solely by the individual; for 93 percent of the
inadvertent exposures resulting from e-mail, the sender of the e-mail was
unknown to the individual.
46For example, the New York Times reported on a children's financial Web site designed
to teach children about money that had been closely associated with a Web site offering
adult-oriented sexually explicit material. The original Web site for children, produced by
Ernst & Young, was located at , while the adult Web site
was located at . See Susan Stellin, 2001, "Pornography
Takes Over Financial Site for Children," New York Times, October 26.
47A common method of guessing the address of a Web site is to try "www.search
term.com," where "searchterm" is a term of interest to the user.
48In 17 percent of all incidents of unwanted exposure, the youth said they did know the
site was X-rated before entering, but it is not clear to what extent inadvertent exposure
resulted from curiosity or navigational naivete despite prior knowledge of the site's X-rated
nature.
CHILDREN, MEDIA, AND EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL 141
Note that the line between deliberate access and inadvertent expo-
sure is not always clear. For example, many search engines return links to
Web pages that include a few lines of text associated with each page. If
the child intends to search for an innocuous topic, but uses a search term
with ambiguous meaning (e.g., "beaver"), a number of links to sexually
explicit pages may be returned, along with those few lines of text. If that
text includes terms such as "hot sex" and "XXX," careful users can avoid
such materials.
5.5.3 Sexual Solicitations and Approaches
About 3 percent of youth Internet users surveyed by the CACRC
received an aggressive sexual solicitation, a rate of exposure far lower
than the rate of exposure to sexually explicit material. In addition, 5
percent of youth Internet users were approached sexually, e.g., by being
asked sexual questions in a way that caused them to be very or extremely
upset or afraid. Girls were aggressively solicited or approached at almost
twice the rate of boys, and most of those individuals solicited (77 percent)
were 14 or older.
The CACRC survey found that adults were responsible for 34 percent
of the aggressive solicitations, with most of the adult solicitors reported to
be aged 18 to 25. About 4 percent of all solicitors were believed to be older
than 25, and 67 percent of all solicitors were believed to be male. Children
made 48 percent of the aggressive solicitations. However, in almost all of
the cases where the surveyed youth gave an age or gender for a perpetra-
tor, the youth had never met the perpetrator in person, thus leaving the
accuracy of the identifying information in question. (For perspective, a
report of the University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Youth
Policy found that 47 percent of confirmed sexual assaults on children
(defined as those under the age of 18) were committed by relatives and 49
percent were committed by acquaintances, such as a teacher, coach, or
neighbor, while only 4 percent of sexual assaults were committed by
strangers.49)
The concern with solicitations is based on a troubling pattern of be-
havior that often characterizes a child's online conversation with a solici-
tor in a chat room or via instant messaging. In a typical interaction be-
tween predator and victim, the predator begins with dialog that is entirely
innocuous.50 Over time (perhaps weeks or even months), the predator
49Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner. 2001. The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, university of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work,
center for the Study of Youth Policy, Philadelphia, September 18.
50see, for example, Kenneth v. Lanning, 2001, Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis, 5th
Edition, National center for Missing and Exploited Children, Alexandria, vat
42
YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET
grooms his target, seeking to build rapport and trust. No single piece of
dialog is necessarily sexual or even suggestive, but as the victim begins to
trust the (anonymous) predator, conversations become increasingly per-
sonal. A young adolescent is strongly motivated by the need to separate
from parental authority and to gain acceptance for his or her growing
adulthood. Further, he or she is usually inexperienced in dialog with
adults (especially adults with cunning and guile) and is likely to be rela-
tively honest in sharing his or her emotional state or feelings. The preda-
tor plays on this need for acceptance and a child's naivete. Sexually
explicit dialog and/or material is unlikely to be a part of this dialog in its
early stages, and may never emerge. When it does, it is introduced gradu-
ally and slowly in order to reduce the inhibitions of the victim and make
him or her more likely to be willing to meet.
5.5.4 Harassment
In addition to encountering sexual solicitations and inadvertent expo-
sure to sexually explicit material, youth on the Internet are subject to
other threatening or offensive behavior directed toward them, including
threats of assault aimed at them, their friends, family, or property, as well
as efforts to embarrass or humiliate them. Six percent of regular youth
Internet users experienced feeling either worried or threatened because
someone was bothering or harassing them online, or because someone
used the Internet to threaten or embarrass them by posting or sending
messages about them for other people to see. Boys and girls were tar-
geted about equally, while about 70 percent of the episodes involved
youth 14 and older. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of those harassing
youth were other juveniles, and almost a quarter of harassment perpetra-
tors lived within a 1-hour drive of the youth. The primary forms of
harassment were IMs (33 percent), chat-room exchanges (32 percent), and
e-mails (19 percent). About 12 percent included an actual or attempted
contact by telephone or regular mail, or in person. According to the
CACRC, an important feature of harassment is that, more than sexual
solicitation, it involves people known to the youth and people known to
live nearby. Some of the threatening character of these episodes stems
from the fact that the targets do not feel completely protected by distance
and anonymity, and that the harasser could actually carry out his or her
threats.5~
AD. Finkelhor, K.J. Mitchell, and J. Wolak. 2000. Online Victimization: A Report on the
Nation's Youth. Crimes Against Children Research Center and the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, Alexandria, Va.
