FOR all the wonders the web has brought, the vast quantity of freely-available hardcore porn can cause kids lasting damage.
New figures show the alarming total of children expelled or suspended from school for sexual assault between 2006 and 2011.
Education campaigners claim they are being taught about sex too young. But that overlooks the profound impact online sex images and videos have on impressionable minds.
Before the internet, even teenagers determined to see explicit porn struggled to find it.
Now they can be casually exposed to it from a far younger age. Indeed, on the day they first use a computer.
Even an entirely innocent Google search can yield an avalanche of adult content.
It is hard to blame a child who finds such images so easily for assuming overt and aggressive sexual behaviour is normal.
And it is no wonder so many are hooked on internet porn.
The Government’s response has been truly pathetic.
They talked tough about a sensible opt-in system where parents had to contact their internet service provider to access porn. Like so many other sound policies of this compromised Coalition, it has turned to dust.
The “civil liberties” of porn users — their right to find it without effort — are deemed to outweigh the right of parents to shield their kids from it. A feeble and ineffective “opt-out” system is now the front-runner.
This is madness.
Movies have rightly been subject to classification since 1913 because scenes may be too violent or sexual for kids. TV has a 9pm watershed.
But on the web, anything goes.
Parents cannot oversee every online search their child carries out, especially once they’re teenagers, or have a smartphone.
Governments must force ISPs and mobile networks to restrict kids’ access to porn while leaving adults a choice.
Google must remove X-rated search results.
Children’s lives are being ruined. The technology giants must face up to their responsibilities.
The Sun report
Education campaigners claim they are being taught about sex too young. But that overlooks the profound impact online sex images and videos have on impressionable minds.
Before the internet, even teenagers determined to see explicit porn struggled to find it.
Now they can be casually exposed to it from a far younger age. Indeed, on the day they first use a computer.
Even an entirely innocent Google search can yield an avalanche of adult content.
It is hard to blame a child who finds such images so easily for assuming overt and aggressive sexual behaviour is normal.
And it is no wonder so many are hooked on internet porn.
The Government’s response has been truly pathetic.
They talked tough about a sensible opt-in system where parents had to contact their internet service provider to access porn. Like so many other sound policies of this compromised Coalition, it has turned to dust.
The “civil liberties” of porn users — their right to find it without effort — are deemed to outweigh the right of parents to shield their kids from it. A feeble and ineffective “opt-out” system is now the front-runner.
This is madness.
Movies have rightly been subject to classification since 1913 because scenes may be too violent or sexual for kids. TV has a 9pm watershed.
But on the web, anything goes.
Parents cannot oversee every online search their child carries out, especially once they’re teenagers, or have a smartphone.
Governments must force ISPs and mobile networks to restrict kids’ access to porn while leaving adults a choice.
Google must remove X-rated search results.
Children’s lives are being ruined. The technology giants must face up to their responsibilities.
The Sun report
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