SHAH ALAM - Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) research finds 75 per cent of teenagers, especially boys have watched pornographic videos or images.
UKM Family Medicine, Medicine Faculty Department Lecturer Associate Professor Dr Noor Azimah Muhammad said the study conducted in 2021 showed that most were teen boys who started watching the materials in high school and often used the internet at home.
She said the internet and social media also enabled teenagers to search for pornographic videos or images without their parent’s knowledge.
She said the immoral actions were made more accessible with WiFi connection at home or some premises where teens would not have to fork out their money.
"There are cases of boys admitting to watching over 200 pornographic videos in a day to fulfil their sexual desires leading to masturbation and potentially leading to sexual activities when entering college.
"The act of watching porn causes some to suffer addiction that can lead them to commit sexual activities (with multiple partners) and suffer from diseases such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) or syphilis.
"Another research conducted in 2013 for 988 college students showed 10 per cent have been involved in sexual activities and five per cent were active in doing so,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sexual activities among teenagers were high risks as they would constantly change partners, practice homosexual and bisexual behaviour, not using condom or birth control a well as be under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
She added almost the same findings were seen in the National Health Morbidity Study, where 7.3 per cent of teens aged 13 to 17 have had sex before the age of 14 and five per cent actively do so.
"Almost all of them practised unsafe sex, without a condom or birth control and 40 per cent of new HIV infection cases involved teenagers,” Dr Noor Azimah said.
She said the issue happened due to the lack of parents monitoring their children due to constantly having to work and leave the home.
Dr Noor Azimah said parents should play a major role in protecting teenagers from being involved in risky sexual activities before marriage.
"The first thing parents should do is provide sexual education for their children.
"Among topics that should be discussed was what is sex, the risks, complications of free sex, sexually transmitted disease and unplanned pregnancies,” she explained.
She said the feeling of embarrassment in parents and children became the main factor why communication regarding teenagers’ sexuality failed in a family institution.
Dr Noor Azimah said sex was always considered taboo and obscene, causing them to face difficulties using the actual terms when speaking with their children.
"As a replacement, parents would use different terms that would confuse the teenagers with several different definitions,” she said.
Dr Noor Azimah stressed that the role must be carried with full responsibility, such as finding information on teen sexual education or adding teach them through reading or talks.
She added that the information found would aid teachers as no other individuals could perform this other than the parents.