How Technology Changes Teen Romance

Young people have always been curious

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about sex, and when our teenagers have questions, the internet is usually their first stop, for worse and for better. Adolescents can and do find highly explicit sexual material online, and an emerging body of research tells a worrisome story about the place of pornography in young people’s lives. For example, a new research reviewlinks exposure to sexually explicit and sexually abusive media to an increased occurrence and acceptance of both dating violence and sexual violence.

On a more positive note, teenagers also turn to the internet for information about relationships and sexual health. Indeed, a recent report found that rates of teenage births and sexually transmitted infections dropped in communities as high-speed internet access improved. The researchers concluded that the reduction in adolescent births was not clearly linked to a shift in abortion rates and was likely explained, in part, by increased access to information about contraception and how to obtain it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/well/family/the-love-lives-of-digital-natives.html