While the report only surveyed young men in the UK, there’s no doubt similar fears and doubts plague young Australian men, too. According to the ABS, 29 per cent of young Australians aged 18-34 are now single, up from 21 per cent in 1976, while suicide rates among young men aged 15-24 are at their highest rate in 10 years.
According to Catherine Barker, one of the researchers at the Family Stability Network, the chief problem for young people is that they struggle to find good advice about relationships and so turn to porn instead.
“Eight out of ten young men would welcome better advice about their relationship problems,” she says, “but they often rely on porn and the advice of friends to guide their expectations of relationships. We can’t bury our heads in the sand about the realities of the digital world we live in.”
So how do we tackle the problem? The report recommends that parents and adults need to model happy, functioning relationships and talk to young men about the impact porn can have on a relationship.
Without condemning or accepting the proliferation of porn, the report suggests talking openly with young men about the false reality and inflated expectations of porn.
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