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Exposure to Pornographic Content Among Indian Adolescents and Young Adults and Its Associated Risks: Evidence from UDAYA Survey in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh

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Abstract

Adolescence is period characterized by sexual development, increasing romantic relationships, and the initiation of sexual activity. To enhance the exploration of their sexuality, adolescents may look into sexual resources such as pornography. There has been little research in India to understand how much adolescents are exposed to Internet pornography and what are the associated risk factors. This study examined the level of exposure to pornography among adolescents and the associated factors which determine the exposure to pornography in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults (UDAYA) survey data collected in 2015–2016 was used for this study. The study was based on 3885 adolescent boys and 7766 adolescent girls aged 15–19 years. The mean age for adolescent boys was 16.66 years (SD: 1.3), and for girls it was 16.67 years (SD: 1.3). About 47% of adolescent boys but only 6% of girls were exposed to pornography. The likelihood of exposure to pornography was 1.69 times and 2.27 times more likely among adolescents and girls who had their own personal mobile phones, respectively, compared to those who did not have their own personal mobile phones. The odds of exposure to pornography were significantly higher among adolescent boys who had frequent media exposure than those who had no/rare exposure. Programs on life skills and comprehensive sexuality education need to be prioritize.

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The data are available in the public domain. The data can be accessed by following the link: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/RRXQNT.

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Acknowledgements

This paper was written using data collected as part of Population Council’s UDAYA study, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. No additional funds were received for the preparation of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Survey Research & Data Analytics, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India

    Shobhit Srivastava

  2. Department of Family and Generations, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India

    Shekhar Chauhan

  3. Department of Public Health and Mortality Studies, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India

    Ratna Patel

  4. Department of Statistics, Sankardev College, Shilllong, India

    Strong P. Marbaniang

  5. Research & Data Analyst, Population Council, New Delhi, India

    Pradeep Kumar

  6. Department of Mathematical Demography & Statistics, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India

    Preeti Dhillon

  7. Population Council, New Delhi, India

    Neelanjana Pandey

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Contributions

PK, SS contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, methodology. PK, SS, SC, RP were involved in investigation. PK, SPM, SS, SC, RP, PD contributed to supervision. SC, SPM, RP were involved in writing original draft. PK, SPM, SS, SC, RP, PD, NP contributed to revising and finalizing the draft manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pradeep Kumar.

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The study utilized secondary source of data and authors did not require informed consent from the participants as they were not involved in the data collection process. However, the survey agencies that collected the data initially obtained informed consent from the participants.

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Srivastava, S., Chauhan, S., Patel, R. et al. Exposure to Pornographic Content Among Indian Adolescents and Young Adults and Its Associated Risks: Evidence from UDAYA Survey in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Arch Sex Behav 52, 361–372 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-022-02411-7

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