The Porn Series – Part One

Not everyone can say they watch porn at work, and many people would be fired if they said they did. But in our office, nothing is NSFW if we are assessing it.

It’s part of our job to review and analyse high impact content - including porn - and we’ve been doing that for over 25 years. In fact, in 2019, two of our Classification Advisors watched 46 hours of porn for our Breaking Down Porn content analysis.

We’ve seen a lot of changes in the landscape - or pornscape – in the shift from magazines, videos and DVDs, to online streaming content available 24/7 via any number of devices. With this in mind, we’ve spent the last few years researching young New Zealanders’ opinions and experiences with online porn to better understand how these issues affect them – specifically in our Growing up with Porn and NZ Youth and Porn reports.

It’s a subject of interest for our rangatahi, and also - with some trepidation - for parents, caregivers, educators, and health workers. We know there’s a lot of disturbing explicit content out there, and some of the more extreme examples come through our office for classification.

While our research shows that more extreme content tends to be less popular on big porn streaming platforms it’s pretty common for them to show aggressive or non-consensual behaviour, and this can have a big impact on young people who are still developing their ideas around healthy sexual relationships and sexual expression. This means it’s important to talk – but that’s easy to say. Few people grow up having positive and open conversations about porn, healthy relationships and sex.

This kōrero isn’t easy, so we’ve created a range of practical resources for parents and whānau to help start a conversation with their rangatahi about this tricky topic. However, we know there’s often a lack of healthy communication around this topic within relationships, whānau and friends – and this is not necessarily age bound.

In the next few weeks we will be running a series of blogs aimed at encouraging open discussions about positive communication, sexuality and porn, and also giving advice on keeping yourself safe and fostering healthy relationships.

Our focus is usually on supporting parents and rangatahi on having those tricky conversations. But these blogs will be for adults. Content in porn isn’t necessarily something we all became immune to once we turned 18, and sometimes internalising some of the things we see isn’t the best.

It’s time we all think about the role of porn – and mainstream media – in how societal expectations are being shaped. This isn’t something just young people need help with.

Help information

Negative or sensitive content can make us feel not great. It is okay to not be okay. Take a break and talk to your friends or whānau.

Don’t know who to talk to?

Free call or text 1737 for more support.

Safe to Talk is a sexual harm helpline available for non-judgemental 24/7 support. Call 0800 044 334 or text 4334.