A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 70 percent of teens accidentally came across porn while online. That’s deeply troubling, experts say, because being exposed to porn so early can forever warp their idea of what sex could and should be. “Your average teen, when he clicks on ‘porn’ in Google, what does he think he is going to see, breasts maybe? In reality, he is catapulted into a world of sexual violence,” says Gail Danes, author of the book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. “He doesn’t have a reservoir of experience. He has probably never had sex.”

Danes says online porn is “sexually traumatizing an entire generation of boys,” and it’s not just boys. Winnifred Bonjean-Alpart was 12 when she admitted to having seen porn. “We’re getting messages from everywhere that are saying if you dress this way, you are going to be either treated well or you are going to feel powerful,” she says. “Sex is power.” She adds that the ubiquity of porn and sexualized images now makes her generation unique. “There is no one before us that can kind of guide us,” she says. “I mean, we are the pioneers.” (ABC News)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.