The finding comes from a representative survey of 3,000 young children and teenagers aged 11 to 17, conducted on behalf of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Twenty-one percent of respondents said they had sent sexually explicit text messages at least once.

“How can children and adolescents develop an understanding of the legal boundaries surrounding ‘sexual communication’ on the internet, including sexting, when they are already regularly and involuntarily exposed to the most explicit forms of pornography at the age of 14?

“The study underscores once again that enforcing legal youth media protection standards, especially for the sake of children’s well-being, cannot be overemphasized,” said Dr. Tobias Schmid, director of the state media watchdog. 

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The authority expressed concern that minors’ early interactions with pornographic content often happened involuntarily and could have a negative impact on their sexuality. 

The majority of respondents who had consumed pornographic content reported having seen their first pornographic photos or videos between the ages of 12 and 14. The difference between boys and girls in this regard is minimal.

A quarter of the minors indicated that they had been exposed to or received pornographic content involuntarily. Only a third of the participants considered the pornography to be unrealistic. Among boys aged 11 to 13, this number was as low as 19 percent.

The results suggest that the consumption of pornography impacts the behaviour of children and teenagers: nearly half of the boys mentioned that they used references from the pornography they had seen when sending erotic messages (46 percent). This connection was significantly weaker among girls (17 percent).

The North Rhine-Westphalia Media Authority has long sought to enforce legally required age verification systems among operators of online pornography portals.