More Children Are Seeing Porn Online

By Kim Le

In a recent survey 42 percent of children and teens have been
exposed to online nudity and pornography whether it was by accident
or sought out. Of those 42 percent, 34 percent of the children said
their exposure to the material was unwanted.

“It’s appalling to see how many kids are being exposed to
pornography these days,” said Natasha Nassar, a fourth-year
psychology student. “When I was that age, the Internet was just
barely being introduced and my parents didn’t have to worry about
that kind of exposure for me.”

In the survey, most kids who reported unwanted exposure were
ages 13 – 17. Seventeen percent of boys and 16 percent of girls
were 10 and 11-year-olds.

Filtering and blocking software have been created so that
parents can block their children from certain Web sites and images.
This software has helped prevent exposure but has not always been
100 percent effective. Children can accidentally stumble across
pornographic images when downloading a game or mistyping a Web site
address.

“Nowadays, it’s common to run across sexually explicit Web sites
or pornographic images,” said Wendee Picou, a fourth-year
communications student. “It’s more of a nuisance than anything
especially when you’re looking up research for homework and you get
all these XXX pop up ads.”

Many students and adults believe that better methods need to be
created to stop children from seeking out or accidentally stumbling
upon pornographic images. Janis Wolak, a research assistant
professor at the University of New Hampshire believes that it is
“sometimes possible for people to overreact” to children’s exposure
to pornography. But many have to wonder what kind of effect will
viewing adult material have on children.

While not every child will be affected or traumatized in some
way, early exposure to adult material could lead kids to become
sexually active too soon, or could put them at risk to sexual
predators. Children also often imitate what they see and studies
have suggested that exposure to pornography can prompt kids to act
out sexually against younger, smaller and more vulnerable
children.

However, many children who participated in the survey said they
were not disturbed by what they saw and according to Wolak more
research needs to be done in order to determine if exposure to
online pornography has an effect on children.

Kim Le can be reached by e-mail at news@thepolypost.com or by
phone at (909) 869-3747.

More Children Are Seeing Porn Online