Month: March 2024

Children are being exposed to online pornography from as young as nine, according to a study for the children’s commissioner for England.

A quarter of 16-21-year-olds first saw pornography on the internet while still at primary school, it suggests. By the age of 13, 50% had been exposed to it.

The findings have been linked to low self-esteem among young people and harmful views of sex and relationships. 

Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said it was “deeply concerning”.

In a nationally representative survey of more than 1,000 16-21-year-olds, 38% had found pornographic content accidentally.

Joanne Schneider’s son stumbled across a pornography website, aged eight after typing swear words he had heard at school into a search engine.

“We’d put all the normal safety features in place and had removed apps such as YouTube but didn’t for one second think that my son could find himself on adult-entertainment sites within a few seconds,” Ms Schneider, from London, said.

“As soon as I saw what was happening, I closed the site – but both him and I were left in shock at what he had seen. I felt so terrible about the whole thing.

“All of a sudden I was having to explain it all, including the fact that what he saw was artificial and far from what real people look like.”

Of the 18-21-year-olds, 79% had seen pornography involving sexual violence as children.

Almost half of the young people say girls expect sex to involve physical aggression, such as airway restriction, the commissioner’s report says.

One 12-year-old told Dame Rachel her boyfriend had “strangled” her during their first kiss. He had seen it in pornography “and thought it normal”.

The commissioner urges “every adult in a responsible position” to take the findings seriously.

The Online Safety Bill, going through the House of Lords, should be used to protect children from internet pornography, she says.

“It should not be the case that young children are stumbling across violent and misogynistic pornography on social-media sites,” Dame Rachel says.

“I truly believe we will look back in 20 years and be horrified by the content to which children were being exposed. 

“Let me be absolutely clear – online pornography is not equivalent to a ‘top-shelf’ magazine.

“The adult content which parents may have accessed in their youth could be considered ‘quaint’ in comparison to today’s world of online pornography.”

Dame Rachel encouraged parents not to shy away from the topic at home and make it clear extreme pornography is “not real, it’s acting”.

She told BBC Breakfast children “want their mums and dads to talk to them often, even when they’re really young, in an age-appropriate way about the things they might see so they’re not confused”.

She said conversations about “simple boundaries” like why it might not be right for youngsters to have internet-connected phones or social media accounts were also important.

The Online Safety Bill is due to be debated in Parliament this week amid calls from some MPs and peers for it to include tougher measures on age restrictions on social media.

A man who lost £500,000 betting has described how his gambling addiction started with gaming as a teenager.

Jordan Lea, from Llysfaen, Conwy county, started placing bets at about 14, and by his late 20s, was in huge debt. 

He has set up a gambling help charity that is seeing “a huge amount” of young people getting hooked. 

Early education on problem gambling is urgently needed, Public Health Wales (PHW) said.

Mr Lea said there was “a very prominent link” between gaming and gambling, adding: “I actually became addicted to gambling through gaming when I was 14 or 15 years old.

“By the time I was 18, I was already primed for quite a severe gambling addiction, which led me down a [path to the] criminal justice system.”

By his late 20s, his life had collapsed into debt and compulsive betting, he told BBC Radio Wales.

But his life changed when a casino croupier confronted him about his problem.

“I just broke down in tears,” he said. 

“That was the catalyst that really pushed me to get help.”

He later founded Deal Me Out, an awareness and education charity on gambling and gaming-related harms in Wales.

“People call it the hidden addiction,” he said. 

“With online gambling it’s on your phone, you have a casino in your pocket. You can do that on the toilet without being seen by anyone.”

He believes a “severe lack of education” about the dangers of gambling meant his problems went unacknowledged for years.

As a support worker, his “primary concern” is now for young people getting hooked online “through skin betting with crypto websites”.

He said “frontline education” is needed for young people and their parents.

PHW said the links between gambling and gaming need to be acknowledged.

It called for urgent action to tighten “regulation of gambling industry advertising and practices”.

The organisation also wants early education, more addiction support, and help from frontline health workers to identify problem gamblers and get them the help they need. 

PHW’s Annie Ashman said harmful gambling was having “devastating effects” on health and wellbeing.

“A system-wide approach is needed to take action on every level of the causes and resulting harms that gambling can have,” she said. 

“This includes knocking down the barrier of shame and stigma, early education in schools, empowering GPs and other frontline services to identify and refer on to specialist services.”