Presenter: Sean McDowell, PhD Children in their teens and early twenties live in a culture that has accepted pornography as a normal part of life. How can you have a real conversation about pornography and help these young people turn toward a more wholesome sexuality—even when the odds are good that they are active users of porn themselves?

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Sean McDowell, PhD.

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The top 3 reasons a teenager says
they use porn are:
1. Personal arousal –
2. Boredom –
3. Curiosity –
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RELATIONAL NEEDS
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If we don’t have our relational needs
met by our family and friends,
we tend to look elsewhere to
relational counterfeits.
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“An addiction is something that
is used to fill the void that a
relationship is meant to fill.”
Dr. Paul Warren
The Medical Institute National Conference 2002
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“Kids are more and more
connected, but less and less
really connected.”
Sherry Turkle, author
Alone Together
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Instant, Local Friends

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“In the porn fantasy, a guy is no longer that tech geek that
nobody liked in junior high school or the awkward college
student lacking in social skills.
In his mind’s eye — despite a paucity of dates and a sexual
history confined to the girl from math class — he has always
gotten the woman he wants.”
- Pamela Paul
Pornified
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PORN is not just
a male teenage
issue.
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Teenage girls and young women are
significantly more likely to actively seek out
porn than women over age 25.
(33% of women, ages 13-24 actively seek
out porn at least once a month,
compared to women over the age of 25).

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Talk with students
about sex and pornography

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“Conversations about sex can be
uncomfortable for both parent and
child, but not having them—or
handling them poorly—can cause
long-term damage.”
- Mark Regnerus, ForbiddenFruit

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In one study, of mothers strongly
agreed that they talked with their kids
about sex, but only of the youth
agreed.
- Mark Regnerus, ForbiddenFruit

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“Many parents believe that this is their primary
responsibility:
to convey normative — rather than informative —
messages about sex…when devoutly religious parents
say they are talking regularly with their adolescents
about sex and birth control, it means they are talking with
them about morality rather than sharing information.”
- Mark Regnerus, ForbiddenFruit

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Define sex and
pornography for students.

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Use stories to motivate
and influence students.

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- Revelation 12:11
“And they have conquered him
by the blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their
testimony…” (ESV)

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Appeal to common
human values to help students
see why pornography is wrong.

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 Teens are least comfortable of any age group
with the amount of porn they use .
 More than half of teens and young adults talk
about porn in a way that is completely
accepting
.
- The Porn Phenomenon

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We need to appeal to deeper moral
values they hold and draw them
out.
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Ask questions.

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 When did you start viewing pornography?
 How often do you view it?
 What kind of pornography do you view?
 How does it make you feel about yourself?
 How badly do you want to stop?
 When do you most commonly view it?
 What do you think it will take to stop?
The best approach is to listen and ask
questions:
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Counter the narrative
that we need sex to survive.

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Christopher Yuan’s Story

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SeanMCDOWELL
sean@seanmcdowell.org