Pornography took control of 11-year-old August’s life

At 11, August could access pornography on his iPad with just a few clicks. Now 24, he tells DR that his early consumption affected his daily life and later his sex life.

In DR’s documentary series Home Alone with Porn, August recalls thinking about pornography before a family holiday.

“When can I watch porn on this trip?” was the question occupying his thoughts as the family prepared to leave.

“We had to fly for several hours, and I already knew there would be a long time when I couldn’t watch porn. It was something I had thought about before we left,” he says.

August won the iPad when he was 11. He did not discuss what he was doing on it with his parents, and there were no restrictions on its use.

“I could just watch a lot of porn. It was everything from huge silicone breasts to huge penises. But it was quite easy to hide,” he says.

He began visiting websites including Pornhub and Xvideos. Over time, pornography occupied more and more of his thoughts, he says.

“It became a kind of snowball effect. In the end, I had to watch porn several times a week. Sometimes two or three times a day. That also meant I sometimes watched porn in toilets and other strange places.”

“That was generally how things were during the years when I felt pornography controlled me the most. It is quite striking to think back on, because it sounds like an addiction,” he says.

August is not the only person featured in the documentary to describe encountering pornography at an early age. Several young people talk about how their early exposure developed into something resembling an addiction.

Ask Hesby Holm, director of Digitalt Ansvar, says children can find it difficult to stop watching pornography because of the mechanisms built into the content to keep users engaged.

“It is extremely difficult for a child to fight against the mechanisms that keep people engaged with pornography. Several children say they wish they spent less time on it. The same applies to adults. And if adults cannot manage to cut down their consumption, it is even harder for children,” he says.

For August, pornography changed from producing an exciting, warm feeling to making him feel ashamed.

Red Barnet, a children’s rights organisation, has also spoken to young people who struggle to stop watching pornography. In 2025, it set up the counselling line TalMedOs, where children and young people can call for help. Since then, it has received 266 enquiries, most of them concerning worries about pornography consumption.

“As with gambling addiction, pornography releases dopamine in the brain. This means people can develop a form of dependency that ultimately is not so much about sexual satisfaction. It is about using pornography to deal with emotions,” says Pernille Spitz, a psychologist at Red Barnet.

August now believes his consumption at the time was excessive.

“I would very much have liked to avoid it. But I could not talk to my parents about it at all. That was also why it was so shameful. It is at least completely shocking to think that it started when I was so young. These are two worlds that should never meet,” he says.

DR’s documentary Home Alone with Porn examines the consequences for August and other young people of being exposed to pornography at an early age.