"4 in 5 teenage boys watch porn on the internet"

According to research carried out by PhD students at Leuven University, around 80 percent of the 16-year-old boys watch porn videos on the internet. Still, researchers are not concerned. A good sexual education is what counts, they argue. The figures are much lower among teenage girls.

Over 60 percent of the boys aged between 12 and 13 watch or have seen porn videos. This figure climbs to over 70 percent at the age of 14 and 15 in order to climb to 83 percent for 16- and 17-year-olds. In this last category, boys that haven't seen any porn videos on the internet are more of an exception.

The figures are considerably lower among girls, starting from 5 percent (12-13 years) and reaching 16 percent (14-15 years) before dropping again to 12 percent (16-17 years).

"Boys are curious", says Bart Degryse of the Flemish Expertise Centre for Sexual Health. He doesn't see a real problem: "We would have a problem if sexual education in the family or at school would fail, or if they could not talk about sex in an open way."

Teenagers are only looking for some excitement, not for role models or examples, Mr Degryse claims. "It's fake and they are aware of that. They don't have the aspirations to copy that behaviour. (...) The present generation of teenagers thinks in a rather traditional way about sex. They still value faithfulness and honesty. The media have no negative impact on their sexual behaviour, so that's okay."

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