Ms Pearman, who was one of the guest speakers at this week’s "Navigating the Teenage Years" forum in Alexandra, spoke about starting conversations with young people, digital media, sexuality and helping young people as they tried to figure out "who they were and how they worked in the world".
She said sexuality involved more than just talking about sex. It was important to build conversation and role-modelling about values, morals and relationships into every aspect of life from when children were very young. That would help young people develop healthy relationships themselves.
It was also good to encourage young people to critique images and movies from a young age.
"This will help young people be able to understand the difference between fantasy and reality, as well [as] understand the gendered messages in the media."
Ms Pearman said digital media and pornography were "a challenge to us all to talk more about relationships, communication, intimacy and pleasure".
It was important to remember that pornography had always existed, but had become more accessible through digital media.
An Australian survey showed 93% of males and 62% of females aged 13-16 had watched pornography. However, 84% of the boys and 64% of the girls had stumbled across it accidentally. It was therefore vital to have safety controls on home computers, Ms Pearman said.
She said pornography was linked to unrealistic attitudes about sex, including that it was violent and aggressive, and promoting women as sex objects.
Young people needed to be told porn was a fantasy and that the people appearing in pornographic material were paid actors, Ms Pearman said.
It could be embarrassing talking to your teenagers about sexuality and porn, and it was a good idea for parents to let them know navigating the teenage years was new territory for them too, she said.
But all the research showed that teenagers who were given more information about sexuality delayed having sex for the first time.
