Children are being left feeling insecure and disturbed after unintentionally watching hard-core pornography online, according to the NSPCC.
The charity has said that some primary school pupils have required counselling after stumbling across porn online.
The Government recently announced that it has delayed plans to require pornography websites to verify the age of users.
Counselling
According to NSPCC figures, reported by the Daily Mail, over 2,000 youngsters contacted Childline’s advice service during the past three years to say they felt troubled after watching porn.
Out of the youngsters who received counselling, one in ten were eleven or under, and 63 per cent were aged 12 to 15.
The charity’s research showed that 46 per cent of children who watched porn were first exposed to it by accident.
Upset
An 11-year-old girl added that she has now become “addicted” to watching porn after opening a link she was sent without realising what it was.
She told Childline that she is now “really ashamed” and scared her mum “is going to find out”.
It was also reported that children have been pressurised into viewing porn.
A 13-year-old boy told Childline: “I have been bullied into watching pornographic videos by people at school, which makes me feel sick. One showed a woman being raped, it was so upsetting.”
‘Safer’
Ministers first announced in 2016 that they planned to give the British Board of Film Classification powers to restrict UK and overseas sites which fail to block under-18s.
The new powers were expected to be introduced in April, but the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced last week that this will no longer be the case.
A Government spokesman said: “We need to take the time to make sure we get it right if it’s going to work, and will come into effect later this year”.
The press release stated: “Our priority is to make the internet safer for children and we believe this is best achieved by taking time to get the implementation of the policy right.”