Sexual perception and attitude of young urbanized Myanmar people consuming internet pornography and social networking channels

Abstract

To examine the association between consuming internet pornography and sexual attitude and perception of young urbanized Myanmar people from MMTCP facebook group. The cross sectional study was conducted from 23 February to 15 March, 2013. The systematic sampling method was applied in 312 respondents for quantitative research. The data was collected through online structured survey system by using SurveyMonkey. The data were clarified by applying descriptive statistics for interpretation of data and inferential statistic to exmine the association between independent variables and sexual attitude and perception scale by using Chi-square, T- test and ANOVA test. The result showed that the prevalence of sex related chat on social network was 27.2% among 283 respondents. There were 69 male and 8 female in this 27.2%. The prevalence of pornographic related pages on social networking channels was 87.3% .97.6% of male respondents and 58.7% of female respondents being exposed to these pages. The current prevalence of internet pornography among respondents was 83.7%. 97.6% of male respondents and 72% of female respondents being exposed to internet pornography. There were significant associations between sex related chat on social network, consuming pornographic pages on social network and consuming internet pornography with level of sexual attitude and perception at the p-value less than 0.05. The result showed that there was significant difference of sexual attitude and perception of respondents by gender by mean of independent samples test. Practice level toward internet pornography was significantly associated with gender (p=0.00), marital status (p=0.39) and monthly average income (p=0.003) at p-values less than 0.05. But practice level toward internet pornography was not associated with education level, type of job and living place of respondents. Findings from this study pointed out that sex related online chat, consuming pornographic pages on social networks and consuming internet pornography had significantly associated with sexual attitude and perception of respondents and these associations should be considered as one of the factors that lead young people toward risky sexual behavior and practice. So comprehensive sex education program should be implemented among young people to overcome negative impact of internet pornography on young people. Updated health information in local languages should be available and accessible on the internet by young people.