Jo Deschambault was in the third grade when his porn addiction started.
The now-13-year-old is the subject of the Canadian documentary Over 18, on the big screen at the New Westminster Christian Reformed Church in Burnaby on March 10.
The film talks about an issue many people would rather ignore, according to screening coordinator Dave Knox.
“Statistically, 90 per cent of boys before the age of 18 are exposed to pornography and about 60 per cent of girls. The average age of exposure is about 12 years old,” he said. “That was certainly my experience growing up. My friend’s dad was a subscriber to Playboy for 25 years and he had a whole stack of magazines in his basement. My friend said, ‘Hey, do you want to see something’”
In Over 18, viewers see how Deschambault discovers pornography while playing computer games in his living room.
“This pop-up comes in the corner. You click on it and it’s this porn site. So I click on the X and I keep playing my game,” the teen said in the trailer. “For the few seconds that I saw it, I couldn’t get it out of my head.”
The idea for the documentary came after director Jared Brock was approached by a childhood friend a couple years ago. He divulged to Brock that as a youth worker, he had 30 teens who were all addicted to porn.
Given the internet age, access to pornography is much easier now than it was two decades ago, said Knox.
“Twenty years ago, if you would have gone to a corner store, you would have had to show an ID, but that’s not the case anymore. It’s, ‘Are you over 18? Yes or no?’ And if a child can read yes or no, they can answer that question,” he said.
Over 18 also highlights how the porn of today isn’t the porn the previous generation saw. It’s much more violent and leans towards body-punishing sex, noted Knox.
“What we would have called soft porn 10, 15 years ago, has now become mainstream. In order to distinguish itself from that, the porn industry has had to become darker and more violent, and as it does that, the demand for that kind of content increases,” he said.
Pornography also skews boys’ expectations of sex, Knox added, and puts unrealistic expectations on girls.
One story from the documentary shows a young man on a first date with a girl. Cops had to pull him out of the car after they saw him choking her.
“Cops said, ‘What are you doing?’ He says, ‘Well, isn’t this what they want?’” said Knox.
Over 18 was screened at Parliament Hill last fall. Knox said the hope is to get legislation passed that requires porn sites to implement meaningful age verification. Right now, a standing committee is investigating the effects of explicit sexual material online on children. Its findings will be released by July.
“Hopefully from there, from those findings, we’ll see a bill presented,” Knox said.
The Burnaby screening on March 10 starts at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit over18doc.com.
