[erlanger]

> Males report having sexual fantasies earlier in development (average age of onset 11.5 years)

I find that figure to be surprisingly high. My first dream that was definitely sexual was when I was 7 going on 8, in the second grade.

> today’s Internet pornography scene, where zero is left to the imagination.

I disagree. The primary psychological goal of porno seems to be for the viewer to imagine one of the actors as themselves, and/or the other actor(s) as those the viewer knows or sees. The amount of clothing, the level of visual detail, and the nature of the sexual acts performed are merely to cater to the viewer's tastes.

[ErrantX]

May I ask; how old are you now? (your past recall seems pretty damn good if you can remember back so far)

As it stands I'd say 7/8 seems young; well, for men (it might be reasonable for women).

My work is in computer forensics and we often have children's computers to examine. In my limited observation sexual interest develops around 10/11 in boys and 8/9 in girls (this is based on searches for porn or sexy pics so in no way conclusive).

> The primary psychological goal of porno seems to be for the viewer to imagine one of the actors as themselves, and/or the other actor(s) as those the viewer knows or sees.

As you can imagine (given the above job) we also see a lot of porn. And I would say you are right. POV pornography is extremely popular - probably the most common type of porn people watch.

[mahmud]

OT, but how far back in your youth can you remember? I ask this because I described my earliest memory to my mother and she confirmed that at that time I must have been no more than 18 months old. It was an apartment we lived in during a brief period of separation from my father, when she went AWOL with me, and she swore she never told anyone where we have been for those few weeks.

I also remember a day when my brother took me on his motorcycle because I was sitting on the gas tank and it burned my thighs. Turns out my brother left for the U.S. when I was 2 years old.

My aunt has letters I wrote to her when I was 4, and those I remember like it was yesterday. The first letter has punctures in it because it was the day I found out that you couldn't write a letter on the carpet, and needed a hard surface behind it to keep the pencil from puncturing it.

[petercooper]

FWIW, I remember almost nothing from before 6. I can remember a few extended memories aged 6, then quite a lot from about 8 onwards. The absolute earliest memory I can dredge up is age 5 but we're talking a mere snatch of an image. I have bizarre time and memory dilation issues in any case so my brain isn't quite representative of the norm!

My father, on the other hand, goes to the other extreme and claims to remember being in his pram in the garden at about 18 months old and not being able to understand the noises being made by other people around him.

[erlanger]

Yea, I think it's all relative. I know people who remember little from before the age of 6, and I find that to be almost disturbing...I remember most everything from 4 onward, and my earliest memory involves me wanting a particular sort of diaper (the pig ones!), so I imagine I was pretty young at the time.

[thebigshane]

Just a guess, but I think maybe girl's search that young to explore why society is so obsessed with beautiful/sexy women and to learn more about society's expectations of themselves.. I, perhaps naively, think that they are not searching for stimulating experiences like boys likely are.

[erlanger]

I'm 22 now. The girl was very cute at the time.

[WesleyJohnson]

A bit off-topic, but do you have clear recolection of other dreams at that age (or younger) or does this one just stand out because of its nature? I have a terrible long term memory and I can hardly recall everyday things from that long ago, much less one specific dream.

[erlanger]

I recall all of my more eventful dreams from that age (and younger, but only back to 5 or 6), and that particular dream was definitely a welcomed shock to my young mind at the time.