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Parents in particular will have been shocked and deeply concerned by the details of children’s exposure to online pornography, revealed this week in a new report from Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza.
One in ten has seen pornography by the age of nine; more than a quarter by the age of 11. Nearly half of 13-year-olds have seen it. More than four in ten young people aged 16-21 believe that girls enjoy being slapped and strangled during sex.
Parents like the idea of their children having a mobile phone so they can contact them and check that they are safe. How ironic, then, that it is through their cell phones that most children access pornography. Just type ‘sex’ or ‘porn’ into the browser and you’ll be bombarded with unimaginably horrible videos of men doing vile things to women, with little or no control over the viewer’s age and no demand for payment.
It’s been two years since research conducted at Durham University’s Department of Sociology and Law School (and published in the British Journal of Criminology) revealed the extent to which popular pornography sites display depictions of sexual acts that are criminal. .
A new report has revealed that one in ten children have viewed pornography by the age of nine. UK-based writer Jenni Murray argues that all pornography is harmful
Their analysis of the home pages of these sites found that one in eight displayed what were advertised as incestuous or non-consensual acts, including videos in which subjects were described as drugged, unconscious or very young.
What is the use of teaching children about the importance of consensual sex in CSR (Relationships and Sex Education) lessons at school, and parents trying to explain what a healthy relationship is at home, when children have easy access to depictions of rape, with titles like ‘forced over and over again’ or ‘forced girlfriend for sex’?
When children and young people see physical aggression, coercion, exploitation and crying women, is it any wonder they mistakenly believe that women like all of these?
In her report, Dame Rachel said: “I will never forget the girl who told me about her first kiss with her boyfriend, aged 12, who strangled her.” She had seen it in pornography and she thought that she was normal.
In all my years of speaking to women as a journalist for both regional television in Southampton and the Women’s Hour, I have never come across a single sex worker who said she enjoyed selling her body, either as a prostitute or a ‘porn star’.
No one was doing their job because it was fun. In all cases they felt used, abused and harmed. They had not chosen that career path.
Jenni Murray (pictured) says: ‘How can harmful porn be legal? Rape women forced to act. He rapes women in relationships where men think strangulation is good sex.
Some had been coerced by a man they believed to be their boyfriend, but who later turned out to be a pimp who made his fortune off her. Others were single parents, who had to find a way to earn a living to raise their children.
Perhaps the best known example of a woman who was supposed to enjoy her role in a hardcore pornographic film was Linda Lovelace.
Deep Throat was a huge international hit in the early 1970s. It was in 1980 that Linda revealed in her book Ordeal how much she had suffered during the making of that film. She had been bullied and beaten by her then-husband, Chuck Traynor. He had forced her into prostitution, she wrote, with a gun to her head.
It was at that time that I began to believe that pornography should be banned.
A full ban would not only prevent women in the porn industry from being raped (with little or no recourse to justice), it would also reduce the belief by some in society that sexual violence against women is acceptable.
At the time of Deep Throat, some of America’s best-known feminists, including Gloria Steinem and the poet Robin Morgan, rallied behind the Women Against Pornography movement. It was Morgan who, in an essay written in 1974, wrote: ‘Pornography is the theory and rape is the practice.’
But no attempt to outlaw pornography has been successful. The industry is powerful and rich, with an estimated value of £12 billion globally. And until now, the argument that a ban would threaten free speech has always taken precedence over the simple fact that pornography harms women and puts them at risk.
But we are not talking about ‘discourse’ here. We’re talking about recorded evidence of sexual violence.
And it is everywhere. It is not limited to porn sites. Dame Rachel’s report found that Twitter was the site where the highest proportion of young people (41 per cent) accessed sexual content.
That’s why the much-discussed and long-delayed online safety bill, if it’s ever introduced, won’t make much of a difference. Romford’s Lord Bethell warned that the bill is too weak in its definition of age verification and leaves too much for codes of practice and guidance to be drawn up later.
But surely it is increasingly useless to create a regulation after the videos that rape women have been made. It’s time the government was tough enough to make pornography illegal, with long prison sentences to rein in those who continue to distribute it. The fines are not scary enough. The age verification, which is easy for punters and promoters alike to evade, is next to useless.
How can harmful pornography be legal? Rape women forced to act. He rapes women in relationships where men think strangulation is good sex. It’s time to stand up to the pornographers and ban them. Surely our children are worth the fight.
Nominate BOTH stunning talents
Andrea Riseborough (pictured) plays an alcoholic mother who leaves her son to go have fun in In To Leslie.
A pity that a race has swallowed the Oscars. Danielle Deadwyler’s performance as the mother of a son who was lynched in the film Till was impressive. In To Leslie, Andrea Riseborough plays an alcoholic mother who leaves her son behind to go have fun. She is moving brilliantly. It’s not a question of one or the other, both deserved to be nominated.
- Helen Whately, the social care minister, says patients are “very comfortable with remote appointments” and that 50,000 of us every month will be happy to be monitored at home, thus freeing up hospital beds. Sick and vulnerable people, alone, who rely on technology like finger sensors? I do not think.
Welcome to the real world, Mrs. Kondo.
Marie Kondo, the queen of cleanliness (pictured with her family) has revealed that her ideal life was ruined with the arrival of a third child
Marie Kondo, the queen of cleanliness, made me so ashamed of the dumpster that is my underwear drawer, the pile of papers I call my filing system, and the floor that houses more shoes than anyone could possibly need.
So I couldn’t hide my joy that her ideal life was ruined by the arrival of a third child. Maria, welcome to the real world.
Don’t you dare knock Catherine down!
Sarah Lancashire as Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley. Jenni Murray says she will never forgive creator-writer Sally Wainwright if she removes Lancashire’s character
Like many, I’m totally caught up in a rare cold-water modern moment: We’re all talking about Happy Valley and being forced to wait for the final episode.
Will Tommy die? Will Richard die? Will Tommy’s son Ryan save the day? I will never forgive creator and writer Sally Wainwright if she gets rid of Catherine (played by Sarah Lancashire), who deserves the perfect retirement and reconciliation with her sister Clare hers.
- Lucy Cavendish College was founded in 1965 to cater for older women who wanted to study at the University of Cambridge. Young men will now also be admitted, leaving only Newnham for women only. Are we going to lose all the single-sex spaces that have mattered so much?