A “huge moral anxiety” is required to respond to the problem of children accessing online pornography, the Deputy Children’s Commissioner for England has said.
Sue Berelowitz revealed evidence of children as young as eleven actively “seeking out pornography”, and some boys who think there are no boundaries for sex.
Miss Berelowitz disclosed research that showed in one large local authority area 100 per cent of boys in year nine classes – 14-year-olds – were accessing pornography.
Entitlement
And she said some boys now believed they had an “absolute entitlement to have sex with girls, any time, any place, any where, with whomsoever they wished”.
Miss Berelowitz added that research has been commissioned into whether young people understand the concept of consent.
She commented that there was no reason for there not to be a “moral panic”.
The findings were revealed on a Radio 4 programme on parenting, called Bringing up Britain.
Parents
Speaking on the programme, Claire Perry MP – who is an adviser to David Cameron on the issue – said parents need to talk to each other about the problem.
She said: “It is a bit like when your children get nits – you have to tell the parents with whom the child had seen the pornography.
“One of the worst things is that parents are so shocked and ashamed that they find it difficult to talk to their children, let alone the other parents.”
Parents should contact others, saying “my child has seen porn, he may have sent it round his classmates, please can we all get together and talk about it”, the MP commented.