0:00:00.250,0:00:03.750 [This talk contains mature content] 0:00:05.000,0:00:06.518 Six years ago, 0:00:06.542,0:00:11.518 I discovered something that scientists[br]have been wanting to know for years. 0:00:11.542,0:00:13.518 How do you capture the attention 0:00:13.542,0:00:16.833 of a roomful of extremely bored teenagers? 0:00:17.875,0:00:21.559 It turns out all you have to do[br]is mention the word pornography. 0:00:21.583,0:00:22.768 (Laughter) 0:00:22.792,0:00:25.101 Let me tell you how I first learned this. 0:00:25.125,0:00:29.143 In 2012, I was sitting in a crowded room[br]full of high school students 0:00:29.167,0:00:31.934 who were attending[br]an after-school program in Boston. 0:00:31.958,0:00:34.226 And my job, as guest speaker for the day, 0:00:34.250,0:00:37.309 was to inspire them to think[br]about how exciting it would be 0:00:37.333,0:00:38.958 to have a career in public health. 0:00:40.000,0:00:41.268 The problem was, 0:00:41.292,0:00:42.934 as I looked at their faces, 0:00:42.958,0:00:45.559 I could see that their eyes[br]were glazing over, 0:00:45.583,0:00:47.768 and they were just tuning out. 0:00:47.792,0:00:49.364 It didn't even matter that I wore 0:00:49.388,0:00:53.059 what I thought was[br]my cool outfit that day. 0:00:53.083,0:00:55.559 I was just losing my audience. 0:00:55.583,0:00:59.059 So, then one of the two adults[br]who worked for the program said, 0:00:59.083,0:01:01.893 "Aren't you doing some research[br]about pornography? 0:01:01.917,0:01:03.708 Maybe tell them about that." 0:01:04.708,0:01:08.351 All of a sudden, that room[br]full of high school students exploded 0:01:08.375,0:01:10.726 into laughter, high fives. 0:01:10.750,0:01:13.726 I think there were some[br]loud hooting noises. 0:01:13.750,0:01:18.101 And all anyone had done[br]was say that one word -- pornography. 0:01:18.125,0:01:20.809 That moment would prove to be[br]an important turning point 0:01:20.833,0:01:23.518 for me and my professional mission[br]of finding solutions 0:01:23.542,0:01:26.476 to end dating and sexual violence. 0:01:26.500,0:01:29.393 At that point, I'd been working[br]for more than a decade 0:01:29.417,0:01:32.976 on this seemingly intractable problem[br]of dating violence. 0:01:33.000,0:01:36.101 Data from the US Centers[br]for Disease Control and Prevention 0:01:36.125,0:01:40.684 demonstrate that one in five[br]high school-attending youth 0:01:40.708,0:01:44.143 experience physical and/or sexual abuse 0:01:44.167,0:01:47.018 by a dating partner each year in the US. 0:01:47.042,0:01:50.184 That makes dating violence more prevalent 0:01:50.208,0:01:52.851 than being bullied on school property, 0:01:52.875,0:01:55.101 seriously considering suicide, 0:01:55.125,0:01:56.518 or even vaping, 0:01:56.542,0:01:58.768 in that same population. 0:01:58.792,0:02:01.184 But solutions were proving elusive. 0:02:01.208,0:02:03.143 And I was working with a research team 0:02:03.167,0:02:06.309 that was hunting[br]for novel answers to the question: 0:02:06.333,0:02:09.625 What's causing dating abuse,[br]and how do we stop it? 0:02:10.690,0:02:13.643 One of the research studies[br]that we were working on at the time 0:02:13.667,0:02:16.643 happened to include[br]a few questions about pornography. 0:02:16.667,0:02:20.518 And something unexpected[br]was emerging from our findings. 0:02:20.542,0:02:24.851 Eleven percent of the teen[br]girls in our sample 0:02:24.875,0:02:27.518 reported that they had been[br]forced or threatened 0:02:27.542,0:02:31.375 to do sexual things that[br]the perpetrator saw in pornography. 0:02:32.750,0:02:34.268 That got me curious. 0:02:34.292,0:02:39.101 Was pornography to blame[br]for any percentage of dating violence? 0:02:39.125,0:02:43.018 Or was it more like a coincidence[br]that the pornography users 0:02:43.042,0:02:47.601 also happen to be more likely[br]to be in unhealthy relationships? 0:02:47.625,0:02:50.559 I investigated by reading[br]everything that I could 0:02:50.583,0:02:52.309 from the peer-reviewed literature, 0:02:52.333,0:02:54.726 and by conducting my own research. 0:02:54.750,0:02:56.018 I wanted to know 0:02:56.042,0:02:58.768 what kinds of sexually explicit media[br]youth were watching, 0:02:58.792,0:03:00.434 and how often and why, 0:03:00.458,0:03:02.059 and see if I could piece together 0:03:02.083,0:03:04.809 if it was part of the reason[br]that for so many of them 0:03:04.833,0:03:08.351 dating relationships[br]were apparently unhealthy. 0:03:08.375,0:03:12.018 As I read, I tried to keep an open mind, 0:03:12.042,0:03:14.601 even though there were[br]plenty of members of the public 0:03:14.625,0:03:17.309 who'd already made up[br]their mind about the issue. 0:03:17.333,0:03:21.226 Why would I keep an open mind[br]about pornography? 0:03:21.250,0:03:23.726 Well, I'm a trained social scientist, 0:03:23.750,0:03:26.726 so it's my job to be objective. 0:03:26.750,0:03:30.184 But I'm also what people[br]call sex-positive. 0:03:30.208,0:03:33.643 That means that[br]I fully support people's right 0:03:33.667,0:03:38.059 to enjoy whatever kind of sex life[br]and sexuality they find fulfilling, 0:03:38.083,0:03:40.059 no matter what it involves, 0:03:40.083,0:03:43.393 as long as it includes[br]the enthusiastic consent 0:03:43.417,0:03:45.059 of all parties involved. 0:03:45.083,0:03:50.559 That said, I personally wasn't inclined[br]towards watching pornography. 0:03:50.583,0:03:53.351 I'd seen some, didn't really[br]do anything for me. 0:03:53.375,0:03:56.393 And as a mom of two[br]soon-to-be teenage children, 0:03:56.417,0:03:58.184 I had my own concerns 0:03:58.208,0:04:01.375 about what seeing pornography[br]could do to them. 0:04:02.292,0:04:04.518 I noticed that while[br]there were a lot of people 0:04:04.542,0:04:06.309 who were denouncing pornography, 0:04:06.333,0:04:08.934 there were also people[br]who were staunch defenders of it 0:04:08.958,0:04:10.393 for a variety of reasons. 0:04:10.417,0:04:13.434 So in my scholarly exploration, 0:04:13.458,0:04:16.184 I genuinely tried to understand: 0:04:16.208,0:04:20.601 Was pornography bad for you[br]or was it good for you? 0:04:20.625,0:04:24.809 Was it misogynist or was it empowering? 0:04:24.833,0:04:29.476 And there was not one singular answer[br]that emerged clearly. 0:04:29.500,0:04:32.726 There was one longitudinal study[br]that had me really worried, 0:04:32.750,0:04:36.268 that showed that teenagers[br]who saw pornography 0:04:36.292,0:04:39.643 were subsequently more likely[br]to perpetrate sexual violence. 0:04:39.667,0:04:41.184 But the design of the study 0:04:41.208,0:04:44.434 didn't allow for definitive[br]causal conclusions. 0:04:44.458,0:04:47.476 And there were other studies[br]that did not find 0:04:47.500,0:04:49.393 that adolescent pornography use 0:04:49.417,0:04:52.143 was associated with certain[br]negative outcomes. 0:04:52.167,0:04:54.893 Even though there were other studies[br]that did find that. 0:04:54.917,0:04:56.893 But as I spoke to other experts, 0:04:56.917,0:05:02.018 I felt tremendous pressure[br]to pick a side about pornography. 0:05:02.042,0:05:04.143 Join one team or the other. 0:05:04.167,0:05:07.059 I was even told that[br]it was weak-minded of me 0:05:07.083,0:05:11.292 not to be able to pick out the one[br]correct answer about pornography. 0:05:12.042,0:05:13.309 And it was complicated, 0:05:13.333,0:05:16.143 because there is an industry 0:05:16.167,0:05:19.726 that is capitalizing[br]off of audience's fascination 0:05:19.750,0:05:24.518 with seeing women, in particular,[br]not just having sex, 0:05:24.542,0:05:29.059 but being chocked, gagged, slapped, 0:05:29.083,0:05:32.809 spit upon, ejaculated upon, 0:05:32.833,0:05:36.893 called degrading names[br]over and over during sex, 0:05:36.917,0:05:39.309 and not always clearly with their consent. 0:05:39.333,0:05:43.018 Most people would agree[br]that we have a serious problem 0:05:43.042,0:05:47.184 with misogyny, sexual violence[br]and rape in this country, 0:05:47.208,0:05:51.809 and pornography probably[br]isn't helping with any of that. 0:05:51.833,0:05:54.893 And a critically important[br]problem to me was that 0:05:54.917,0:05:56.476 for more than a century, 0:05:56.500,0:06:00.351 the anti-pornography position[br]had been used as a pretext 0:06:00.375,0:06:03.976 for discriminating[br]against gays and lesbians 0:06:04.000,0:06:06.809 or people who have kinks or have fetishes. 0:06:06.833,0:06:08.893 So I could see why, on the one hand, 0:06:08.917,0:06:13.018 we might be very worried about[br]the messages that pornography is sending, 0:06:13.042,0:06:14.351 and on the other hand, 0:06:14.375,0:06:18.809 why we might be really worried[br]about going overboard indicting it. 0:06:18.833,0:06:20.268 For the next two years, 0:06:20.292,0:06:25.101 I looked into every scary,[br]horrifying claim that I could find 0:06:25.125,0:06:29.559 about the average age[br]at which people first see pornography, 0:06:29.583,0:06:33.059 or what it does to their brains[br]or their sexuality. 0:06:33.083,0:06:35.559 Here's what I have to report back. 0:06:35.583,0:06:39.518 The free, online, mainstream pornography, 0:06:39.542,0:06:42.143 that's the kind that teenagers[br]are most likely to see, 0:06:42.167,0:06:46.351 is a completely terrible form[br]of sex education. 0:06:46.375,0:06:51.809 (Laughter) 0:06:51.833,0:06:56.143 (Applause) 0:06:56.167,0:06:59.583 But that's not what it was intended for. 0:07:00.500,0:07:05.018 And it probably is not[br]instantly poisoning their minds 0:07:05.042,0:07:07.851 or turning them into compulsive users, 0:07:07.875,0:07:10.809 the way that some ideologues[br]would have you believe. 0:07:10.833,0:07:15.184 It's a rare person who doesn't see[br]some pornography in their youth. 0:07:15.208,0:07:17.476 By the time they're 18 years old, 0:07:17.500,0:07:22.434 93 percent of first year college males[br]and 62 percent of females 0:07:22.458,0:07:25.184 have seen pornography at least once. 0:07:25.208,0:07:26.851 And though people like to say 0:07:26.875,0:07:30.518 that the internet has made[br]pornography ubiquitous, 0:07:30.542,0:07:34.143 or basically guarantees[br]that any young child 0:07:34.167,0:07:38.184 who's handed a smartphone[br]is definitely going to see pornography, 0:07:38.208,0:07:40.018 data don't really support that. 0:07:40.042,0:07:44.434 A nationally representative study[br]found that in the year 2000 0:07:44.458,0:07:47.768 16 percent of 10-to-13-year-old youth 0:07:47.792,0:07:50.851 reported that they'd seen[br]pornography in the past year. 0:07:50.875,0:07:54.059 And by 2010, that figure had increased. 0:07:54.083,0:07:55.934 But only to 30 percent. 0:07:55.958,0:07:58.184 So it wasn't everybody. 0:07:58.208,0:08:02.393 Our problems with adolescents[br]and sexual violence perpetration 0:08:02.417,0:08:04.726 is not only because of pornography. 0:08:04.750,0:08:06.268 In fact, a recent study 0:08:06.292,0:08:09.809 found that adolescents[br]are more likely to see sexualized images 0:08:09.833,0:08:13.476 in other kinds of media[br]besides pornography. 0:08:13.500,0:08:16.476 Think about all those[br]sexualized video games, 0:08:16.500,0:08:19.393 or TV shows, or music videos. 0:08:19.417,0:08:24.601 And it could be exposure[br]to a steady stream of violent media 0:08:24.625,0:08:28.726 that instead of or in addition to[br]the sexualized images 0:08:28.750,0:08:30.643 is causing our problems. 0:08:30.667,0:08:36.433 By focusing on the potential harms[br]of pornography alone, 0:08:36.457,0:08:40.018 we may be distracting ourselves[br]from bigger issues. 0:08:40.042,0:08:44.101 Or missing root causes[br]of dating and sexual violence, 0:08:44.125,0:08:47.059 which are the true public health crises. 0:08:47.083,0:08:49.726 That said, even my own research 0:08:49.750,0:08:53.684 demonstrates that adolescents[br]are turning to pornography 0:08:53.708,0:08:56.393 for education and information about sex. 0:08:56.417,0:08:58.768 And that's because they can't find 0:08:58.792,0:09:01.893 reliable and factual[br]information elsewhere. 0:09:01.917,0:09:05.268 Less than 50 percent of the states[br]in the United States 0:09:05.292,0:09:09.101 require that sex education[br]be taught in schools, 0:09:09.125,0:09:12.059 including how to prevent coerced sex. 0:09:12.083,0:09:14.476 And less than half of those states 0:09:14.500,0:09:19.000 require that the information presented[br]be medically accurate. 0:09:20.500,0:09:22.768 So in that Boston after-school program, 0:09:22.792,0:09:24.976 those kids really wanted[br]to talk about sex, 0:09:25.000,0:09:27.518 and they really wanted[br]to talk about pornography. 0:09:27.542,0:09:29.559 And they wanted to talk about those things 0:09:29.583,0:09:33.518 a whole lot more than they wanted[br]to talk about dating or sexual violence. 0:09:33.542,0:09:34.809 So we realized, 0:09:34.833,0:09:39.226 we could cover all of the same topics[br]that we might normally talk about 0:09:39.250,0:09:42.226 under the guise of healthy[br]relationships education, 0:09:42.250,0:09:45.434 like, what's a definition[br]of sexual consent? 0:09:45.458,0:09:49.268 Or, how do you know[br]if you're hurting somebody during sex? 0:09:49.292,0:09:52.726 Or what are healthy boundaries to have[br]when you're flirting? 0:09:52.750,0:09:55.809 All of these same things we could discuss 0:09:55.833,0:09:58.976 by using pornography[br]as the jumping-off point 0:09:59.000,0:10:00.518 for our conversation. 0:10:00.542,0:10:04.434 It's sort of like when adults[br]give kids a desert like brownies, 0:10:04.458,0:10:07.726 but they secretly baked a zucchini[br]or something healthy inside of it. 0:10:07.750,0:10:09.226 (Laughter) 0:10:09.250,0:10:13.059 We could talk to the kids[br]about the healthy stuff, 0:10:13.083,0:10:14.518 the stuff that's good for you, 0:10:14.542,0:10:17.309 but hide it inside a conversation[br]that was about something 0:10:17.333,0:10:20.434 that they thought[br]they wanted to be talking about. 0:10:20.458,0:10:21.851 We also discovered something 0:10:21.875,0:10:24.601 that we didn't necessarily[br]set out to find, 0:10:24.625,0:10:29.268 which is that there's a fantastic way[br]to have a conversation with teenagers 0:10:29.292,0:10:30.976 about pornography. 0:10:31.000,0:10:32.518 And that is, 0:10:32.542,0:10:35.851 keep the conversation true to science. 0:10:35.875,0:10:38.768 Admit what we know and what we don't know 0:10:38.792,0:10:40.934 about the impact of pornography. 0:10:40.958,0:10:44.768 Talk about where there are mixed results 0:10:44.792,0:10:49.101 or where there are weaknesses[br]in the studies that have been conducted. 0:10:49.125,0:10:52.476 Invite the adolescents[br]to become critical consumers 0:10:52.500,0:10:55.101 of the research literature on pornography, 0:10:55.125,0:10:57.518 as well as the pornography itself. 0:10:57.542,0:11:01.226 That really fits[br]with adolescent development. 0:11:01.250,0:11:03.851 Adolescents like to question things 0:11:03.875,0:11:07.101 and they like to be invited[br]to think for themselves. 0:11:07.125,0:11:10.309 And we realized by starting to experiment, 0:11:10.333,0:11:14.268 teaching some classes in consent,[br]respect and pornography, 0:11:14.292,0:11:19.643 that trying to scare adolescents[br]into a particular point of view 0:11:19.667,0:11:25.851 or jam a one-sided argument[br]down their throat about pornography 0:11:25.875,0:11:29.518 not only probably does not work, 0:11:29.542,0:11:33.934 but really doesn't model[br]the kind of respectful, 0:11:33.958,0:11:36.851 consensual behavior[br]that we want them to learn. 0:11:36.875,0:11:41.434 So our approach, what we call[br]pornography literacy, 0:11:41.458,0:11:44.934 is about presenting the truth[br]about pornography 0:11:44.958,0:11:46.893 to the best of our knowledge, 0:11:46.917,0:11:50.643 given that there is[br]an ever-changing evidence base. 0:11:50.667,0:11:55.434 When people hear that we teach[br]a nine-session, 18-hour class 0:11:55.458,0:11:57.726 in pornography literacy to teenagers, 0:11:57.750,0:12:00.518 I think that they either think[br]that we're sitting kids down 0:12:00.542,0:12:03.351 and trying to show them[br]how to watch pornography, 0:12:03.375,0:12:05.726 which is not what we do, 0:12:05.750,0:12:09.101 or that we're part of[br]an anti-pornography activist group 0:12:09.125,0:12:12.226 that's trying to convince them[br]that if they ever saw pornography, 0:12:12.250,0:12:15.143 it would be the number one[br]worst thing for their health ever. 0:12:15.167,0:12:16.684 And that's not it, either. 0:12:16.708,0:12:20.851 Our secret ingredient[br]is that we're nonjudgmental. 0:12:20.875,0:12:24.309 We don't think that youth[br]should be watching pornography. 0:12:24.333,0:12:28.851 But, above all, we want them[br]to become critical thinkers 0:12:28.875,0:12:31.101 if and when they do see it. 0:12:31.125,0:12:32.393 And we've learned, 0:12:32.417,0:12:35.851 from the number of requests[br]for our curriculum and our training, 0:12:35.875,0:12:38.601 from across the US and beyond, 0:12:38.625,0:12:42.059 that there are a lot of parents[br]and a lot of teachers 0:12:42.083,0:12:45.684 who really do want to be having[br]these more nuanced 0:12:45.708,0:12:49.601 and realistic conversations[br]with teenagers about pornography. 0:12:49.625,0:12:54.518 We've had requests from Utah to Vermont, 0:12:54.542,0:12:56.833 to Alabama, to Hawaii. 0:12:57.917,0:13:00.476 So in that after-school program, 0:13:00.500,0:13:04.893 what I saw, is that from the minute[br]we mentioned the word pornography, 0:13:04.917,0:13:08.143 those kids were ready[br]to jump in to a back-and-forth 0:13:08.167,0:13:12.143 about what they did[br]and didn't want to see in pornography, 0:13:12.167,0:13:15.643 and what they did[br]and didn't want to do during sex. 0:13:15.667,0:13:18.059 And what was degrading to women 0:13:18.083,0:13:21.684 or unfair to men or racist, all of it. 0:13:21.708,0:13:24.393 And they made some[br]really sophisticated points. 0:13:24.417,0:13:27.976 Exactly the kinds of things that[br]we would want them to be talking about 0:13:28.000,0:13:30.208 as violence prevention activists. 0:13:31.042,0:13:35.518 And as teachers, we might leave[br]the class one day and think, 0:13:35.542,0:13:39.226 "It is really sad that there's[br]that one boy in our class 0:13:39.250,0:13:43.542 who thinks that all women[br]have orgasms from anal sex." 0:13:44.667,0:13:47.934 And we might leave class[br]the next week and think, 0:13:47.958,0:13:52.059 "I'm really glad that there's[br]that one kid in our class who's gay, 0:13:52.083,0:13:57.559 who said that seeing his sexuality[br]represented in pornography 0:13:57.583,0:13:59.184 saved his life." 0:13:59.208,0:14:01.726 Or, "There's that one girl in our class 0:14:01.750,0:14:05.143 who said that she's feeling[br]a lot better about her body, 0:14:05.167,0:14:10.351 because she saw someone shaped like her[br]as the object of desire 0:14:10.375,0:14:12.125 in some tame pornography." 0:14:13.417,0:14:18.518 So this is where I find myself[br]as a violence prevention activist. 0:14:18.542,0:14:21.958 I find myself talking about[br]and researching pornography. 0:14:23.042,0:14:24.476 And though it would be easier 0:14:24.500,0:14:26.809 if things in life[br]were all one way or the other, 0:14:26.833,0:14:30.809 what I've found in my conversations[br]with teenagers about pornography 0:14:30.833,0:14:35.059 is that they remain engaged[br]in these conversations 0:14:35.083,0:14:39.851 because we allow them[br]to grapple with the complexities. 0:14:39.875,0:14:43.167 And because we're honest[br]about the science. 0:14:44.375,0:14:47.351 These adolescents may not be adults yet, 0:14:47.375,0:14:50.143 but they are living in an adult world. 0:14:50.167,0:14:53.934 And they're ready for adult conversations. 0:14:53.958,0:14:55.226 Thank you. 0:14:55.250,0:14:59.125 (Applause)