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.
The messages conveyed by pornography can be a source of confusion and concern, and shape unrealistic and unhealthy sexual understandings and expectations.
New resources now available
Porn Is Not the Norm has now launched a suite of resources available on our resources hub. Developed and delivered by autism expert Dr Wenn Lawson and pornography expert Maree Crabbe, the resources are designed to support parents and carers of autistic young people and the teachers and other professionals who work with them to understand the interactions between autism, sexuality, technology and pornography, and how we can support autistic young people to navigate respectful, consenting and safe sexuality and relationships.
About Porn Is Not the Norm
Porn Is Not the Norm is a new initiative that 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 and impacts, and how they can safely navigate healthy and respectful relationships and sexuality in this context.
What Porn Is Not the Norm is doing
Porn Is Not the Norm is bringing together expertise about pornography and autism to create:
- education events for parents and carers
- professional learning for teachers and other professionals
- education resources for use with autistic young people
- a new website with information about pornography, autism and young people (watch this space!)
- a series of videos on key themes, produced from interviews with autistic young people, to help explore the issues.
Subscribe for updates
We will deliver Porn Is Not the Norm events and resources across 2022 and 2023. We will promote them through emails and social media. If you would like to be notified about Porn Is Not the Norm events and resources, please register your interest here.
Who is Porn Is Not the Norm?
Porn Is Not the Norm has been developed by a group of individuals and organisations who recognised the need for resources about pornography that are tailored for autistic young people and their communities – and then worked together to identify how we could contribute to addressing this gap. Delivery of Porn Is Not the Norm is being led by Maree Crabbe, of It’s time we talked, with significant input from Dr Wenn Lawson, Jodi Rodgers of Birds and Bees, and other members of the autistic and autism communities. Porn Is Not the Norm is being delivered by disability service provider, Interchange Outer East.