“Children and young people need to be empowered to keep themselves safe - this isn’t just about a top-down approach. At a public swimming pool we have gates, put up signs, have lifeguards and shallow ends, but we also teach children how to swim.”Dr Tanya Bryon (more info on Dr Byron - Wikipedia)
As I read an article today by Jemima Kiss titled, “Minister backs Byron’s web safety push” I realized that awareness is picking up on internet safety, and the effects of easy access to pornography our disturbingly coming to the forefront.
Dr. Bryon’s anaology is spot on, we need to limit access, but it doesn’t stop there. We need to educate children, and teens on how to use the Internet safely. Which means as mentors and leaders we ourselves need to know what they are getting into.
Check out the entire Guardian article here: Minister backs Byron’s web safety push by Jemima Kiss
guardian.co.uk, Thursday March 27 2008
I glanced through her study and pulled out some of her findings that I thought support the case that pornography is harmful. You can read the full report here (PDF).
The internet has undoubtedly increased children’s exposure to sexually explicit
material
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The internet has undoubtedly made it easier to distribute, obtain and for children to come
across pornography either accidentally or on purpose. Livingstone and Bober (2005) report
that 57% of 9-19 year-olds have come into contact with online pornography. Of these, 38%
have seen a pornographic pop-up advert whilst doing something else, 36% have
accidentally stumbled upon a pornographic website, 25% have received unsolicited
pornographic material by email or instant messaging and 10% admit to having visited a
pornographic website on purpose. These high figures are echoed across a number of
studies in Europe (see Millwood Hargrave and Livingstone, 2006) and in the US, where
34% of young people said they had seen sexual material accidentally (Wolak, Mitchell and
Finkelhor, 2007).
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Recent research by Ofcom found sexual content to be one of the two biggest issues
concerning parents of 8-17 year olds (37%) and was mentioned by 28% of 8-17 year olds as
the issue they are most concerned about with the internet (Millwood Hargrave and
Livingstone, 2006).
There is a small but accumulating body of evidence showing a link between exposure
to sexually explicit material and negative beliefs and attitudes, although this
research cannot decipher the direction of causality
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There is a growing body of evidence on the effects of sexually explicit material on attitudes,
values and beliefs. Peter and Valkenburg (2006) have found correlations between exposure
to sexually explicit online content and attitudes towards sex such as respect for women
and understanding of sex as related to love. This was found in the Netherlands and was
particularly in relation to male adolescents. Ybarra and Mitchell (2005) has also found an
association between the use of pornography and depression. Some very recent research is
beginning to show an association between exposure to pornography and attitudes
towards sexual exploitation along with pro-rape attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in adults
(Itzin et al, 2007; Shim, Lee and Paul, 2007). All of this research is correlational and therefore
does not prove causality, but it constitutes a small but increasing body of research
demonstrating a relationship between exposure to sexually inappropriate material and the
development and validation of negative beliefs and ideas.
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The American Psychological Association taskforce recently published a paper which
examined the sexualised messages targeting girls across the media and found negative
cognitive, emotional and attitudinal consequences of this increased sexualisation
(Zurbriggen, Collings, Lam, Roberts, Tolman, Ward and Blake, 2007). Increased exposure to
such content on the internet is likely to contribute to this.
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