Portions of this article were originally posted on The Daily Telegraph. 3-minute read.
Boys as young as 12 are so obsessed with online porn they can’t make it through the school day without fulfilling their “need” to see explicit images, top teachers and academics have warned.
One teacher from an elite boy’s high school in Australia has compared the widespread consumption of pornography to “smoking, alcohol, and drugs.” He warned it was even becoming an issue among elementary school students.
“I deal with adolescents every day who have an addiction to internet pornography,” Redfield College science teacher David Youl said. “Many of these young men find it difficult to fulfill their normal daily duties (including school work and spending time with family or friends) due to a ‘need’ to access internet pornography for excessive amounts of time.”
Related: The Percentage of 12-Year-Olds Who Admit Being Addicted to Porn Will Shock You
Youl also expressed how the issue was also affecting how boys treated girls socially.
“We’ve also seen an increase in the prevalence of [elementary] school students who have accessed porn,” he said. “They’ve shown it to other students on their phones.”
Watch FTND’s documentary about Mark, who says he was addicted to porn by age 12:
What does the research say?
Research claims up to 93% of adolescent boys have been regularly exposed to/are regular consumers of porn, and children as young as seven are exposed to it due to its availability through online devices.
Youl—who is one of the hundreds of concerned teachers and academics who wrote to the Australian government and warned of the harm internet porn was having on children—said “many parents” were blind to the danger.
“In the same way that parents and governments try to protect children from the potential damage caused by smoking, alcohol, and drugs, it is imperative the government take steps to minimize the harm that pornography is causing too many young people,” he said.
Related: Sex Before Kissing: 15-Year-Old Girls Dealing With Porn Addicted Boys
Christine Kuhl, a mother of three daughters, was one of the many increasingly concerned parents.
“I do not know if [my daughters] access pornography online, but I do know boys they may befriend are statistically very likely to,” she said. “This concerns me a great deal, as I think that it will affect my daughters’ experiences of sex—possibly making it a violent experience between adversaries, rather than a beautiful one between equals.”
Click here to read the full article by The Daily Telegraph.
Why this matters
Research shows that young people are as likely to see online porn accidentally as they are to actively search for it.
That means that with the amount of porn that’s online today, it is actually easier for a kid to stumble across it than to search for it on purpose. And for almost 2/3 of the children, this first exposure to porn happened right in their own home. We don’t share this info to scare parents, but to shine a light on these important facts so safety measures can be taken, including talking openly to children about porn and sex.
Related: Parents: If You Don’t Teach Your Kids About Sex, Porn Will
Another unsurprising finding goes to show the escalating nature of porn viewing. Children described how their feelings towards porn have changed over time. About 27% surveyed reported feeling ‘shocked’ the first time they viewed it, but follow up surveys revealed that just 8% remained shocked after the first time they watched it.
Citing the research we’ve stated above, an incredibly in-depth survey by The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (click here to read the full report) shows the massive role that porn is playing in the development of young kids these days. What they’re learning is skewed perceptions of sex and harmful attitudes about their natural sexuality.
Related: What’s The Average Age Of Someone’s First Exposure To Porn?
By being educated and raising awareness on these findings, we can hopefully spare the next generation of the many harms that are sure to come due to this pornification of our society.
