The past years have seen a considerable increase in research on adolescents’ use of sexually explicit internet material (SEIM) (e.g., Brown & L’Engle, 2009; Flood, 2007; Lo & Wei, 2005; Mesch, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2007). Typically, the rationale for studies on adolescents’ use of SEIM is guided by the notion of adolescent sexual exceptionalism. On the one hand, adolescents’ access to SEIM is more strongly legally regulated than adults’ access. Because sexually explicit material is considered inappropriate for minors, it is unlawful in most countries to make it accessible to minors (Thornburgh & Lin, 2002). On the other hand, sexual curiosity peaks in adolescence, partly due to hormonal changes, and this may result in adolescents’ intense interest in sex and sexuality (Savin-Williams & Diamond, 2004). As a consequence of this tension—this is the implicit assumption—SEIM presents a “forbidden fruit” for adolescents (Bushman & Cantor, 2003): Because adolescents are not supposed to access SEIM, they may feel more attracted to the material than adults and, consequently, use it more often.
Although there are reasons to assume that adolescents differ from adults in their SEIM use, studies that systematically compare the two groups are missing. Further, it is unknown whether adolescents and adults differ in the antecedents of SEIM use. For example, personality characteristics, such as sensation seeking and depression, have been found to be associated with more frequent SEIM use among adolescents (e.g., Brown & L’Engle, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Wolak et al., 2007). However, it is unclear whether this pattern extends to adults. Therefore, the goal of this study was to compare the prevalence and the antecedents of SEIM use simultaneously between adolescents and adults. Such a benchmark study may help us to put teenagers’ SEIM use in perspective. Moreover, such a study may provide us with an initial impression of the role that SEIM plays across the lifespan. We define SEIM as professionally produced or user-generated pictures or videos (clips) on or from the internet that are intended to arouse the viewer. These videos and pictures depict sexual activities, such as masturbation as well as oral, anal, and vaginal penetration, in an unconcealed way, often with a close-up on genitals. Playboy-type nudity is not part of this definition.
Prevalence of SEIM Use
Research on the prevalence of SEIM use among adolescents differs in terms of the time of investigation, sample, sampling procedure, mode of interviewing, and the conceptual and operational definition of sexually explicit material (Fleming, Greentree, Cocotti-Muller, Elias, & Morrison, 2006; Flood, 2007; Lo & Wei, 2005; Mesch, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Skoog, Stattin, & Kerr, 2009; Wolak et al., 2007). As a result, the findings of the various studies diverge considerably. The main reason for these inconsistent findings may lie in selection biases induced by convenience samples (e.g., Bogaert, 1996). The only nationally representative study on adolescents’ SEIM use to date, done among 1,500 U.S. teenagers in 2005, found that 1% of 10- to 11-year-old boys had consumed SEIM deliberately in the year before the interview (Wolak et al., 2007). The proportion increased to 11% among 12- to 13-year-old boys, to 26% among 14- to 15-year-old boys, and to 38% among 16- to 17-year-old boys. Among 10- to 17-year-old girls, only 2–8% used SEIM deliberately.
Research on adults’ SEIM use is similarly plagued by incommensurability problems resulting from different samples, sampling techniques, and times of investigation (Boies, 2002; Buzzell, 2005; Goodson, McCormick, & Evans, 2000, 2001; Janghorbani, Lam, & Youth Sexuality Study Task Force, 2003; Lam & Chan, 2007; Traeen, Nilsen, & Stigum, 2006). As a consequence, estimates of adults’ SEIM use vary. A more consistent picture, however, emerges when only the nationally representative studies of adults’ SEIM use are considered. The three nationally representative studies to date found that less than 10% of adult women had used SEIM (4%, Buzzell, 2005; 7%, Janghorbani et al., 2003; 8%, Traeen et al., 2006, own computations based on Table 1, p. 248). For adult men, these figures varied between 22% in a study by Janghorbani et al. and 48% in a study by Traeen et al. (2006, our computations based on Table 1, p. 248).
Taken together, existing studies suggest that, in contrast to the forbidden-fruit effect assumed in research, adolescents’ use SEIM less often than adults do. However, this conclusion is based on scattered studies whose comparability is severely limited. Therefore, we simply asked in this study to what extent SEIM use differed between adolescents and adults, without specifying the direction of potential differences.
Antecedents of SEIM Use
Theories of media use, such as the uses-and-gratifications and the selective exposure approach, generally agree that people select media content that matches existing predispositions (e.g., Ruggiero, 2000; Zillmann & Bryant, 1985). More specifically, previous research on the antecedents of SEIM use (e.g., Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Traeen et al., 2006) has emphasized that the use of (sexual) media content is shaped by at least four groups of influences: (1) demographics (as proxies for sociocultural influences), (2) social context, (3) personality characteristics and (4) sexual orientation.
Demographics
Based on the media practice model (Steele, 1999; Steele & Brown, 1995) and earlier research among adults (Traeen et al., 2006), we focus on gender, age, and education as demographics. As for gender, research has consistently demonstrated that males use SEIM more frequently than females (e.g., Mesch, 2009; Traeen et al., 2006; Wolak et al., 2007). As mentioned above, this gender difference has occurred both among adolescents and adults and is often explained with the fact that the majority of sexually explicit material caters to masculine notions of sex (e.g., Wilson-Kovacs, 2009). Accordingly, we expected this gender difference to emerge in the current study both among adolescents and adults.
As for age, sexual interest and desire rise sharply between childhood and through adolescence (Savin-Williams & Diamond, 2004). Young adults show more sexual interest than older adults (Beutel, Stobel-Richter, & Brahler, 2008). These findings merge with results that older adolescents use SEIM more frequently than younger adolescents (Wolak et al., 2007), while the reverse is true for adults (Janghorbani et al., 2003; Traeen et al., 2006). Consequently, we expected a positive effect of age on exposure to SEIM among adolescents and a negative effect among adults.
As for education, SEIM use has been found to increase with higher educational levels among adults, probably reflecting educationally determined gaps in internet access and technological skills (Traeen et al., 2006). It seems unlikely, though, that education also affects adolescents’ SEIM use because internet access and technological skills are more evenly distributed among teenagers than among adults (CBS, 2008). As a result, we expected that higher educational levels would lead to a more frequent SEIM use among adults, but not among adolescents.
Social Context
In line with two explanations of the impact of social context on SEIM use, we investigated relationship status (single vs. being in a relationship) and attachment to friends as social context variables. A first explanation of why people’s social context may affect their SEIM use states that the social control exerted through relationships reduces the possibilities to use SEIM without surveillance (Buzzell, 2005; Stack, Wasserman, & Kern, 2004). Consequently, people without a relationship are more likely to use SEIM than those in a relationship. Studies have confirmed this prediction among adults (Buzzell, 2005; Stack et al., 2004), but not among adolescents (Peter & Valkenburg, 2006). The lacking effect of relationships on adolescents’ SEIM use may result from the fact that adolescents’ relationships rarely involve co-habitation. As a result, the possibility to exert social control is reduced. Therefore, we expected that having a relationship would decrease the use of SEIM among adults, but not among adolescents.
A second, related explanation of why people’s social context may affect their SEIM use focuses on social inclusion through attachment to friends (L’Engle, Brown, Romocki, & Kenneavy, 2007). According to this explanation, a lack of social inclusion may draw individuals more strongly to solitary internet activities, while it keeps them from social online interactions. There is some evidence that adolescents with weak peer attachment use SEIM more often than adolescents with strong peer attachment (L’Engle et al., 2007). Moreover, studies have shown that socially excluded adolescents use the internet less often for social purposes than socially included adolescents do (e.g., Peter, Valkenburg, & Schouten, 2005; Valkenburg & Peter, 2007). Research on this issue among adults is missing. However, friends generally play a more important role in adolescence than in adulthood (Brown, 2004). Consequently, we expected that attachment to friends would reduce SEIM use among adolescents, but not among adults.
Personality Characteristics
Following earlier research on the impact of personality characteristics on SEIM use, we dealt with two personality characteristics—sensation seeking and depression/life satisfaction. Pornography with its unconcealed depiction of often intense, varied sexual activities is typically seen to cater to sensation seekers’ need for novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences (Zuckerman, 1994). The relationship between depression or low life satisfaction and SEIM use is usually attributed to an escapist function of SEIM for people who are depressed or dissatisfied with their lives (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2003).
Several studies on adolescents’ exposure to SEIM have found that sensation seekers use such material more frequently than non-sensation seekers (Brown & L’Engle, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Weisskirch & Murphy, 2004). In adult samples, this influence has not been found (Bogaert, 2001). Depressed adolescents and adolescents who are dissatisfied with their lives use SEIM more often than do non-depressed adolescents and adolescents who are satisfied with their lives (Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Wolak et al., 2007; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005). For adults, this relationship has been described in a case study (Stein, Black, Shapira, & Spitzer, 2001). In sum, we expected that sensation seeking would increase SEIM use among adolescents, but not among adults. We further expected that dissatisfaction with one’s life would result in higher SEIM use, both among adolescents and adults.
Sexual Orientation
Because, both among adolescents and adults, same-sex attraction is still associated with considerable repercussions and distress, gays and lesbians consider the internet often a safe space (Hillier & Harrison, 2007). As a consequence, gays and lesbians of all age groups use the internet for a variety of purposes, such as identity construction, the formation of friendships and intimate relationships, and the establishment of sexual contacts (Hillier & Harrison, 2007; Peter & Valkenburg, 2007). In addition, several studies have shown that SEIM use is higher among gay and lesbian adults than among heterosexual adults (Duggan & McCreary, 2004; Traeen et al., 2006). We expected to find this pattern also in the present study not only among gay and lesbian adults, but also among gay and lesbian youth.