Video nasties: the effects of sexualised and violent imagery on children and young people

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner in England sanctioned a literature review into the effects of pornography on children and young people. The report was motivated by police interviews with young perpetrators of sexual violence who identified their experience of rape as ‘like being in a porn movie’.
A literature search was undertaken, identifying 276 grey and white sources assessing the impact of violent and sexualised media on children and young people’s attitudes and behaviours. The white literature concentrated on review articles and meta analyses. Although direct causality cannot be established, the literature shows links between viewing sexualised and violent imagery and young people’s sexual attitudes and behaviours. The literature suggests that youth culture is affected by sexual and aggressive imagery (Anderson, Shibuya, Ihori, et al, 2010; Löfgren-Martenson & Mansson, 2010; Peter & Valkenburg, 2007) and that this influences children and young people’s attitudes and behaviours (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). Interactive imagery such as video games is particularly damaging - possibly due to the reward system attached to the game’s interface. The impact is contingent on both the form of the media viewed (Lo & Wei, 2005; Sterner & Berkley, 2012), the young person’s support network (L’Engle, Brown and Kenneavy, 2004), social learning (Hunter & Figueredo & Malamuth, 2009) and other demographic factors, not least gender which has been consistently found to be significant in the effect of sexualised media (e.g. Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Klof, 1999; Boxer, Huesman, Bushman et al, 2008; Stermer & Burkley 2012). How and in what ways children and young people are affected by violent imagery - and how enduring those effects may be - is debated.