News from Down Under

According to Austrailian newspaper, The Age, a survey conducted through Girlfriend! magazine (think Aussie Comso Girl) found that "one-third of girls had been sent sexually inappropriate material via the internet; 70 per cent had accessed pornography sites by accident and 21 per cent on purpose; 41 per cent had been asked to post naked pictures of themselves."

What I find interesting about this is its focus on girls. A similar study done in the US found that about 5% of girls reported "wanted exposure" to pornography. That's a far cry from the 21% cited above.

So, what accounts for this huge difference? Are the girls on the other side of the planet that different? Was it in the way the question was phrased?

I'm looking forward to a more "official" release of this data. Because although 21% sounds OK to me, especially given the sampling source (asking girls who read about sex in teen magazines. I checked out Girlfriend! online. Lots of pics of sexy boy buns featured), another article in The Age makes me question the validity of the reporting of these survey results. In this second feature, the headline blares:

Sex acts copied from online porn sites

But the article itself doesn't really address the issue. Just a sentence that reads: "Dr Carr-Gregg said large numbers of teenage girls had engaged in behaviour such as group sex or anal sex, which they wouldn't have done without seeing it online." Uh, exactly what is "large numbers?" No stats here like in the other article. Just a shocking headline and no meat. Maybe it wasn't suitable for printing?