Porn: What's the Harm? Page #5

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at a school in Cardiff

extremely unusual.

I'm going to say the word

"pornography" to you

and I want you to think

about what comes to mind.

You can discuss it

between yourselves,

but just write something

down on the paper.

So there's pens there and paper.

So what comes to mind when

you hear the word "pornography"?

All done? Would you like to start?

Um...sex was the first one

that came to mind. OK.

Sex. Sex? Sex. Sex?

Sexual video. Sexual videos.

OK, well, that...

'It's interesting that, like

the young men in South London,

'these girls think

that porn is for boys.'

So I'll read out a statement.

Go with your own gut reaction, OK?

"All young people are

interested in pornography."

So what do you think there?

I don't want to be sexist,

but it's sort of mostly boys.

Mostly boys? Not all young people,

but maybe mostly boys? Yeah. OK.

And how do young people

come across...

different types of

pornography, generally?

When you're 11-12, you have a page

on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

and, um, the little advertisements

will come up on the side

without you necessarily

wanting to look at porn

and they'll have an advert

and, if you click on the advert,

it'll take you straight

to a pornography website.

Is it quite explicit, what you see?

It's sort of half-naked men

and half-naked women.

How do you think

young women like yourself

feel when they're suddenly,

like, confronted with that image?

It sort of makes you feel

a bit embarrassed,

because I don't want

to look at stuff like that

and, um, like,

to other people, sort of...

it'd be as if they have to

click on it, because it's come up

on their Facebook and stuff, so

they want to check out what it is.

But to me, it makes me feel a bit

awkward, cos I don't really want to.

But if many young people are

having to deal with sexual images

earlier than they ever did

in the past,

what exactly might be

the consequences of that?

One of the most worrying results

from our survey

was when we asked the question

"Do you think pornography affects

what young people expect from sex?"

Nearly 75% said young men's

expectations of sex

are affected by porn,

while 53% said young women's

expectations of sex are affected

by porn. When we asked young people

how porn affects

what young men expect from sex,

one of the top three most

common responses was that boys

expect girls' bodies to look

like they do in pornography,

with no pubic hair

and with large breasts.

An 18-year-old boy said they want

skinny women with big b*obs.

A 16-year-old boy said

that boys expect girls

to have a perfect, shaved

vagina like porn stars.

I mean, that's quite a lot

of pressure for young women.

I often see reports in the media

linking porn to a dramatic increase

in the number of women

asking for labiaplasty.

That's a cosmetic procedure

where the inner labia,

or vaginal lips, are reduced.

And what's worse,

gynaecologists like Dr Gail Busby

say more and more young girls

are now requesting this procedure.

She believes education is the key

to stopping media images

giving young people

such limited views on

what a woman's body is like.

So we've invited two groups

of teenage volunteers -

one boys and one girls -

to take part in a workshop.

Dr Busby starts by correcting

a common misunderstanding

about female genitals.

The vagina's actually the part

inside that you can't see.

The part on the outside that you can

see is actually called the vulva.

Dr Busby is going to use a sculpture

called 57 Women from

the Great Wall of Vagina series

to show the wide range

of normal vaginas or vulvas.

The artist, Jamie McCartney,

took plaster casts of real women.

Although they look very different,

they are all normal

and none needs surgery.

So these are all actual vulvas

from actual women.

They're horrible! They're horrible?

ALL:
Yeah.

They're all different. Yeah.

OK. What makes them horrible?

Some are like saggy and...

GIGGLING:

The one in the middle looks weird.

That one there.

That one? Yes. OK.

That one looks dodgy there.

This one looks dodgy.

This one? Yeah. It's a bit bigger!

It's a bit larger? OK. Yeah, yeah.

'Although dozens of girls under 18

ask Dr Busby for labiaplasty,

'because they think

they're abnormal,

'none of them have needed surgery.'

Is it really common? Yeah,

it's common and getting more common.

It's definitely noticeable and

getting younger and younger as well.

Really? So, what's the youngest age

you would have a girl worrying about

the size and shape of her vagina

and wanting to alter it?

Um, the youngest,

somewhere between 12 and 14.

Is this the first time that you have

seen images of adult women's vulvas?

Unless it's been all over Facebook.

SOME GIGGLING:

You don't really take much notice

of what they look like.

Unless it's seen, like on social

networking sites, stuff like that.

Sorry, do you guys see a lot

of vaginas on social media?

It's not pictures, it's videos.

How do you see videos?

They just pop up! They all

scroll and people share them

and put them on, like,

Facebook and stuff.

So people your age share videos

of their own vaginas? Yeah. Yeah.

Like a page... There's a page

on Facebook. And they put them on.

So what do those vaginas look like?

They stick things up themselves,

so you can't really see it.

In my clinics, I see many, many

girls your age who come along

asking me to operate and

remove bits of their vulvas.

And do you think that would be

a good idea in a 15, 16-year-old?

No. No? Why do you not think

it would be a good idea?

Because it could change by the time

they grow up. That is exactly it.

If these are all our age, well,

it's just you haven't gone

through development yet,

so it's just going to mess up

your system more, to be honest.

I couldn't agree with you more. They

might change. They're still growing.

That growth and development

keeps going on until adulthood.

So if they had an operation when

they were 16, it may grow again.

Yeah. And they may need another

or another or another.

These women don't need surgery,

cos there's nothing wrong with them.

But porn doesn't just affect the way

young people think they should look.

It also influences how they behave.

In our survey,

after we asked if porn affects

what boys AND girls expect from sex,

we went on to ask those

who took part to tell us how.

The most common answer

that we got back was that

young men expect women

to behave like sex objects

and young women expect

to be TREATED like sex objects.

So we had this wealth of just

quotes from young people.

I picked out a few that

I thought were quite poignant.

A 19-year-old young woman said that,

"I think that because porn

is so easily obtainable

"and the fact that

more boys than girls watch it

"that men expect girls to be

like the women in porn,"

you know, which I can see

is completely true.

A 17-year-old boy said that,

"Guys will expect the chance

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