Protect Children from the Dangers of Online Pornography

• The average age of first exposure to pornography is between 7 and 13 years old.

• 58% of individuals exposed to pornography for the first time accessed the material unintentionally. Age verification requirements would prevent this unintentional exposure and reduce overall underage exposure to pornography.

• 88.2% of pornographic videos depict sexual violence, while 48.7% of these same videos include some kind of verbal abuse.

• 53% of male adolescents and 39% of female adolescents believe the lie that pornography is an accurate portrayal of sex. Young people are learning about sexuality from a perspective which portrays sex as abuse, instead of receiving age-appropriate sex education from a parent or guardian.

• There is a strong correlation between pornography, human trafficking, and sexual abuse. Pornographic videos cannot be assumed to portray consensual sex, as many adult sites contain explicit videos and images of adults and minors, who have not consented to filming such content. Sex trafficking is the supply side of the pornography industry.