Pornography: 4 out of 10 young people regularly access adult content online, Italy among the most active countries in the world

Italy is among the nations that consume the most pornography online: according to recent data released by one of the most important thematic platforms for 'hot' content, we are eighth in the world for number of visits and fifth for average length of visit.
A phenomenon that, unfortunately, also and above all concerns our young people: about 4 out of 10, between the ages of 10 and 25, regularly use adult web content. And if for adults there is no problem whatsoever, for minors we would be talking on paper about materials that are forbidden to them.
These latest data come from a recent survey by Skuola.net, which highlighted how the phenomenon is already present among 11-13 year olds - in this age group about 1 in 3 is a habitual consumer - until it explodes among 14-18 year olds, where the 'clientele' of this content reaches two thirds of the target audience.

This is precisely where, in part, the clampdown on access to websites forbidden to minors, wanted by Agcom (the Communications Guarantee Authority), which will come into force on 12 November next. The new measure, contained in the so-called 'Caivano Decree', stipulates that anyone wishing to visit the main adult portals from Italy must actually certify their age of majority.
We are not only talking about pornography - even if, at this stage, it remains the special observed - but more generally of all those contents that can compromise the healthy growth of girls and boys.
The Net, in fact, forms - and deforms - the imagination of the very young, creating a direct link between what happens online and behaviour in reality, even the most violent. A link that, at least in the case of pornography, is quite evident.

Almost half of those of school age, as we have seen, regularly frequent 'red light' sites. And if at one time the use was predominantly a male phenomenon, today the gap between the genders tends to close. Among boys, 21% say they do it 'often', and another 21% 'sometimes'. Girls, however, are not too far behind. What changes, if anything, is the frequency with which these 'territories' are accessed: 7% do so with some regularity, while 29% admit to more occasional use. But it is not just a question of use. Also to be considered is the impact that those contents have on the perception of gender relations and roles. Among males, one in three (33%) does not recognise pornography as an element that could contribute to the instrumentalisation of women. Among girls, on the other hand, the percentage drops to 17%. This is certainly one of the first alarm signals, showing how much the viewing of those contents affects not only behaviour, but the very perception of gender respect and violence.
This is also confirmed by more general data: for 41% of adult Italians pornography contributes to turning women into objects, while another 42% believe that it does so 'only' in predisposed subjects. Only 17% deny any link between porn and violence.

Wanting, then, to go even more concretely into the reasons that prompted Agcom to tighten its grip, then the most precise thermometer remains that of the latest Pornhub report - the one mentioned at the beginning - which, as mentioned, places Italy in eighth place in the world for 'red light' web traffic.
And if we talk about the time spent on the site, we are even in the top five, with an average duration of 10 minutes and 23 seconds per visit.
The global figure also confirms that the audience is particularly young: 27% of users are between 18 and 24 years old, and 24% between 25 and 34. And if the preferred channel of entry is almost always the smartphone (in 90% of cases), there is no shortage of alternative and decidedly more curious ways: there are even those who connect from game consoles, with 60% of accesses coming from PlayStation 5 and 35% from PlayStation 4.
And, as already mentioned, it is no longer an exclusively male world. Today, almost a third of accesses (29%) are by women, compared to 71% by men. This is a significant change, which is also confirmed by long-term data: in 2015, female users accounted for just 24% of the total audience, whereas today they account for almost four out of ten (38%).

At this point, however, there are two questions to be asked: how will the new rules on user identification impact on these habits? And how many will really be willing to comply? Many, in fact, have no intention of providing their personal data to access pornographic sites, despite the guarantees of anonymity, given that the Agcom device envisages so-called double anonymity: the age certifiers will be third parties to the platforms and will provide a sort of completely anonymous digital age certificate, which the user will then 'hand over' to the platforms. In short, those who issue the certificate will not know to whom it will be delivered, those who receive it will not know to whom it belongs.