Individual differences in intentional and unintentional exposure to online pornography among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents

Abstract The current study aimed to test how gender and religion affect unintentional and intentional exposure to online pornography in Chinese adolescents. A total of 1401 secondary school students (age range from 11 to 16 years) participated in the study. Findings from multivariate analyses show that males reported higher levels of unintentional and intentional exposure to online pornography than females. Significant differences were found in adolescents’ religiosity, with students who had religious beliefs reporting a lower level of unintentional exposure to online pornography than their counterparts without religious beliefs. In terms of intentional exposure to online pornography, adolescents were more likely to be exposed if they were male and had religious beliefs. Such differences were not found in females. This study demonstrated the influence of demographic characteristics on exposure to online pornography among Chinese adolescents.