Impact of Internet Pornography on Chinese Teens: The Third-Person Effect and Attitudes Toward Censorship

Abstract

Based on the third-person effect hypothesis–people’s belief that the media influences others more than it influences themselves–we administered a questionnaire to Chinese teens ( N = 1,538) to discover the impacts of exposure to internet pornography on perceptions of pornography and attitudes toward censorship of pornography. The results validated the third-person effect hypothesis and showed that teens’ subjective perceptions of what constitutes internet pornography and their exposure to it are critical variables for predicting perceptions of negative impacts of pornography on self and others and affirmative attitudes toward censorship. The study also found that the impact on self is the best variable for predicting attitudes toward censorship. The discussion is framed in the context of Chinese collective culture and conservative attitudes toward sex.

The impact of third-person effect on social networking sites privacy risks and protective measures adoption among Yemeni students in Malaysia

“…Notably, TPE research typically focuses on contentious media messages, often of a negative nature [ 22 ]. These include topics such as fake news [ [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] ], pornography or media violence [ [27] , [28] , [29] ], and advertising [ 30 , 31 ].…”

“…Various studies have identified TPE in traditional media forms such as radio [ 60 ], newspapers [ 64 ], and television [ 65 ]. With the advent of the Internet and new media, scholars have conducted extensive research on TPE, encompassing areas like the Internet [ 25 , 66 , 67 ], video games [ 68 ], and pornography [ 27 , 28 , 69 , 70 ].…”

The regulation of child pornography in China and the United States: A comparative review of laws

“…In comparison, collectivist cultures pay more attention to group rights, family honour, and social norms, they are less likely to accept premarital sexual permissiveness and extramarital sex, and they have a more conservative attitude toward sex (Lo et al, 2010). Therefore, cultural differences may affect people's attitudes toward sex and what they consider to be reasonable laws for regulating sexual activity (Tang et al, 2012; Zhou & Zhang, 2023).…”

Perceived offensiveness to the self, not that to others, is a robust positive predictor of support of censoring sexual, alcoholic, and violent media content

“…We chose sexual, alcoholic, and violent media content as our test cases because they are featured in many media programs ( Bleakley et al, 2014 ; Thrasher et al, 2014 ), are the focus of media laws and regulations in the U.S. and many other countries, and have been studied extensively in prior third-person effect research ( Austin and Meili, 1994 ; Gunther, 1995 ; Rojas et al, 1996 ; McLeod et al, 1997 , 2001 ; Hoffner et al, 1999 ; Salwen and Dupagne, 1999 ; Shah et al, 1999 ; Banning, 2001 ; Hoffner and Buchanan, 2002 ; Lo and Wei, 2002 ; Nathanson et al, 2002 ; Cho and Han, 2004 ; David et al, 2004 ; Lee and Tamborini, 2005 ; Boyle et al, 2008 ; Paek et al, 2008 ; Scharrer and Leone, 2008 ; Shin and Kim, 2011 ; Chen et al, 2015 ; Hong, 2015 ; Zhang, 2017 ; Zhou and Zhang, 2023 ). Thus, using those three types of media content as test cases would render our findings comparable to extant findings while maximizing their theoretical and practical implications.…”