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Pornography is shaping children's attitudes towards sex and leading to increased child on child assault, research reveals.

This week, the Chief Censor is set to release NZ Youth and Porn, a study of 2000 teenagers identifying how and why young New Zealanders are viewing pornography.

It comes as another NZ study reports teachers are finding 13-year-olds had been exposed to porn; and anecdotal evidence from school nurses that teenagers were increasingly suffering sexual-related injuries as a result of porn.

A report by The Light Project found porn was shaping young people's sexual beliefs, attitudes and behaviours and creating potentially harmful sexual and mental health outcomes among Kiwi youth.

CHARLES DELUVIO The chief censor's office recently commissioned a major survey of more than 2000 Kiwi teenagers, to understand how they are using porn, and the effect it is having on them.

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"All of my students will be exposed to porn by 13 years of age," one participant said. "It is shaping their sexual beliefs as individuals and as a group."

"Porn is skewing the sexual norms of young people in a really unhealthy direction," according to another. "The sex lots of women are experiencing is degrading, humiliating and painful and is creating a generation of young women who are not having positive sexual experiences as they are straight out of porn."

Stakeholders reported seeing increased sexual aggression, partly due to porn exposure - including hair pulling and choking - increased child-on-child sexual assault, young people re-enacting violent porn scenes, expectations of anal or oral sex on the first encounter and sexting among youth.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD The aim of the research is to get real evidence directly from teens themselves.

Normalisation of porn was also impacting body image and mental health issues for youth, the report that covered 2000 people including sexual health and youth workers, whānau, schools, faith providers and therapists, it said.

"Porn appears to be thought of as innocent fun and normal for young men, but we see the issues it causes around body issues and self-esteem and young men searching out increasingly violent themes."

Research to be released on Wednesday by the chief censor's office was "real evidence" directly from teens to ensure any potential policy changes are properly informed, chief censor and research lead David Shanks said.

Children's Minister Tracey Martin said the Government will use it to look into porn regulation. Young people were asked how porn ended up in front of them, and research would indicate what the Government could do about that, Martin said.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Chief censor David Shanks says the survey offers a rare opportunity to gain a genuine understanding of how young people access pornographic material and why they do it. (File photo)

University of Auckland PhD candidate Kris Taylor whose research focuses on ethical and moral dilemmas that viewers face when viewing pornography, said the survey was "incredibly important" forporn policy worldwide.

He's advocating for a nationwide sex education program including discussions about porn. "If, as I often see people state, pornography has become the new sex education, then that is a pretty serious indictment on the state of our sex education curriculum in this country."

Social commentator Richie Hardcore said the broad majority of mainstream porn was "aggressive and violent", and problematic. "People are linking power and domination with sexual pleasure. Quite often we're seeing young people who don't have the critical understanding to know that these are paid performers.

"There's a real link between sex and aggression. Young people are growing up with warped ideas about what sex is."

School nurses spoken to by Hardcore have also reported seeing an increase in teenagers suffering sexual related injuries. The average age of kids exposed to porn was 11 or 12, he said.

TIPS ON TALKING TO YOUR TEEN

START THE CONVERSATION

- Ask your teenager about their favourite TV/online shows, or their favourite YouTube channels.

- Ask about something you've both watched. Look for things which feature complex characters, and deal with serious/controversial issues.

- Ask what they like about how a movie represents different issues and characters, or if they think a movie is realistic.

TALKING ABOUT SENSITIVE CONTENT

- Ask what your teen knows about the issues raised, and what they think about how things are shown on-screen.

- Talk about respectful relationships and consent.

- Remind your teen that what they see in media doesn't always reflect reality, and talk them through anything which upsets them.

- Don't take away your teen's devices in an attempt to protect them, they may feel punished and less likely to ask for help in future.

- Share your own experience of how media has affected you.

SAFER MEDIA USE

- Praise your teen for doing the right thing.

- Parental controls/filters can be useful for children or young teens, but they're only a partial solution. As you build trust about their media use you may no longer feel these controls are necessary.

- Monitoring media use can be helpful, but only if you're open about it - no spying. Spying encourages secretive behaviour and sends wrong messages about privacy.

* Source: The Office of Film and Literature Classification

* The report will be publicly released at 2pm on December 5 and be made available online at classificationoffice.govt.nz.