Over the past couple of weeks I have been really busy going into schools and teaching, 10 to 12 year olds and I have been noticing more and more that their questions are related to pornography, particularly boys. There are the outright questions like why is pornography bad for you? What is porn hub? Is porn sex real? Then there are the questions that I have to look up myself because I am unsure what the porn term means.
Yes!, pornography is an epidemic and because of the COVID pandemic, we can assume that children are spending more time on the internet and because pornography is free, easily accessible and secretive they are watching it more and more. Should we really be surprised? The average age of a child viewing pornography is 11 and getting younger. I don’t like to scare parents or children or have a fear-based approach but we do need to teach age appropriate pornography safety education just like any other education like body, water, or road safety.
Children use the internet when they are pre-schoolers so we need to start when they are very young too. If your child is old enough to use a smartphone, tablet or computer then it’s time to start the conversation.
I know right? That might sound ridiculous but because of the accessibility of the internet we need to prepare them to know what to do when they see pornography and who they can trust to tell, in an age appropriate way.
I think that part of the problem is that as parents we think that we are destroying their innocence by talking about pornography but in actual fact we are empowering them to make wise choices when they see it. It is normal and healthy for children to be curious about sex, it’s a big part of learning but if we don’t equip and educate the effects can be devastating. Because you can be the parent who gives your child information about sex education and not pornography.
Here are two great articles that relate to pornography
Echildhood 2020 update; Statement of research relating to pornography harms to children
https://www.echildhood.org/statement
How to start talking today about pornography with your child.
https://parentsaware.info/index.php/2016/09/01/5-questions-about-pornography
and…here are some great books for children about pornography from my website
https://www.amazingme.com.au/topics/pornography-cyber-safety/
