Health experts and teachers in Wales are sounding the alarm about youth porn consumption after seeing a growing trend in young men inquiring about strangulation during sex. Dr. Tamasine Preece, who teaches at Bryntirion Comprehensive in Bridgend, said that boys as young as 14 have told her they “think that girls really want to be choked” during sex.
According to the BBC, teachers have received disturbing questions about choking from male students during sex education classes, with the boys believing it to be a “normal” sexual act.
“I’ve certainly been told by some children that they think that girls really want to be choked – with one saying girls are mad for it,” explained Preece, adding that a student once asked her how to choke someone safely and if “a soft squeeze on the neck is OK.”
Others, such as Wales National Adviser Violence against Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence, Johanna Robinson, expressed that she had heard similar stories from nurses.
“I’ve spoken to sexual health nurses who told me men in college were asking questions like ‘How do I safely strangle my partner?’ One young person was quoted to me asking ‘What do I do if I need to resuscitate my partner?’”
News of this disturbing trend sparked outrage on X, formerly Twitter, by many who agree pornography is to blame.
“We need to talk about what porn culture is doing to children,” wrote gender-critical commentator Serena Partrick.
“Porn did this,” added Katy Faust, a child rights advocate.
Speaking with BBC, sexual health expert Dr Kate Howells similarly expressed that access to pornography is a “key factor” as to why people think strangulation is acceptable during intercourse.
“People are watching it from a very young age and, for a lot of young people, it is their first sexual experience, and therefore they’re almost looking to porn to learn about sex and what to do to be good at sex,” she said.
Explaining that a lot of women have admitted to being strangled during sex, she added: “If young people are seeing that kind of messaging from pornography rather than loving or caring, respectful messages, then they’ll think that’s what they need to do – whether they feel comfortable with it or not.”
The uptick in teenage boys expressing interest in choking during sex comes at the heels of coroners in Bradford issuing warnings after a 26-year-old woman was choked to death by her boyfriend during sex.
On February 3, 2022, Georgia Brooke was brought to a hospital after passing out from being choked by her boyfriend, Luke Cannon, who fled the scene and was later found dead near Bradford Royal Infirmary.
Although friends testified that the couple had an “experimental sexual relationship,” forensic pathologist Chris Johnson informed the court that the pressure on her neck “would have to have been sustained for a period of time after she lost consciousness for her to die.”
Noting there was no way Brooke could have consented to the “fatal consequences” of Cannon’s actions, senior coroner Martin Fleming stressed that “the practice of sexual choking is “dangerous” and “all too often ends in fatal consequences.”
According to anti-porn campaign group Fight The New Drug, “the majority of kids are exposed to porn by age 13, with some exposed as young as seven.” Another survey conducted in the United States by Common Sense Media found that the average of childhood exposure to pornography was just 12, with over 40% of minors reporting that they viewed online pornography during the school day.
