Young people are increasingly turning to pornography to educate themselves about sex, according to UK newspaper The Guardian. The report claims that sex education programmes are failing to teach children about relationships, so children turn to other sources. All too often, pornography fills the gap.
According to author Rachel Bell, half of children using the internet are exposed to pornography and almost a third of children receive unwanted sexual comments via email, chat, instant message or text, suggesting a worrying lack of information about positive relationships.
One teacher mentioned in the report said that she had caught a 12-year-old boy accessing pornography on his mobile phone. 'I mean, kids get all kinds of stuff on their mobiles; a lot of boys are bluetoothing porn,' she added. 'I think they are quite widely exposed to it; they're not easily shockable.'
The report points out that young people are being bombarded with a series of sexualised images of boys and girls and pressure to have sex troubles many girls. The signs are that both sexes are struggling to make sense of what it means to be female.
The results are frightening, the report makes clear. In May last year, two 16-year-old schoolboys were arrested for making a porn video of a 14-year-old girl on a mobile phone and circulating it around their school in Perth, Scotland.
In August, it was reported that the headteacher of Helston school in Cornwall had asked bebo.com, a website popular with teenagers, to remove the school's entry after complaints that children as young as 13 had put soft porn pictures of themselves on it.
Both girls and boys are under immense pressure to pass soft porn off as harmless fun.
Amidst all of these trends it appears that sex education programmes are failing to equip children with the skills needed to counter the damaging messages of porn.
Amidst all of these trends it appears that sex education programmes are failing to equip children with the skills needed to counter the damaging messages of porn.
Lee Eggleston from a British sexual violence support service, agrees that porn is now part of mainstream youth culture. 'We talk to girls and boys who feel very uncomfortable talking about it or challenging it, as it has become an acceptable way of receiving sex information,' he says.
'You only have to look at advertising in popular TV guides and magazines to see the vast amount of images of women and girls for mobile screensavers. The Playboy logo is stamped on school folders for children.'
Meanwhile 'Think before you click' is the strong message of an internet safety campaign designed to protect teenagers from overexposing themselves on social networking sites launched this week in Ireland.
With growing concern about the personal information and pictures being shared on sites such as Bebo and MySpace, the campaign stresses how important it is for young people to use nicknames, or at least not a full name, and to be aware of how pictures can be manipulated.
'Once you upload a picture to the internet you have lost control of it. It can be copied, altered and displayed in different contexts without your consent. Stay in control by only uploading pictures that you are happy for everyone to see,' is the advice from the campaign.
Much of the advice on the site, which was developed by the National Centre of Technology im Education, is offered by teenagers themselves.
Launching the campaign Education Minister Mary Hanafin said the sites had led to an explosion of creativity, but young people also needed to be in control. She decribed some of the content on the sites as ranging from 'careless to shocking and can include obscenity and bullying.'
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce