According to educational consultant Stefan Eikemann, children are confronted with pornographic content from the third grade of primary school onwards – and need to be prepared for it. “In the third grade, the first pornographic images circulate on friends’ cell phones,” says Eikemann. “If children are informed in such a case, the shock or silence because the content overwhelms them is not so great. They can classify the images better.”
Pornography shapes role models
Online pornography also influences the imagination of young people. It conveys role models that have little to do with reality. This is also something that the advice centers are concerned about. “Pornography presents models that are good for neither men nor women,” says the educational advisor. “According to this model, women always want to do it and men can do it too – that does not correspond to reality at all. But young people force themselves into roles that do not correspond to them at all.”
Sex without physical proximity
It’s not just online pornography, the virtual world as a whole that is changing the sexual and social behavior of young people, says Eikemann. Sex is practiced at a distance, and some are afraid of entering into a relationship. “With pornography or video encounters, sexuality takes place without physical contact,” says Eikemann. “As a result, young people have different ideas and are less likely to enter into relationships.”
