Porn Is Not The Norm.

Supporting autistic young people and their communities to safely navigate pornography’s influence

Young people, autism and the impact of porn

Pornography has become a default sexuality educator, with serious implications for young people’s capacity to develop a sexuality that is safe, respectful, mutual and consenting.

For autistic young people, pornography’s influence can be even more challenging. Monotropism, the key characteristic of autism, can make autistic young people particularly vulnerable to the impacts of pornography.

about porn is not the norm

Porn Is Not the Norm aims to prevent pornography’s harms to autistic young people by equipping them and their parents, carers, teachers and workers to understand pornography’s prevalence, nature and impacts, and how they can safely navigate healthy and respectful relationships and sexuality in this context.

What can we do?

The messages conveyed by pornography can be a source of confusion and concern, and shape unrealistic and unhealthy sexual understandings and expectations.

Parents, carers, families and schools all have important roles to play in supporting autistic young people to navigate pornography’s influence – and equip them with the skills they will need for a sexuality that is respectful, mutual, consenting and safe.

RESOURCES

Porn Is Not the Norm has brought together expertise about pornography and autism to create a series of resources, including education materials for parents and carers, professional learning for teachers and other professionals, and education resources for use with autistic young people.

Many of our resources include videos produced from our interviews with autistic young people, experts and professionals from the international pornography industry, to help explore the issues.

Photograph of a young woman with short brown hair, light brown skin and monolidded eyes looking at her laptop computer. She has a blue knitted jumper on and gold earrings and is concentrating but smiling slightly.
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A young East Asian teenage girl sitting on a couch looking at her phone. She has long dark hair in braids and light tan skin, and wears a grey sweater.
A young Latino teenage boy looking intently at his phone up close. He wears glasses, a white tee shirt and looks serious. He has short dark hair and light brown skin.
A young Black teenage boy looks at his phone whilst sitting on a wooden chair. He wears a grey sweater and has his hair shaved short. He has dark skin and is smiling a bit.
A teenage boy lays in bed looking intently at his phone. He has light skin and short dark hair.
A White teenage girl sits on a couch absorbed in her phone. She has pale skin, long brown hair and wears a flannel over a tee shirt.
A young Black teenage girl looks at an iPad whilst sitting on the couch. She has long wavy brown hair and brown skin, and wears pyjamas. She looks concerned.