Why we need proof-of-age porn protections for children now
One of our supporters shares candidly about her young son’s accidental exposure to porn online:
“During the pandemic year in 2020 our son was first exposed to porn after he was researching a project for school. He stumbled upon a photo of a girl (fully clothed) who he thought looked nice. The next time he was on the internet he tried to find her photo again and googled ‘beautiful girl’ and was exposed to the world of porn.
My husband and I did not set our computers up for extensive parental controls as we were totally naïve to how easily accessible pornography was. It was 7 days before we found out what was happening and by then he was exposed to way more with a click of a few buttons to pictures and Pornhub.
He was confused with his feelings as it made him curious and strange. He thought there was something wrong with him as he was interested but knew it was wrong and was hating himself. He was 10 years old.
Unfortunately, in the 2021 covid lockdown he was again exposed to pornography. We had parental controls on this time but he was still able to find these things, although a bit harder and not what he was obviously looking for.
He is 11 now and has had to have a lot of education surrounding porn. The times he was exposed, we knew something was wrong. He was sneaking around, jumpy, moody and not wanting affection from us which is so totally not his nature. We knew the first time after 7 days and the second time after 3. The behaviour was just so totally different. It changed him.
We want him free from the bonds of misogyny and want to ensure he grows up with the values and morals we instil in him. It’s hard to do so when it seems to be everywhere and it’s exhausting to be constantly having these conversations. His childhood should feel free and he says that he hates what he has seen as he’s only a little boy.
I feel like my son is in constant recovery. Needing to be in a state of awareness of potential harm from prom exposure at this age is unfair for a child at any age and totally unacceptable.”
Every day more boys and girls are harmed by exposure to rape porn, incest porn, torture porn, sadism, and the extreme degradation of women primarily at the click of a button at increasingly younger ages. This is why we have campaigned for age verification to protect children from exposure to pornography.
We cannot afford to wait - we need proof-of-age porn protections for children now!
We are grateful to parents who are willing to share their own painful experiences as a warning to other parents. Do you have an experience you would like to share? (We don’t need to use real names).
And keep an eye out over the next few days for more information to equip you to ask your candidate to ask where they stand on this issue.
See also:
‘My daughter saw porn at 8. This is how her life unravelled’ - Melinda Tankard Reist blog
‘I learnt to act like porn stars so boys would like me’ – Jemima tells MTR how her life changes when exposed to porn at 10
Add your comment