‘Step-porn’ most watched by Kiwis - censor
Taboo ‘‘step-fantasy’’ and nonconsensual behaviour feature in much of the porn Kiwis are watching, according to the chief censor.
A new report analysing nearly 200 popular porn videos Kiwis have watched shows 10 per cent feature violence, but Chief Censor David Shanks says there’s a ‘‘concerning trend’’ of people watching ‘‘step-porn’’.
The porn has actors pretending to have sex with step-mothers, step-brothers or step-sisters, and commonly features a family member coercing their stepfamily member into sex.
The Breaking Down Porn report, which analyses the 200 most watched porn videos on mainstream website PornHub, found 43 per cent of this porn involved step-fantasy and 35 per cent involved coercion.
PornHub is a global giant in online porn, and researchers at the chief censor’s office say it seems to be the most popular site for adolescent Kiwis.
Shanks said the volume of step-fantasy porn was particularly problematic for young people. ‘‘This was not something evident in earlier content research, particular pre-internet.’’ The ‘‘persistence and persuasion’’ applied in the videos to overcome resistance to sex reinforced stereotypes about nonconsensual behaviour, he said.
Of the 196 videos totalling 46 hours of content, one-in-10 featured physical aggression.
While 13 per cent of videos had a hand placed on another person’s throat, only one of the videos featured choking or restricting the person’s breath.
Three per cent of the videos featured the use of a condom, which worried Shank as many teens watch porn to educate themselves about sex. A previous report from the chief censor found a quarter of all children under the age of 12 and two-thirds between 14 and 17 had seen pornography. Of those youths 73 per cent used porn as a ‘‘learning tool’’, which they said had both a positive and negative effect.
‘‘These are hard things to talk about. Pornography is a really hard thing for parents to talk to their child about ... nonetheless, it’s really important that we do it,’’ Shanks said.