New and uncharted phenomenon skewing children and young people’s views of sexual relationships - YoungMinds
Commenting on today’s (18th April) report from the Parliamentary inquiry into online child protection, YoungMinds Director of Campaigns and Policy Lucie Russell, who gave verbal evidence to the inquiry said:
“We wholeheartedly support Claire Perry’s brave and admirable crusade to raise awareness about children’s exposure to online pornography and the launch of the parliamentary enquiry report.
“We are witnessing a generation of children and young people who are having mostly unfettered access to a wide variety of pornography- the average age of viewing is 11 and it only takes 15 seconds on a computer, smartphone or Ipod to access a range of hardcore pornography.
“This is a new and unchartered phenomenon and we are yet to see the effect it is having on boys and girls who are growing up with completely skewed images of sexual relationships and the normalizing of sexual violence by men towards women.
“What is also compounding this is how difficult it is for parents to put parental controls on phones and other devices such as Ipods, making it much harder to protect our children from the millions of graphic images they are likely to be exposed to twenty four hours a day.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- For further information and to arrange interviews please contact Chris Leaman on 020 7089 5066 or 07813 810114 email chris.leaman@youngminds.org.uk
- YoungMinds is the UK’s leading children’s mental health charity committed to improving the mental health and emotional well-being of children and empowering their parents and carers. For further information go to www.youngminds.org.uk
YoungMinds Parents helpline: 0808 802 5544
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020 7089 5066 or chris.leaman@youngminds.org.uk
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