One in every three British kids access porn content

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A shocking new survey has revealed that one out of every three British kids access porn websites.

The research also highlights that eight out of 10 kids in the age bracket of 14-16 years have admitted on regularly watching porn on their home computers.
Raising questions on the internet safety for kids, the survey has once again treaded on a grave issue regarding parental influence in their child’s internet behavior.

But despite the high percentage of kids watching porn, 70 percent British teenagers assert that they have not had sexual intercourse and their first sexual experience was on the internet.

This means that most of these British teens have accessed porn sites before their first actual sexual experience.

Study details
The study led by ‘Psychologies’ magazine as part of an ongoing survey, questioned secondary school kids to arrive at the results.

Leading sociologist, Michael Flood says, “There is compelling evidence that pornography has negative effects on individuals and communities. Porn shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance.”

Moreover, News of The World reports that according to experts, this sort of deviant experience may even result in the kids growing into romantically dysfunctional human beings and eventually arouse them to commit illegal actions like rape.

John Woods, sex-addiction psychotherapist further cautions that watching porn is a more severe addiction than being a drug or alcohol addict.
“The pendulum has swung too far. We are allowing abusive sexual imagery to be accessed by children. We need regulation but that needs people to say enough is enough and demand change,” he adds.

Parents react

The British parents have been left speechless after the survey results were made public. They were not aware that at a tender age their kid could access such content on the internet.

Parents are unaware of the risk that their children are at. Most of the parents are incapable off keeping a tab on their computer savvy kids. They either do not know how to install parental internet controls or cannot stop their children from tampering with these to access porn.

“We can’t continue to stick our heads in the sand about the potential effects of this,” says Justine Roberts, member of the support group for parents, Mumsnet.

“We are going to produce a generation with a terrifying idea of what sex is about," she furthers.

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So what do you think parents can or should do about this issue...apart from banning internet completely, because that would mean kids are forced to access the net elsewhere (friends house, libr, cafe etc.) under the guise of homework and that would mean unsupervised/unrestricted by the parents.

Apart from talking to kids - I can only think of-

1) parental control software
2) shared pc kept in the family room, where screen is visible/open.
3) No laptops.
4) They should require permission (password) for use only with supervision/presence of an adult.

The last one seems extreme and not always practical/required, but i think for really young ones, that is probably neccesary. And you can only attempt restrictions in your own home, anywhere else is pretty difficult.

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Re: One in every three British kids access porn content

look lets make it very simple, back in Pakistan majority of teenagers who had access to VCRs watched totay somehow, and those who did not have VCRs rented them to watch totay, and those who could not, went to movies where they could get some masala, and then there was an underground market of nudie mags, heck back in the day, one magazine would be ripped apart into pages, or even pics and those would be sold and teens would have them.

These days, you think the teens going to cybercafes in India or Pakistan are there to do cademic research? ask any cybercafe owner and check the logs.

sky is not falling, teens have had access to porn before, they have access to porn now. The channel has changed online vs videos or even dirty novels ...can anyone say harlequin or mills & boons that desi chicas used to read non stop.

the difference, it is easier now to get to that content, just like it is easier to get any other content.

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with internet enabled mobile devices, its even tougher.

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Re: One in every three British kids access porn content

agree with X2

To be honest, i remember coming across images when i was younger, and even now, and honestly, i cant stand it, makes me vomit......

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Re: One in every three British kids access porn content

I think putting parental controls like my parents did is the way to go if they're under 18. The laptops have softwares to block sexual content.

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Re: One in every three British kids access porn content

imho, the best way is for parents to educate their kids and talk to them about internet safety and also what kinds of crap there is and to avoid that. kids are curious, i'm not surprised they find the bad stuff, but if you've speak to them about it, you can influence how they react when they see that stuff and whether or not they go back to view it again deliberately (assuming they stumbled upon it in the first place).