Introduction

Throughout human history, pornography has continued to be an issue of concern. Initially, it drew attention for its depictions of nudity and sexual acts and, more recently, for the pervasive violence in its content and the consequential societal impact (Carrote et al., 2020). In recent decades, the availability of pornography on the internet has given rise to a remarkable surge in its popularity, attracting an ever-widening audience (Short et al., 2012). Indeed, its presence has now become normalized for most of Western society—particularly among men—leading to an escalation in both supply and demand for pornographic content (D'Orlando, 2011; Solano et al., 2018) .

However, this consumption continues to be shrouded in social taboos (Robinson, 2010), particularly in the context of interactions between young people and adults (Johnson, 2021; Yu et al., 2021). As a result, fostering critical thinking about pornography consumption has proven to be challenging (Wright & Randall, 2014). Furthermore, there are even studies suggesting a waning influence of universities teaching on critical thinking (Wright & Tokunaga, 2022) and a diminishing level of critical discourse among teaching staff concerning pornography (Fisher & Kohut, 2017). A pivotal step in addressing this issue could involve destigmatizing the subject within the educational community, although this still seems to be a distant goal (Albury, 2014: McNair, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2016). In this context, the present study aimed to analyze how pornography is represented by young people who will become educators and teachers in the future.

Pornography Consumption Among Young People

Concerning the younger demographic, recent Spanish research suggests that the age at which users start consuming pornography is currently 8 years (Ballester et al., 2020). Moreover, according to some reports (Jiménez et al., 2013), more than 60% of Spanish adolescents between 14 and 17 years old tend to regularly watch pornography on the internet (Save the Children, 2020) .

One of the repercussions of pornography consumption among adolescents and young adults is the phenomenon of perceptual distortion. This concept refers to the formation or deformation of attitudes since the cognitive and emotional development of young individuals may not yet be sufficiently mature to contextualize and interpret what they see (Ballester et al., 2020). More specifically, the content of mainstream pornography is predominantly biased toward catering to male gratification, a trend characterized by the objectification and commodification of women to satisfy male desires (Flood, 2010). Furthermore, this portrayal fosters a sexist relational model, wherein women are frequently reduced to the status of sexual objects available for the gratification of men (Ballester et al., 2019) and in which instances of both physical and verbal assault against women are disturbingly prevalent (Bridges et al., 2010). Consequently, some researchers suggest that adolescents who habitually consume pornography are more likely to internalize and endorse rape myths, leading to the adoption of negative sexual values or a propensity toward sexual aggression (Ybarra et al., 2011; Zhou & Zhang, 2021).

Therefore, this consumption of mainstream pornography also has an impact on their perception of sexual relationships and may directly affect their sexual activity (Pirrone et al., 2022; Sun et al., 2016; Wright et al., 2013). In addition, the consumption of pornography is more stigmatized among women as they may fear potential judgement or disapproval of their reported consumption (Emmers-Sommer, 2018).

Pornography as an Educational Tool

While comprehensive affective-sexual education has been in place for more than 50 years in some European countries, such as Sweden (Ballester et al., 2020), this is unfortunately not the case in Spain. In this country, adolescents often rely on pornography as their primary source of education, given the absence of regulated affective-sexual education that could enable them to develop a critical perspective (De Miguel, 2021). Additionally, educators working with children, adolescents, and young people (both teachers and social educators) have expressed a growing concern about the effects of pornography on their students (Sellgren, 2013).

It is important to note that, historically, educators have been ill-equipped to address this issue, primarily because it is considered a taboo subject and difficult to approach (Emmers-Sommer, 2018). Hence, several academics have also emphasized the importance of training future teachers on the issue of pornography (Albury, 2014: McNair, 2009). However, as a starting point, it is important to determine how future educators (who are themselves young people) understand and relate to pornography (Ollis, 2016).

In this context, the present research draws on social representations theory (Moscovici, 1984, 1988) to investigate how pornography is understood and represented by future educators. According to this theory, social representations are systems of values, ideas, and practices with two functions. First, they establish an order that allows people to navigate and comprehend the world they inhabit, and second, they enable communication between members of a community (Moscovici, 1984). This theoretical framework allows us to explore how future educators understand pornography based on both their knowledge and their daily social discourse concerning this issue (Duveen & Lloyd, 1990). We understand their representations of pornography as serving three fundamental functions: (i) a knowledge function, enabling understanding and communication; (ii) an orientation function, guiding behavior and practices; and (iii) a (de)legitimization function, rationalizing positions and behavior (Serrano, 2013).

Therefore, the present study focused on university students of education. This particular demographic was chosen because they are young individuals, who are a primary target of pornography consumption. Additionally, they hold the potential to become the future educators of the next generation and can thus play a pivotal role in driving changes in sex education.

Thus, the general goal of the present study was to explore the representations of pornography among these future educators, that is, students of Infant Education, Primary Education, and Social Education. The specific objectives of the study were as follows:

  • To describe, using a free association exercise, how pornography is represented by trainee teachers.

  • To identify whether the types of pornography or reasons for its consumption are also incorporated into these representations.

  • To explore whether these representations also include reflections on the potential impact of pornography on their affective-sexual lives.

Methodology

Sample

A total of 276 participants were recruited from students at the University of the Basque Country located in Northern Spain. The University of the Basque Country is the eighth largest university in Spain with 40,000 students and is also ranked in the eighth position at the state level and 358 at the international level according to the CWUR (Center of World University Ranking). In this cross-sectional study, the participants were recruited through convenience sampling. Of the sample, 217 (78.6%) were women, and 59 (21.4%) were men. It should be noted that although the non-binary option was presented, no participant chose this category. Furthermore, 22.1% of the participants were university students of infant education, 30.1% of primary education, and 47.8% of social education degrees. The mean age of the participants was 20.3 years (SD = 2.65; range 18–37).

Instrument and Procedure

The data for this study were collected online from January to May 2021 in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of the Basque Country (ref: M10/2023/141).

The questionnaires were administered into two parts. First, we collected socio-demographic data including age (free), gender (female/male/other), the subject they were studying (infant, primary, or social education), and whether they had received affective-sexual education (yes/no). Second, a free association exercise was administered based on the grid elaboration method (GEM) to analyze the participants’ social representations of pornography (Joffe & Elsey, 2014). This method allows for gaining a deeper insight into the shared representations of the participants when compared with interviews or other types of questionnaires as it elicits not only a cognitive but also a behavioral and affective representation of the issue under analysis. This methodology has previously been used to explore the shared representations of young people on a range of controversial and even taboo subjects (Eiguren et al., 2021; Idoiaga Mondragon & Belasko Txertudi, 2018, 2019; Idoiaga Mondragon et al., 2021). Specifically, participants were asked to write down the first four ideas that came to their minds when they thought about the word “pornography.” Then, they had to write each word or idea in a box and fill in the four empty boxes. Subsequently, participants were asked to complete their responses by clarifying as thoroughly as possible the meaning of each of their ideas to gather further information and explanations about the elicited items. Again, there was no word limit in this exercise. This allowed us to obtain a complete explanation about each word or idea, which formed the basis of the subsequent analysis.

Data Analysis Method

The Reinert method using the Iramuteq software for lexical analysis (Reinert, 1983, 1990) was employed to analyze the text corpus. This method has frequently been used in the study of social representations (Lahlou, 2001; Kalampalikis, 2005; Klein & Licata, 2003), confirming that the results obtained agree with those of other methods used in this field of research (Lahlou, 1996). Two types of analysis were carried out using the Iramuteq software. The first was based on the Reinert method, and the second employed lexical similarity analysis.

The use of the Reinert method using the Iramuteq software for lexical analysis (Reinert, 1990) eliminates problems of reliability and validity in text analysis as it is an automatic instrument (Klein & Licata, 2003). First, the software creates a dictionary of “whole words” (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs). Then, the initial text corpus is broken down into segments that have the approximate length of a sentence or two (40 words) (Kronberger & Wagner, 2000). The corpus is analyzed in terms of the presence of whole words in the segments. The segments and reduced forms are then used to create a contingency table, which shows the distribution of vocabulary per segment. From this contingency table, the program generates a squared distance matrix, implying that two segments are close if they share some of the words analyzed (Reinert, 1996). Subsequently, the software, following the Reinert method, runs a descending hierarchical cluster analysis on this distance matrix, which yields classes of segments that best differentiate the vocabulary. In so doing, this software assists in the interpretation of texts. It extracts sets of words that are referred to as classes, which co-occur and are best distinguished from other classes. The software does not name these classes but instead assigns each of them with a number. In essence, the software identifies the words and text segments with the highest chi-square values, that is, those words and text segments that best identify each class or idea that the participants have repeatedly mentioned.

In accord with previous research using the Reinert method (Vizeu & Bousfield, 2009), the raw data were entered into the Iramuteq software, and the most significant items of vocabulary in each class were selected based on three criteria: (1) an expected value of the word greater than 3; (2) evidence of an association based on the chi-square statistic, tested against the class (χ2 ≥ 3.89 (p = 0.05); df = 1) and; (3) the word appearing mainly in that class with a frequency of 50% or more. The software also determined which text segments were associated with each class or group of words and classified them according to their chi-square value. In this study, the text segments with the most significant chi-squares of each class were recorded.

Once these “lexical universes” were identified, they were associated with “passive” variables (independent variables). In the present case, the passive variables were gender and whether they had received affective-sexual education. Consequently, the analyst obtained a series of classes composed of typical words and typical text segments (quotations) with the highest chi-square values (the total chi-square value of each quotation is calculated with the sum of the chi-square values of each word in that quotation concerning the class). This provided the basis for “interpreting” the classes as lexical worlds. The Reinert method produces statistical, transparent, and reproducible data until the final point of interpretation, where the analyst then assigns a label. Finally, the researchers will give a title to the group of words and text segments grouped by the software (Schonhardt-Bailey, 2013). In this final phase of the study, we used a systematic process to create the labels or titles of each class. During this process, two of the researchers independently named each class based on the words and associated quotations, after which a third researcher created a final label that was approved by all three researchers.

Second, the software also conducted a lexical similarity analysis. This type of analysis looks at the corpus as a whole, regardless of whether the responses were from one participant (subject) or another. It considers that the more times two elements are treated in the same way, the closer they will be in the representational structure to the corresponding object. To do this, the software identifies the co-occurrences between words according to their connections in the text, helping to identify the structure of the content of the textual corpus by generating a visualization in graphic form, which illustrates the content of the social representation of the object studied and its internal organization, its common elements, and specificities (Marchand & Ratinaud, 2012).

Results

First, to analyze the main discourses produced by the participants, the response corpus was entered into the Iramuteq software. This allowed us to clarify which terms were used to represent the concept of “pornography.” The full corpus contained 22,595 words, of which 2385 were unique.

Reinert Method Results

The Reinert method’s descending hierarchical analysis divided the corpus into 567 segments and six classes. The results of this analysis are observed in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

The hierarchical clustering dendrogram of the free association exercise, showing the most frequent words and those with the greatest association χ2 (1), p < 0.001 extracted by the Reinert method

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The analysis identified the main ideas held by the participants regarding pornography, elicited through the free association procedure. Each issue or idea is represented by a set of typical words and text segments, referred to as a class. The results revealed six different classes. Four of these classes refer to the reasons why participants distance themselves from pornography or cause them to evaluate it with more negative connotations and were named as the following: “Violence and sexual exploitation,” “Denigration of women,” “Removed from real life,” and “Pornography bodies.” However, the other two classes are much more personal and explain young people’s relationship with pornography.

Among the classes that express the notion of being distanced from pornography, the first of these is “Violence and sexual exploitation,” which emerged with a weight of 21.41% and was more frequently mentioned by women (p < 0.05). Within this class, it can be observed how pornography has been defined as an industry that carries out sexual exploitation and is sexist, abusive, dominant, and mistreats its actresses. The characteristic text segments of this class should help to provide a context for these words. Thus, the following are the most significant quotations within this class: “Abuse, sexism, manipulation, in many of the videos women are forced to do certain things. Pornography promotes sexist violence; they want you to believe that this is reality when it is only fiction. People who watch pornography without any sex education tend to show the same behaviors.” (X2 = 146.60; woman, 20 years); “I think that many of the people who work in pornography are being raped all the time. There will be many things they do out of obligation, but the current reality of pornography is one of massive violence towards women showing violent sexual scenes.” (X2 = 146.60; woman, 20 years); “It makes me sick to see how a man treats a woman like this and she seems to like what he does. Women are sexually exploited, and the pornography industry is very sexist.” (X2 = 140.15; woman, 19 years).

Second, and continuing with the reasons why participants reject pornography, the “Denigration of women” class emerged with a weight of 24.74%. This class was also more frequently mentioned by women (p < 0.005). Within this class, pornography is characterized as a male-centered cinematic genre that denigrates and disrespects women, often displaying aggression and sexualization through the abuse of power. The following are some of the most significant quotations of this class: “Many of the freely recorded videos usually represent scenes in which a woman is raped or abused, and I am disgusted because I cannot understand how there can be sick minds that enjoy violence.” (X2 = 170.03; woman, 21 years); “Porn revolves around men’s pleasure and on many occasions, women are denigrated. Nothing you can see is real, there is a lot of violence, especially towards women, and there are very strong scenes.” (X2 = 165.84; woman, 20 years); “On many occasions women are forced to maintain relations during prolonged periods of time, with different people (many times unknown) and even with several people at the same time. Pornography is made for male consumption; the woman appears as a completely passive subject and many times is viewed as an object to be treated in a violent and abrupt manner. Besides, the vast majority of acts end when the man or the dominant person reaches climax regardless of whether the other person has gained pleasure.” (X2 = 163.73; woman, 26 years).

The third class, named “Removed from real life” emerged with a weight of 10.36%. This class emphasizes the stark disparity between what is portrayed in pornographic movies and real-life experiences, noting the exaggerated and largely unrealistic nature of pornographic content. Additionally, some participants pointed out that attempting to replicate what is seen in these movies can be risky and potentially harmful in real life. The following are some of the most significant quotations of this class: “Porn is a lie because it’s not real, it’s all a role and it’s exaggerated to be seen more. This disgusts me because it is unreal and creates false expectations.” (X2 = 453.97; woman, 19 years); “It is unreal, young people make movies in their heads and then try to bring to real life those violent actions learned from pornography.” (X2 = 402.71; woman, 18 years); “False, stereotyped, forced, unnatural. It is not a real thing that happens in people’s lives the way they show it. It always follows the same pattern, it’s all fake, it’s not real sensations, it’s sex that doesn’t happen in people’s lives and they sell it to us as if it were real. This affects the image of sex that people can create.” (X2 = 391.73; woman, 23 years).

The final class to express a rejection of pornography was named “Pornography bodies” (8.03%). This class argues that the bodies of pornographic actors and actresses are disproportionate and unrealistic and, in some cases, can cause individuals to develop certain complexes. The most significant text quotations of this class are the following: “Most women’s bodies follow the same pattern, which is what attracts the male population. Only sexual attributes are highlighted, they are not looking for intelligent educated people or those capable of working at NASA, they are looking for sexualized bodies that sell.” (X2 = 361.41; woman, 22 years); “Pornography presents totally perfect bodies. Perfect for the canons of beauty, which prevail in this society: depilated of certain sizes or shapes (either the size of the penis or the shape of the vulva, etc.).” (X2 = 270.98; woman, 26 years); “The bodies have to be with exaggerated penises and breasts of exaggerated sizes and small vaginas. Therefore, many people end up creating complexes for not achieving what is shown in those videos or for not having a body like the one in those videos.” (X2 = 231.66; man, 25 years).

In contrast, the last two classes explain young people’s relationship with pornography. The first of these classes was labeled as “Why do we consume pornography?” and emerged with a weight of 21.14%. This class was significantly associated with men (p < 0.001) and individuals who have received affective-sexual education (p < 0.05). In this class, the participants indicate the two main reasons why they consume pornography. First, they state that they consume pornography to masturbate, and second, they use it to learn about sex, given the inadequate provision of affective-sexual education. Some of the most significant quotations of this class are the following: “When I watch pornography it gives me pleasure even though I know that it shows a wrong image of healthy sex. However, in pornography you can see many types of sex and that is why it is a tool that I use to masturbate.” (X2 = 224.78; woman, 22 years); “Relaxing, exciting, quality pleasure, while watching videos I don’t worry about other things, it makes me horny. Normally I relate it to masturbation.” (X2 = 247.62; man, 19 years); “I have always watched pornography to masturbate, and I combine porn with masturbation a lot. It excites me to watch pornography and it gives me pleasure to masturbate watching pornography although I am aware that porn is not real and that there is a lot of money behind this industry.” (X2 = 187.7; woman, 21); “When teenagers start to get interested in sex and want to investigate, they consume pornography, either to satisfy their sexual desire or to learn. But they learn little or rather they learn badly. But that’s normal, who are they going to talk to about explicit sex—with their parents? At school someone comes to explain everything but it’s not a place where you can talk about it either” (X2 = 184.52; woman, 26 years); “Nowadays it is the only sex education we have. Because what is done in schools is a lecture that is useless. Porn is probably often the main source of learning about different subjects.” (X2 = 184.52; woman, 19 years).

The final class was labeled “Influence of pornography on our sexual relations” with a weight of 13.32%. This class was significantly associated with individuals who have received affective-sexual education (p < 0.05) and indicates how the consumption of pornography shapes the sexual experiences of young people. The most significant text quotations of this class are the following: “After all, pornography as sex is pleasurable. You can discover new things in porn and then you can explore the new things you have discovered and put them into practice in your life.” (X2 = 253.87; woman, 21 years); “I like what I see, and at the same time I dislike it, but then my relationships with my partner are different.” (X2 = 212.45; woman, 20 years); “In the society in which we live, pornography is frowned upon, but then we consume OnlyFans and there are pictures and videos.” (X2 = 159.72; woman, 21); “I look for other types of empowered women’s porn and watching it makes me feel more comfortable.” (X2 = 117.43; woman, 21 years).

Lexical Similarity Analysis

Second, a lexical similarity analysis was conducted to generate an image to represent the co-occurrences between all the words in the corpus beyond their division into classes. The idea was to analyze how the words of the corpus were interconnected on a common plane. For this purpose, the lexical similarity analysis was carried out only with the words having a frequency greater than 20, the results of which are displayed in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Results of the lexical similarity analysis with words that emerged with a frequency higher than 20

Full size image

The similarity analysis revealed that the corpus is structured around different nuclei. First, at the uppermost part of the figure, the word “sex” appears, associated with penetration and the role of pornography in masturbation, which differs from real life. Second, as we move to the center of the figure, pornography emerges as something that makes money through the Internet and is consumed globally in any location and at any time. Additionally, the OnlyFans phenomenon is also linked to this concept (Ryan, 2019).

Moving on to the nucleus composed of the word “woman,” this is related to the violence and sexism suffered in pornographic videos. In addition, the female bodies are also questioned. In the lower part of the figure, we also see that pornography is related to sexual relations, sex education, and sexual exploitation. Finally, and linked to the nucleus of pornography, we can observe a complex emotional response with various emotions mentioned by young people such as pleasure, fear, disgust, or guilt.

Discussion

This study set out to examine the primary representational patterns elicited by pornography in young people who will be future educational professionals. The results of this research offer invaluable insights into identifying how pornography is represented by trainee teachers, whether the types of pornography or reasons for its consumption are also incorporated into these representations and to explore whether these representations also include reflections on the potential impact of pornography on their affective-sexual lives.

One of the most significant findings of this study is the ambivalent relationship that young future educators have with pornography. On the one hand, they maintain a distant and critical perspective, associating pornography with violence, sexual exploitation, denigration of women, and disconnection from real life and real bodies. However, on the other hand, they utilize it for both masturbation and as a source of pleasure and sexual education (as indicated in the last two classes). Therefore, this ambivalence in the social representation of pornography will be key since it will shape the understanding and communication of this subject, influence behaviors and practices, and impact its legitimization or delegitimization (Serrano, 2013).

To begin with, following the representational patterns extracted from the cluster analysis, it becomes apparent that the young participants in this study perceive pornography as conflicting with many of their core values. This distant, and at times negative, assessment is underpinned by several ideas rooted in two main arguments.

First, both men and women express the belief that pornography deviates significantly from real-life sexual relations by presenting an exaggerated portrayal that includes unrealistic bodies. These bodies often feature disproportionate shapes and sizes of penises, vulvas, and breasts. The discourse surrounding the “authenticity” of pornography among viewers has been explored previously, concluding that viewers can, and should, make judgements about what is and is not real in pornography, and that this is an integral part of the experience of viewing pornography (Taylor, 2022).

Second, being unreal or fictional is not the only factor that leads young people to express a distant representation of pornography. A further important reason for this distant—and sometimes negative—evaluation is that participants in this study, particularly women, contend that a significant quantity of pornographic content is characterized by violence and sexism (Hald et al., 2010; Wright, 2013). In support of this perspective, some participants highlight that, in addition to demeaning women, the pornography industry also sexually exploits women (Taylor, 2018). To further corroborate this argument, some participants express the view that almost all pornographic content is centered around providing pleasure to men, often featuring scenarios where women are raped by one or more men who do not respect their right to say no (Fritz et al., 2020).

The notion that pornography influences many people to disregard the importance of respecting consent is well established in both academic research (Bridges, 2010) and public discourse following high-profile rape cases (Idoiaga Mondragon et al., 2020). Along these lines, some participants in this study, who are aspiring educators, express concerns about this potential risk. They advocate for the need to generate debate and implement concrete measures aimed at strengthening affective-sexual education for children and young people. The aim is to help them understand the importance of sexual consent and the notion that sex should be joyful, equal, and free (Srinivasan, 2021). Indeed, alternative approaches within the industry, such as feminist pornography (Stewart, 2019), seem to have limited reach among this young population. This might suggest that such content, characterized by a distinct representation of pleasure and the role of women, is predominantly consumed by an older audience with greater purchasing power and have not yet had an impact on the younger generation.

Previous research has suggested that young people often simplify their consumption of mainstream pornography, characterizing it from a distanced and risky standpoint, in contrast to the more nuanced considerations of pleasure and arousal that adults are allowed to make (Taylor, 2021). However, our findings indicate an association between such considerations and active pornography consumption among young individuals. Young people cite two main reasons for watching pornography: to masturbate and for educational purposes. Previous studies have identified pornography consumption as a source of information about sexual practices, bodies, sexual orientation, and desires, often catering to pre-existing or emerging fantasies and interests (Attwood et al., 2018).

Furthermore, along with the consumption of pornographic material, masturbation remains a significant sexual taboo (Emmers-Sommer, 2018). Several participants closely associate these two activities, with some even admitting that they cannot masturbate without watching pornography (Wood, 2021). It is important to note that while male participants talk more openly about this issue, we must recognize that both pornography consumption and masturbation are taboo subjects that are rarely discussed among women (Kraus, 2017). Moreover, in line with previous research, it is also worth considering that boys tend to consume more pornography than girls (Sabina et al., 2008; Save The Children, 2020).

Many of the participants highlight the inadequate provision of affective-sexual education for young individuals, let alone a platform where sex can be talked about explicitly. They assert that sex is not discussed openly within either families or in the affective-sexual education that is offered in schools. Consequently, youngsters often turn to pornography, even though they are aware that it can perpetuate stereotypes, present unrealistic portrayals, and even promote violence (Attwood et al., 2018). Thus, creating high-quality affective-sexual education represents a significant contemporary challenge (Albury, 2014). In Spain, the legal framework has been established to address this need, since the current Education Law has regulated the implementation of Affective-Sexual Education (EAS) in compulsory education (Spanish Government, 2020).

In addition, our participants also explain how pornography can affect the sexual relationships or behaviors of young individuals. While some acknowledge its role as a learning resource (Vendemia & Coduto, 2021), others express concerns that, due to pornography, many young people’s sexual relationships prioritize male pleasure, with limited emphasis on female satisfaction (Ezzel et al., 2020). Some participants also state that while traditional pornography may be frowned upon, platforms such as OnlyFans are highly successful (Rouse & Salter, 2021). Therefore, it becomes apparent that the impact of these new social networks on the emergence of fresh approaches to consuming or even creating pornography among young people warrants further investigation.

Moreover, one of the most striking findings to emerge from our research is that those participants who have received affective-sexual education tend to speak more openly about their reasons for consuming pornography. This implies that although the notion of pornography being “bad” is prevalent among young people, they consume it nonetheless (Cormier, 2020). Thus, our results suggest that affective-sexual education could encourage individuals to talk more openly and even reflect on why they consume pornography (Goldestein, 2019). Additionally, it is important to address empathy within the context of affective-sexual education, since previous studies have indicated that low levels of cognitive and affective empathy are associated with extensive pornography consumption and a greater prevalence of associated risk behaviors. For this reason, it is important to focus on empathic disconnection processes (Vertongen et al., 2022). In essence, the fact that pornography remains a taboo and stigmatized subject, it does not deter young people from its consumption, let alone promote thoughtful consumption (Pizzol et al., 2016).

The similarity analysis also highlights the concerning widespread availability of pornography and at increasingly younger ages, underscoring the pressing need to urgently address this issue (Save the Children, 2020). Moreover, on an emotional level, our analysis reveals that the emotions linked to pornography consumption are, on the one hand, pleasure, but on the other hand, disgust, fear, and guilt, an inconsistency that has also been observed in other studies (Droubay et al., 2020). Therefore, it would be interesting to analyze to what extent pornography (or even the associated act of masturbation) is considered a “guilty pleasure,” that is, a way of furtively satisfying oneself through taboo acts (Clark, 2008). This view of pornography, and potentially sex itself, perpetuates the legitimization of taboo and discourages open communication, an issue that needs to be addressed within the context of affective-sexual education.

Finally, this research has several limitations. First, this work employed a cross-sectional design with a non-probabilistic sample recruited from a specific region—the north of Spain. Therefore, our conclusions cannot be generalized to any other society or context. Furthermore, the degree subjects being studied by our participants have a clear gender imbalance, and it would therefore be interesting to analyze students of subjects with a more balanced gender ratio to determine how they are influenced by their context. In addition, in future studies it would be advisable to examine the impact of the variables of gender identification and type of pornography consumed. Nonetheless, the strength of the present study is that it lays bare the voices of young people and reveals novel findings that have not been reported in previous studies.

In conclusion, this research suggests that pornography serves as both a source of pleasure and a trigger of emotions such as disgust, fear, and guilt among young people. Indeed, the symbolic perceptions of pornography held by future educators are determined by their gender and the affective-sexual education they have received. Moreover, it is essential to further explore whether critical appraisals of pornography are rooted in social desirability or reflect a genuine capacity for critical analysis of this subject.

Consequently, we stress the importance of implementing high-quality affective-sexual education rooted in emotional awareness and a gender perspective, not only for children but also for current and future educators. Furthermore, it is imperative that this affective-sexual education, aimed at young adults (such as university students), begins by recognizing these ambivalent emotions and promoting the values of respect and self-empowerment, thereby dismantling societal taboos. In other words, we need to equip educators with the tools to address the issue of pornography with both adolescents and younger children. However, as a first step, it is necessary to encourage these future educators to reflect on the possible impact of pornography on young people in general, as well as on their own perceptions, while taking into account the gender perspective.