Children’s Commissioner to investigate whether porn is fuelling sexual abuse

The Children’s Commissioner for England is to launch an investigation into whether online pornography is fuelling sexual abuse against women.

Dame Rachel de Souza has tasked officials with studying cases reported to NHS clinics and interviewing subjects to conclude whether there is a correlation between watching pornography and committing sexual abuse.

She told The Daily Express that when she began looking into the issue, she was surprised at how widespread the problem was, as well as the “degrading” nature of the material.

‘Normal’

De Souza warned that pornography “really affects what boys think is normal and girls think is acceptable and they should be doing”, and questioned whether some of the content “normalises rape porn”.

She cited a Durham University study of 150,000 videos on pornography websites where one in eight recordings contained acts such as violence and rape, explaining that this research demonstrates “how aggressive mainstream pornography can be”.

The former headteacher has called for the Government’s Online Safety Bill to ensure strict age verification systems are implemented on pornography websites to stop under-18s from viewing explicit content.

She said last year: “In the real world, adults wouldn’t leave something dangerous or inappropriate lying around for children to stumble upon – why should the internet be different?”

Murder

Last month, an anti-porn campaigner warned that online content is teaching boys that “violence is sexy”.

Gemma Aitchison, whose sister was murdered by a sexual predator in 2013, argues that pornography portrays women as nothing more than ‘sex objects’.

Recent analysis by The Daily Express revealed that more than twenty women have been killed by men addicted to pornography since 2003.