Trigger warning: This content includes mention of sexual violence and exploitation.
Jane Johnson’s feature for The Telegraph, published on 19 June 2026, examines what commercial sexual culture has done to how young people understand sex and relationships. NHS sexual health clinicians describe consultations in which strangulation during sex has become normalised for teenage girls. The piece runs alongside the Government’s announcement of a social media ban for under-16s.
Two CEASE voices appear in the article.
Naomi Miles, founder and Chief Executive of CEASE, welcomes the ban but is clear about its limits. She says that “although it will help future generations, it can’t reverse the damage that has already been done to many young people”.
“They have been immersed in images, memes and videos that turn people into bodies, sex into a performance and relationships into transactions. We know this is having a devastating impact on their expectations and attitudes.”
Dr Elly Hanson, CEASE’s Strategy Director and a clinical psychologist, describes social media as a “parasitic online ecosystem” that pushes sexualised content because it is profitable.
“Children’s feeds are awash with this kind of content simply because so many people make money from it. As a psychologist, I am really concerned about how this is distorting young people’s approach to sex and relationships. Fundamentally they have a right to develop a sexuality free from these attempts to shape it to corporate profit.”
She adds that this content teaches young people that sex is about “transaction, performance and objectification”, and sets out the evidence for what follows:
“Research shows that when people see women primarily in terms of their physical sex appeal, they come to see them as being less intelligent, less sensitive to pain and less deserving of ethical treatment. This helps to explain the high rates of harmful sexual behaviour we’re dealing with right now.”
