Literature Review for the Office of the Children's Commissioner

In December 2012 a consortium team led by Miranda Horvath of Forensic Psychological Services won a tender to conduct a literature review for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner to inform their Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups on the impact of pornography on children and young people.

The other members of the consortium for this work are Dr Afroditi Pina from the University of Kent, Dr Llian Alys  from the University of Bedfordshire, Kristina Massey from Canterbury Christ Church University and Dr Joanna Adler and Mia Scally from Middlesex University. Our multi-site approach allows us to benefit from the experience of our collaborators and also the resources of four universities.

We are conducting a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) so we can complete the review in the short timescale. In order to take a REA approach questions were devised to guide the review, these are:

1. Identify and assess the existing evidence base on children and young people’s access and exposure to pornography.
2. Identify and assess the existing evidence base on the effects that access and exposure to pornography has on children and young people’s sexual expectations, attitudes and behaviours.
3. Draw upon existing literature reviews and meta-analyses on the associations between access and exposure to sexualised or violent visual imagery on children and young people, and consider whether this bears relevance to the issue in question.

We have now completed the searches for relevant literature and used an adapted Weight of Evidence approach for deciding whether to include them in the review. We are holding a workshop on Tuesday 5^th March for researchers and practitioners with expertise in the area to provide feedback on the preliminary findings of the literature review.