During time when our kids should be learning positive things, much of their energy is expended on the wrong stuff. Once confined only to the backroom of a video store and adults shops, is now as easily available as finding cooking recipes or streaming videos on YouTube. All you have to do is enter a few pornographic keywords in the Google search engine. Young children are increasingly exposed to unsolicited pornographic that increases their chances of intentionally searching for pornography over the internet.
The worst part is that internet is full of unimaginable sexual acts that can influence a child’s impression, expectations and perception about relationships. Kids are no longer capable of understanding the true meaning of relationships because they are already exposed to the adversities of the internet.
Who is responsible for all this? Well, it’s a combination of too many things. Parents negligence, smartphones and social media proliferation, dating and anonymous apps, all of these are contributing to developmental issues. Moreover, kids are becoming more prone to online risks like predating and cyberbullying and scamming.
Let’s take at some of the reasons why it’s all happening. Why are our kids are exposed to explicit and unwanted content that’s making them extremely hedonistic. We are discussing kids but even adults are addicted to pornography.
Early exposure
According to a post by the Huffington Post, Kids as young as 11-year-olds are exposed to pornography. Videos and explicit images become centric to their sexual education and these kinds of things are usually what drives their understanding of intimacy in relationships. They aren’t able to have real life sexual expectations which could be undermining for both genders. They can become increasingly conscious of their sexuality and can even resort to sexual violence.
Brenda Yoder, a therapist, speaker, writer, parenting columnist and school counselor talks shares her sentiment about the issue. She expresses her concerns about the issue in these words
“We used to see these behaviors in middle school — 14 or 15, where kids are more aware of their sexuality, their bodies changing, etc. Now, younger kids are engaging in this kind of talk more without understanding the full picture of sexuality and the dangers of sexuality at such a young age”, Yoder said.
The internet: A convenient marketplace for sexual Predators
Early exposure to pornography isn’t the only issue associated with the a child unrestricted access to internet. It’s a lot more sinister than that. These online channels are the most convenient places for sexual predators to prey on naïve and vulnerable teens. Online sexual predators are real and they know the drills of catching their prey.
“In the past, predators only had access through personal contact. Now they have digital access. When a kid is on social media, anyone around the world has access to them, not just the creepy kid around the corner.” Yoder said. “The statistics of sex trafficking and predatory behavior is very alarming. It’s increasing, and it’s in every community. Social media is the No. 1 venue for sex predators to groom kids.”, Yoder added.
Teens are at a high risk of predating. Even a research shows that the Google searches for the keyword “Teen Porn” has tripled over the last decade.
Stay tuned for part 2 of the read.
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