A British government-sponsored report on Tuesday sounded the alarm about children viewing violent pornography, warning that the consequences they can expect include acts such as strangulation.
A report by Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza found that 10 percent of children had seen pornography by the age of nine and 79 percent had seen violent pornography “depicting sexual acts that force, humiliate or cause pain” by the age of 18.
Online porn can be ‘unrealistic’
The survey was conducted at the end of last year among 1,014 people aged 16 to 21 living in the UK.
Forty-seven percent said girls “expect” sex to include physical aggression such as airway restrictions and slapping, and 42 percent said girls “like” this. Respondents were more likely to think that girls liked the act than boys.
Among respondents over the age of 18, 47 percent said they had been sexually assaulted.
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“A lot of online pornography can be unrealistic and some rape content, so young people can think it’s okay and real,” said the 18-year-old girl.
The report emphasized that the content that children can see today does not compare to what their parents’ generation had access to only in top magazines.
It argues that among young people, “pornography plays an important role in normalizing and allowing sexual violence against women”.
The report was released as lawmakers considered an Online Safety Bill to introduce stricter age controls to stop under-18s viewing adult content.
– Moral compass? –
The children’s commissioner backed the legislation, while saying it “will not be a ‘silver bullet'”. They blame the website for not introducing these controls earlier.
“Parents really can’t stop this from happening on social media. It’s the tech companies that need to step up and do this,” de Souza told the BBC.
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“The online security bill will force them to do it. But frankly, this is a multi-billion pound company, they need to have a moral compass and do this now and do it well.
The report found that children are more likely to access porn on mainstream social media than on dedicated adult porn sites.
Twitter was the most common source, with 41 percent saying they had seen it on the site, whose signup age was 13. Instagram and Snapchat were also cited.
Parents “are often unaware that abusive and degrading content can be found quickly and easily on the internet”.
The report focuses on the effects of children viewing pornography.
Early exposure, age 11 or younger, makes boys more likely to be spectators.
And it often “significantly increases the likelihood of viewing sexually violent content” later.