Anna Ševčíková David Šmahel The presented research was supported by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MSM and 1P05ME751). MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES Czech Republic Institute for Research on Children, Youth and the Family Exposure to Sexually Explicit Materials among Czech Early Adolescents: Comparison with European Youth

Media/online exposure to sexually explicit materials (SEM): The material depicts sexual activity in unconcealed ways and this material can mediated by some media such as the internet Triple-A-engine theory: the internet sexuality is characteristic by Anonymity, Accessibility & Affordability (Cooper, 1998)  online sexual explicit materials are easily accessible, affordable and anonymously shared Predictors for online exposure to sexually explicit materials : Demographic characteristics – gender & age More boys than girls (Mesch, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Vybíral, Smahel, Divínová, 2004; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005; Flood, 2007; Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2007) More older adolescence than younger ones (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2007) Introduction I

Predictors for (online) exposure to sexually explicit materials: Psychosocial characteristics – need for sensation (Brown & L’Engle, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006), emotional problems (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005), weak social bonds to family and school (Mesch, 2009)  psychosocial challenges Study justification and study goals: 1)Although early adolescents are regular media users - limited studies on early adolescent consumers of sexual explicit materials What are characteristics of early adolescents reporting online exposure to SEM? What kind of psychosocial challenges do they face? Introduction II

Data origin: EU Kids Online II project, which contains representative samples of at least 1,000 youth aged 9 to 16 years from 25 European countries. a subsample of youth aged 10 to15 years (N = ) Measures: 1)Online exposure to SEM: A brief description of sexual materials was followed by the question “Have you seen anything of this kind in the past 12 months” online exposure was distinguished by “Have you seen these kind of things on any websites in the past 12 months?” 2)Being bothered: “Thinking about the last time you were bothered by something like this, how upset did you feel about it (if at all)? (from “very upset” to “not at all upset”) 3)Sensation need: “I do dangerous things for fun” & “I do exciting things, even if they are dangerous” (alpha =.0772) 4)Offline risky behavior: 7-item scale, e.g. “Missed school lessons without my parents knowing” (Alpha = 0.627) 5)Emotional problems: 5-item scale, e.g. “I worry a lot” (Alpha = 0.649) 6)Self-efficacy: 4-item scale (Alpha = 0.654) Methods

Exposure to SEM

Exposure to SEM and gender

Exposure across media – Czech children

Exposure to SEM according to the age

Bothered by the sexual exposure 35% of children reported being bothered by this experience (30% of males, 41% of females)

How upset did they feel?

Predictors for exposure to SEM - CZ

Discussion & Conclusion The internet as a main source of SEM in CZ (63%) The concept of triple-A-engine seems to be relevant Czech early adolescents report increased exposure to SEM the Czech Republic known as a country with liberal attitudes towards sexual behavior - has a higher number of sex partners compared to, for example, than United States (Weiss, Kučera, & Svěráková, 1995; Weiss & Zvěřina, 2001) There is no compulsory sexually focused education of Czech children  consumption of SEM as a source of information (66% of Czechs vs. 32% of EU kids at age 14/15) Consumption of sexual materials at age 14/15 may include an entertainment component - debut of masturbation activity among Czech adolescents = years (age mean for male=13,97 let & age mean for girls = 16,89 (Weiss a Zvěřina, 1996) (in accordance to observed higher proportion of males in exposure) Could exposure to SEM at early age associated with poorer parental surveillance? (high proportion of seen materials on TV, films, video/DVD) (How can parental monitoring among 14/15-year-olds look like?)

Discussion & Conclusion The observed association between psychosocial challenges (need of sensation, offline problem behavior and partly emotional problems) and exposure to SEM at early age supports results from prior works (Brown & L’Engle, 2009; Mesch, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006) Observed age differences in exposure proportion support previous findings (Wolak et al., 2007) The older, the higher consumption – related to sexual development (see age means for masturbation initiation for Czech adolescents) Younger early adolescents are more likely to be bothered by SEM than older Developmental status & unwanted exposure to SEM?  Need for better protection of younger adolescents against exposure to SEM

Thank you for your attention. Invitation: Journal call for papers: Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace

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