Unless we face up to our own pornography habits we can’t tackle our children’s
The results of a survey commissioned by NSPCC Childline about young people’s consumption of internet pornography have just been published. A poll of nearly 700 12 to 13-year-olds in the UK reveals that one in five of those surveyed said they had viewed images that shocked or disturbed them. One in ten children is worried that he or she is addicted to pornography. And 12% admitted to making or performing in a sexually explicit video.
The broadcast media has reported these figures as shocking but perhaps over-inflated. Can it be true that the private lives of pre-teens are as deeply affected by internet pornography as these figures seem to suggest? If so, what can we do as a society about this phenomenon?