The study identifies a gap in the current understanding

The gap

Evidence profile

Stated in the abstract and limitations and cells research gap sections of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2019 and 2026, spanning 4 journals. Those papers have been cited 174 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 6 representative gaps

• Validity and reliability of the short version of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS-6-A) in adolescents. (2021) · Psychology of Addictive Behaviors · cited 31× · doi

  OBJECTIVE: Despite the high prevalence of adolescents' pornography use and increasing societal concerns about it, the examination of problematic pornography use (PPU) among this population is still scarce, potentially due to the lack of well-validated, reliable measures.

  generalstated in abstractevidence 5/5
  Keywords: pornography objective despite high prevalence adolescents increasing societal concerns examination problematic among population still scarce
• Prevalence and Factors Associated with Intentional Pornography Access among Spanish Adolescents (2026) · Sexuality Research and Social Policy · cited 1× · doi

  While our study provides an important first quantitative description of intentional pornography access among Span- ish adolescents, several limitations must be acknowledged. First, certain at-risk youth populations may not be fully rep- resented in our sample (e.g., homeless, detained, runaway, or sheltered youth), which might lead to an underestimation of prevalence in groups with potentially higher vulnerabil- ity. Second, given the sensitive nature of questions about pornography, participants might underreport their usage due to social desirability or discomfort. Although self-adminis- tered electronic surveys tend to reduce this bias among ado- lescents (Romer et al., 1997), this risk cannot be entirely eliminated (Tourangeau & Yan, 2007). Third, our design did not capture detailed consumption characteristics, such as frequency of use in hours or users’ attitudes toward pornography — dimensions that are critical to fully understanding the phenomenon. Additionally, we did not assess other variables that the literature identifies as Sexuality Research and Social Policy1 3relevant to pornography consumption, such as previous sex- ual experiences (Ševčíková & Konečný, 2011), despite evi- dence that sexually active adolescents are more likely to be exposed to sexual material (Bleakley et al., 2008; Ševčíková et al., 2014). As a result, potentially important moderating or mediating factors remain unmeasured. Fourth, we did not gather data on the age of first exposure to pornography. Evidence from Spain indicates that many children encoun- ter pornography for the first time before age 12, often unin- tentionally, and that early exposure may be associated with more problematic patterns of consumption during adoles- cence (Alonso Ruido et al., 2022). This limitation restricts our ability to examine developmental pathways related to pornography use. Fifth, the study did not distinguish between different types of pornography (e.g., violent vs. non-violent, mainstream vs. user-generated). This lack of differentiation may obscure the potential varying effects of exposure to dif- ferent content types on attitudes, behaviors, and well-being. Mixed-methods approaches would be particularly valuable in future research to better capture adolescents’ experiences with diverse forms of pornographic material. Sixth, we lacked information on technology-related sociodemographic variables known to influence pornog- raphy access, such as device ownership, age at obtaining a personal device, unrestricted internet access, and paren- tal control. Recent studies show that early smartphone ownership, limited parental supervision, and unrestricted connectivity significantly increase opportunities for access- ing online sexual content (Rivas-Koehl et al., 2023). The omission of these variables limits our ability to contextu- alize intentional access within adolescents’ broader digital environments. Finally, although our study offers a broad snapshot of intentional access in a large adolescent sample, its cross- sectional design prevents causal inferences. Longitudinal studies would allow a deeper understanding of how device access, early exposure, parental control, and content type collectively shape pornography consumption trajectories over time.

  generalstated in limitationsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: pornography access first adolescents consumption exposure intentional variables early content device important among risk youth
• Persistent appetitive memory in problematic pornography users (2026) · Journal of Behavioral Addictions · cited 1× · doi

  The present study was pre-registered but differed in some respects from pre-registration. Notably, the recruitment of pathological pornography users was lower than anticipated (n 5 24 vs. planned n 5 31). Consequently, group sizes were slightly unequal, which may have influenced statistical po- wer. We did not include the group of risky users in the manuscript because of the small sample size (n 5 14) but provide results in the supplementary material. In agreement with the large multi-center research project the number of criteria to be included as non-problematic was increased from 0 to 1 before data curation. We included additional ROIs derived from meta-analyses on cue reactivity, the caudate nucleus important in habit formation and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex as part of the salience network (Starcke et al., 2018). Pathological pornography users were not diagnosed with a compulsive sexual behavior disorder according to ICD 11, interview was based on DSM-V criteria (Wölfling & Müller, 2017) which were adopted from the gaming disorder group also included in our study. The selection of an all-male sample could be seen as another limitation. Ultimately, applying addiction models to problematic pornography use is often criticized risk of (e.g. tolerance/withdrawal, potential instead, the clinical subtypes, 454 Journal of Behavioral Addictions 15 (2026) 1, 445–458 overpathologizing), requiring a more nuanced behavioral addiction framework (Ince, Gaudet, & Bőthe, 2025; Snay- chuk, Dermody, & Kim, 2025).

  generalstated in limitationsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: pornography users group included pathological sample criteria problematic disorder addiction behavioral present registered differed respects
• Persistent appetitive memory in problematic pornography users (2026) · Journal of Behavioral Addictions · cited 1× · doi

  The study identifies a gap in the current understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying problematic pornography use. - The study aims to address this gap by examining the differences in brain activity between pathological and non-problematic users.

  generalstated in cells research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: study identifies gap current understanding neural mechanisms underlying
• Prevalence and Factors Associated with Intentional Pornography Access among Spanish Adolescents (2026) · Sexuality Research and Social Policy · cited 1× · doi

  Empirical evidence based on representative samples remains limited in some cultural contexts, including Spain. - Research on prevention efforts to mitigate the possible negative consequences of pornography use in this age group is still in its early stages.

  generalstated in cells research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: empirical evidence based representative samples remains limited some
• Surveying Pornography Use: A Shaky Science Resting on Poor Measurement Foundations (2019) · The Journal of Sex Research · cited 139× · doi

  This state of affairs is problematic for the accumulation of knowledge about the nature of pornography use, its antecedents, correlates, and consequences, as it can contribute to inconsistent results across studies and undermine the generalizability of research findings.

  generalstated in abstractevidence 4/5
  Keywords: state affairs problematic accumulation knowledge nature pornography antecedents correlates consequences contribute inconsistent across undermine generalizability

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