Pornography Is Not the Answer (It Isn’t Even the Right Question …): Reflections from Practice in Tackling Sexual Harassment and Harmful Sexualised Behaviours in Response to Everyone’s Invited and the Online Safety Bill

This chapter reflects on the issues of sexual harassment and harmful sexualised behaviours in schools, as highlighted by the Everyone’s Invited Campaign and the subsequent Ofsted report. It challenges the response from some commentators to blame these behaviours as being the result of young people’s exposure to online pornography and the influence of social media. Instead, drawing upon direct practice experiences during the summer of 2021, this chapter presents alternative answers that promote the voice of young people. This includes examining the potential negative impact of shame-based approaches and discourse that frame pornography as a problem, whilst ignoring broader the inequality of gendered social scripts present in wider society and experienced by young people in school. There is a discussion of gaps within relationship and sex education. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of how increasingly young people are using digital platforms to claim their rights and to challenge those in authority when their concerns are left unanswered.