With the changes the world has seen as a result of the internet, and latterly the smartphone with the debut of the iPhone in 2007; there has never been more availability of information and content online at the click of a button. This has completely changed the way in which so many people access pornography and has reduced barriers to who can access it and when.

With this ever-growing online sex culture, porn literacy can offer a way of helping people to think critically, and build awareness and knowledge around the portrayal of sex that they see online. This can help them to feel informed, and to close the comparison and expectation gap between the sex experienced in pornography and that they are having in real life. Porn literacy, which has developed from a media literacy model, can be considered to be an educational tool which also helps to move people away from leaning on pornography as a form of sex education, which is something that it was never designed to be. Ethical pornographers Erika Lust Films created The Porn Conversation to help provide families and educators with free and accessible tools to teach and talk to the younger generations about sex and pornography so that they can feel educated, informed and more able to think critically about sexual content when they come across it.

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Avril Louise Clarke is a clinical sexologist and brand manager of the Erika Lust non-profit project, The Porn Conversation, which provides comprehensive sex education tools for families and educators to educate young people at home and in school – beginning with the topic of porn literacy. Taking on the role acting as a liaison between production and performers, she is also an in-house sexologist and intimacy coordinator on the set of Erika Lust Films.

Follow Avril on Instagram at @sexologygirl

Learn more about The P Conversation at https://thepconversation.org/

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The Sexual Wellness Sessions is hosted by Kate Moyle, a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist and Certified Psycho-Sexologist, and author of The Science Of Sex : Every Question About Your Sex Life Answered.

Follow Kate on Instagram at @KateMoyleTherapy