A top neuroscientist has warned that pornography may lead to lasting damage to children’s brains.
Baroness Susan Greenfield supports an automatic block on unsuitable material online.
This means over-18s could “opt-in” for access to pornography after stringent age checks.
Vulnerable
She said: “the young brain, because it is still developing, is vulnerable.”
She points to evidence from research that shows lasting effects from early exposure to porn.
Baroness Greenfield, a professor at Oxford University, is concerned about young people’s attitudes towards each other.
Losers
She said she has heard youngsters say “only losers have real relationships”.
She added that it seems more important for young people to be seen as a “commodity”.
A petition signed by over 110,000 people calling for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block porn was handed in to the government last Thursday.
Sex Objects
Organized by the SafetyNet campaign group, the petition has been signed by MPs, peers and church figures.
Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu has also urged ISPs to bring in an opt-in system.
He says online pornography makes boys see girls as “sex objects”.
Misery
The Archbishop said: “Let us urge the Government through this consultation to compel the ISPs, who make more than £3billion a year selling internet access services, to do what they can to protect our children”.
He added: “The misery and heartache caused to British families is immeasurable.”
A Psychology professor published a book in February 2010 which looked at the lasting effect pornography has on men’s brains.
Dr William M. Struthers from Wheaton College in Chicago said pornography “hijacks the proper functioning” of their minds and affects their interaction with women.