Within the context of the widespread use of digital and mobile technologies by adolescents, this project sets out to identify which ideas about sex and relationships young people are most likely to encounter when exposed to online pornography. Pornography is one of the greatest challenges posed by the “digital revolution”: many teenagers watch much more pornography than their parents know and most young people will be exposed to it for the first time during early adolescence or childhood. Moreover, there are growing concerns that pornography is shaping their views of sexual relationships and gender equality. Thus, the need for evidence-based literacy programmes for students, parents, and educators has never been greater, but, to develop them, we first need to know: what messages exactly does online pornography convey about sex and relationships?
This project answers this question through a systematic computational analysis, in combination with a qualitative discourse analysis, of the language used on two of the most popular pornographic websites: PornHub and XVideos. In addition to examining the content, titles, and keywords of the most frequently viewed videos on these platforms, this study will also examine the comment sections attached to them. This will not only identify the most dominant discourses on these widely available platforms, but also the discursive similarities and differences between users and videos, and the ideologies that transpire through both.
What is online pornography teaching our children?: A computational study of PornHub and XVideos
