Karen Horney

1
MASARYK UNIVERSITYFACULTY OF SOCIAL
STUDIESCzech Republic Institute for Research
on Children, Youth and the Family
Exposure to Sexually Explicit Materials among
Czech Early Adolescents Comparison with European
Youth

• Anna Ševcíková
• David Šmahel
• The presented research was supported by the Czech
  Ministry of Education, Youth
• and Sports (MSM0021622406 and 1P05ME751).

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Introduction I

• Media/online exposure to sexually explicit
  materials (SEM)
• The material depicts sexual activity in
  unconcealed waysand this material can mediated
  by some media such as the internet
• Triple-A-engine theory the internet sexuality
  is characteristic by Anonymity, Accessibility
  Affordability (Cooper, 1998) ? online sexual
  explicit materials are easily accessible,
  affordable and anonymously shared
• Predictors for online exposure to sexually
  explicit materials
• Demographic characteristics gender age
• More boys than girls (Mesch, 2009 Peter
  Valkenburg, 2006 Vybíral, Smahel, Divínová,
  2004 Ybarra Mitchell, 2005 Flood, 2007
  Wolak, Mitchell, Finkelhor, 2007)
• More older adolescence than younger ones
  (Wolak, Mitchell, Finkelhor, 2007)

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Introduction II

• Predictors for (online) exposure to sexually
  explicit materials
• Psychosocial characteristics need for
  sensation (Brown LEngle, 2009 Peter
  Valkenburg, 2006), emotional problems (Ybarra
  Mitchell, 2005), weak social bonds to family and
  school (Mesch, 2009) ? psychosocial challenges
• Study justification and study goals
• Although early adolescents are regular media
  users - limited studies on early adolescent
  consumers of sexual explicit materials
• What are characteristics of early adolescents
  reporting online exposure to SEM?
• What kind of psychosocial challenges do they
  face?

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Methods

• Data origin
• EU Kids Online II project, which contains
  representative samples of at least 1,000 youth
  aged 9 to 16 years from 25 European countries.
• a subsample of youth aged 10 to15 years (N
  17.720)
• Measures
• Online exposure to SEM A brief description of
  sexual materials was followed by the question
  Have you seen anything of this kind in the past
  12 months
• online exposure was distinguished by Have you
  seen these kind of things on any websites in the
  past 12 months?
• Being bothered Thinking about the last time you
  were bothered by something like this, how upset
  did you feel about it (if at all)? (from very
  upset to not at all upset)
• Sensation need I do dangerous things for fun
  I do exciting things, even if they are
  dangerous (alpha .0772)
• Offline risky behavior 7-item scale, e.g.
  Missed school lessons without my parents
  knowing (Alpha 0.627)
• Emotional problems 5-item scale, e.g. I worry a
  lot (Alpha 0.649)
• Self-efficacy 4-item scale (Alpha 0.654)

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Exposure to SEM
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Exposure to SEM and gender
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Exposure across media Czech children
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Exposure to SEM according to the age
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Bothered by the sexual exposure

• 35 of children reported being bothered by this
  experience (30 of males, 41 of females)

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How upset did they feel?
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Predictors for exposure to SEM - CZ
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Discussion Conclusion

• The internet as a main source of SEM in CZ (63)
• The concept of triple-A-engine seems to be
  relevant
• Czech early adolescents report increased exposure
  to SEM
• the Czech Republic known as a country with
  liberal attitudes towards sexual behavior - has a
  higher number of sex partners compared to, for
  example, than United States (Weiss, Kucera,
  Sveráková, 1995 Weiss Zverina, 2001)
• There is no compulsory sexually focused education
  of Czech children ? consumption of SEM as a
  source of information (66 of Czechs vs. 32 of
  EU kids at age 14/15)
• Consumption of sexual materials at age 14/15 may
  include an entertainment component - debut of
  masturbation activity among Czech adolescents
  13-15 years (age mean for male13,97 let age
  mean for girls 16,89 (Weiss a Zverina, 1996)
  (in accordance to observed higher proportion of
  males in exposure)
• Could exposure to SEM at early age associated
  with poorer parental surveillance? (high
  proportion of seen materials on TV, films,
  video/DVD) (How can parental monitoring among
  14/15-year-olds look like?)

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Discussion Conclusion

• The observed association between psychosocial
  challenges (need of sensation, offline problem
  behavior and partly emotional problems) and
  exposure to SEM at early age supports results
  from prior works (Brown LEngle, 2009 Mesch,
  2009 Peter Valkenburg, 2006)
• Observed age differences in exposure proportion
  support previous findings (Wolak et al., 2007)
• The older, the higher consumption related to
  sexual development (see age means for
  masturbation initiation for Czech adolescents)
• Younger early adolescents are more likely to be
  bothered by SEM than older
• Developmental status unwanted exposure to SEM?
• ? Need for better protection of younger
  adolescents against exposure to SEM

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Thank you for your attention.
InvitationJournal call for papers
Cyberpsychology Journal of Psychosocial
Research on Cyberspace www.cyberpsychology.eu

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References

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