A Kaitaia woman researching youth pornography habits says one of the biggest risks is the unrealistic expectations created when it is used as a form of sex-education.
Ashlee-Ann Sneller has spent her summer break researching the pornography consumption of youth as part of a summer scholarship the University of Auckland student was awarded.
"Just to clarify, this research doesn't actually involve me watching pornography," Ms Sneller said.
Instead the 22-year-old from Kaitaia has been studying previous literature on the topic. One of the risks she's found is that young people, some as young as 10, are watching porn and thinking what they see is realistic.
"They were using it somewhat as an educational tool because they didn't think their sex education at school was enough. One of the risks is that they are watching pornography and thinking it is a real-life depiction of what sex is, instead of looking at it as fantasy. They had some unrealistic expectations."