Background: Young people's use of pornography and participation in sexting are commonly viewed as harmful behaviours. This paper reports findings from a 'review of reviews', which aimed to systematically identify and synthesise the evidence on pornography and sexting amongst young people. sexting This paper will focus on evidence relating specifically to young people's involvement in pornography, sexting, and their beliefs and attitudes.
Methods: Five databases of health and social sciences were searched. Grey literature searches also were performed. The quality of the reviews was evaluated and the findings were synthesised narratively.
Results: Eleven reviews were included of quantitative and/or qualitative research. Pornography was associated with more permissive sexual views. A relationship between pornography use, stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs and pornography was also reported, though not consistently. Inconsistent evidence was also found to show a link between pornography and sexting or sexual behavior. Pornography use has been associated with various forms of sexual violence, aggression and harassment, but the relationship appears complex. Girls, in particular, may experience coercion and pressure to engage in sexting and suffer more negative consequences than boys if sexts become public. Positive aspects to sexting were reported, particularly in relation to young people's personal relationships.
Conclusions: We identified evidence from reviews of varying quality that linked pornography use and sexting amongst young people to specific beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. However, evidence was inconsistent and mostly derived only from cross-sectional observational studies. This makes it impossible to establish any causal relationship. Other methodological limitations were also identified and evidence gaps were discovered. More rigorous quantitative studies are needed and more qualitative methods should be used.