In bedrooms across the country, smartphones and other smart devices have enabled kids to stream a porn video on their phone, show it to their partner, and say, ‘Here, do this.'”
A story by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) revealed that interactions like the kind described above have been leading to violence and bodily trauma.
An excerpt from the story:
Susan McLean, a cybersafety expert who advises the federal government,…is one of several experts who have told the ABC they are hearing of an increasing number of reports of high school girls sustaining serious injuries trying to replicate things they or their boyfriend have seen in porn.
“It tends to be using objects. It does tend to be quite violent or being tied up, and the girls often feel very powerless to say no,” Ms McLean said. They believe there’s an expectation on them that they should be doing this sort of stuff.
The ABC is aware of one case where a teen girl was hospitalized and her boyfriend prosecuted by police after their sexual exploration — believed to be inspired by porn — got out of control.
A woman using the pseudonym Sarah said, “In pornography, it’s not how it is in real life….It looks like they enjoy it, but it actually really hurts.”
The eSafety Commissioner of Australia, Julie Inman Grant, told the reporter that parents “are the frontline defense when it comes to helping children have safe online experiences — this includes engaging with them from an early age….There is no substitute for active engagement and oversight in your children’s online lives.”
Read the entire story on Australia, teens and porn.
Check out Culture Reframed’s free, online Parents of Tweens program to help parents raise porn-resilient kids.
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