'Gen XXX' findings surprising

Pornography was not a centerpiece of a larger BYU study on emerging adulthood that, as reported last week in the Deseret Morning News, showed college students and their parents no longer see 18-to-25-year-olds as adults. The BYU team regretted not including several more questions on attitudes about pornography.

For example, Carroll said it isn't clear whether college women were saying pornography is more acceptable for women or whether they are growing more permissive about men using it.

The study does indicate, without establishing a causal relationship, that women who are more accepting about pornography appear more prone to risky behavior.

"If they say pornography is an acceptable way to express one's sexuality, they have elevated levels of binge drinking and are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and have multiple partners in the last 12 months," Carroll said. "That's just by being accepting of pornography, let alone using it."

Carroll said the BYU team is involved in a study in Seattle that could yield more information about how pornography affects couple formation and marriages.

"Only 50 percent of women are accepting but 90 percent of men are reporting some level of usage," he said. "We know very little about what happens to pornography patterns during couple formation. Do women become accepting? Are more couples using it together? Do men stop using it when they are in a relationship? Do men keep using but hide it from their spouse? We have no evidence.

"It's an area where there could be some real tension because men's and women's approaches to pornography are so different."

Arnett would like to see researchers do some qualitative work, interviewing subjects personally about when they use pornography, what sort of Web sites they access, if there are some things they don't find acceptable and whether they use it more when they aren't in a sexual relationship.

Pornography is a $13 billion industry in the United States, $100 billion worldwide, according to the study. One-fourth of all Internet searches — 68 million per day — are for pornography. The United States hosted 244 million adult Web pages in 2006, according to Ogden-based TopTen Reviews.

Those statistics make it clear that researchers need more information about pornography's impact on the development of children, relationships and families, Carroll said.

That is even more true as the next revolution in pornography begins to crest.

"Internet and pay-per-view movies broke down social barriers to pornography use, making it seem more anonymous," he said. "Now we're entering the pocket-porn movement as society becomes more wireless. Parental monitoring used to be about taking care of Internet use at home. Now a group of 16- or 17-year-old boys could go out for the night and as long as one of them has a handheld device with Internet access, they have access to pornography.

"Parental monitoring becomes impossible, and that puts a high value on helping children improve their ability to self-monitor."

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