Eliza Newell, 52:1, 110-123, DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2026.2638381
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the impact of exposure to online pornography in childhood on aspects of development in late adolescence, with a particular focus on sexual development. Three composite cases are used to outline some common themes found in treatment with young people, drawn from the experience of clinicians in the child and adolescent team at the Portman Clinic. The discussion is focused on how developmental processes in adolescence can be disrupted and corrupted by viewing sexualised images online in childhood, and how this might vary depending on the degree of trauma in the young person’s history. This paper was originally presented at the 2025 ACP conference, ‘Sexuality through a modern lens’.
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In our experience at the Portman, early exposure to online pornography can have an impact on an adolescent’s sexual development, but also on other areas, such as their developing self-esteem, their negotiation of risks and attempts at separation.
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Conclusion
For this generation of young people, the internet is on hand to actualise some of the unconscious drives and conflicts revived from early trauma and disturbed development. For us all, the algorithm will finesse our searches, increasingly adept at picking up on even minimal traces of what we might want, feeding us refined material which captures this. The adolescents I have described are all highly vulnerable to internet searches which draw on and amplify their disturbance. By the time we see them in treatment there can be a great deal of shame and confusion as to what their younger selves got up to online, and they are disturbed that they still feel some sexual excitement, despite also feeling in torment. For some, there can be a great deal of anxiety about their body feeling out of their control, with the potential to harm. It can then feel easier to keep things safe by excluding oneself from real life relationships and by not having any sexual contact at all. This also solves the problem of having to separate and move into the world, and there is a kind of ‘failure to launch’, such a risk for these adolescents as they are then likely to continue to act out in the online world instead.