Pornography as a Source of Sex Information for University Students

Abstract

A recent Newsweek poll indicated that a majority of American adults think that pornography serves as a source of information about sex (2). The Commission on Obscenity and Pornography reported results of several similar studies in 1970 (3). Hyman defended pornography partly on the basis of its value as a medium of sex education (1). This study was done to examine whether pornography has played any role in the sex education of a sample of students attending a large midwestern state university. A brief questionnaire regarding pornography as a source of sex information was completed by 32 students (14 women and 18 men, aged 18 through 23 yr.) enrolled in two sections of a course which is part of the general s tu les core at this university. Respondents were asked to rank seven sources of information for the extent to which they had obtained their knowledge about sex from that source. Pornography was ranked seventh out of seven sources by the women and sixth by the men. One male student ranked it f i s t and two ranked it second (both ranked peers first). Table 1 contains the mean ranks for al l seven sources.