Widespread exposure to “crude and debasing” pornography is affecting everyone in society, a national newspaper columnist has warned.
Sandra Parsons, writing in the Daily Mail, cautioned that “so many men, including young boys” are using modern technology to access “vile images of extreme porn”.
And she said that this imagery is “infecting all ages, all strata of society”.
Numbing
The commentator warned: “Exposure to this stuff has a well-documented numbing effect.
“Watching it can warp the ideas of even the most ‘normal’ of men — ones with loving wives and adored daughters — to the point where he has watched so much extreme porn that he stops viewing women as people and sees them instead only as packages of meat.”
And Sandra Parsons also said the “worst part” of the widespread exposure to porn was that “too many young girls are playing up to it”.
Explicit
The columnist highlighted a shocking story told to her by her own daughter. It involved a 14-year-old girl who had filmed herself acting in a sexually explicit manner.
“Apparently, she’d sent the footage to a boy who had just broken up with her”, the commentator wrote, adding, “of course the clip was soon forwarded to other schoolchildren around the country”.
The writer continued: “Making a pornographic clip of yourself at 14 would never have entered the heads of girls 20 or even ten years ago.
“Nor would a previous generation have so casually shared another girl’s shame with everyone they knew. That such things are happening now is the direct result of teenage boys’ porn viewing habits — and the burden of expectation placed as a result upon teenage girls.”
‘Opt-in’
Her article was written in light of comments reportedly made by TV presenter Richard Keys about a former girlfriend of ex-footballer Jamie Redknapp.
Sandra Parsons went on to back a plan which could see access to pornographic websites being blocked at the source by internet service providers.
The plan would involve people who want to view pornography having to “opt-in” to lift the restrictions.
Last month an expert in child studies warned that parents need to know that mobile phones have replaced bike sheds as the new way for children to explore sex.
Intimate
Dr Emma Bond, a childhood and youth studies academic, warned that adults “need to take our heads out of the sand” about what is happening to young, impressionable children.
Children can easily access explicit pornography on mobile phones and share intimate pictures, she said.
Dr Bond commented that “research shows how children are using mobile phones in obtaining sexual material, developing their sexual identities and in their intimate relationships with each other”.
Pornified
In March last year teen girls hit out at modern liberal mums who do little to protect them from ‘pornified’ boys.
“I wish my parents would say I’m not allowed to be home alone with a boy”, said one 16-year-old girl. “I wish they’d say boys aren’t allowed in my bedroom.
“They make this big deal about ‘trusting us’, but that’s not helping me”, she said. “They have no idea what goes on, and I’m too embarrassed to tell them.”
Pressure
The comments were in an article for the Daily Mail which highlighted research showing many teenage girls are being pressurised by their boyfriends to engage in sexual acts taken from pornographic films.
Journalist Penny Marshall disclosed harrowing stories of young girls who say demands from teenage boyfriends are often both “disturbing and upsetting”.
A 16-year-old told Miss Marshall that, while many girls might moan about their parents being too strict, she actually resented her parents’ “forward-thinking” liberal attitude.