Dissatisfaction with school sex education is not associated with using pornography for sexual information

Abstract

This study explored the frequently held belief that pornography use for sexual information occurs in the absence of good sex education and examined whether such a relationship was moderated by a person’s sexual orientation. A more general goal for the study was to explore pornography viewing habits of Irish university students. Cross-sectional quantitative data were collected from a convenience sample of Irish university students, aged 18–24 years (n = 1380). Findings show that homosexual and bisexual participants reported less satisfaction with their sex education, a majority had used pornography for sexual information, but being dissatisfied with school-based sex education did not predict pornography use for sexual information. Neither did using pornography for sexual information predict greater satisfaction with current sexual knowledge, but it was associated with greater aspirations to know more about sexuality and sexual health. Individuals may use pornography for information regardless of their sex education in school.