So, this morning I'm at Turn Key grabbing a coffee, when the cover of Maclean's Magazine caught my eye. There on the front of the June 30th issue is a young boy, maybe 12 or 13 years-old, staring intently at a computer screen, with the words: "Our kids are growing up with porn. Shouldn't we do something?" Of course I HAD to investigate. . .
Now call me naive, but I had never really thought about children checking out Internet porn. It's not like it hadn't occurred to me that once in a while a child might stumble upon something inappropriate while online, and that there probably are some (older) teenage guys and gals who actually seek out a little cyber-smut, but I had no IDEA that children being exposed to Internet porn is a widespread and pervasive problem. The first article, "Guess Who's Watching Porn," cites a study by Columbia University done in 2004 that found 25 percent of 12- and 13- year old girls, and 37 percent of boys the same age, say they have "friends" (we all know what that means) who regularly view and download Internet pornography, while a report from the London School of Economics fround that 9 out of 10 children between the ages of eight and sixteen have viewed something that qualifies as online porn. Pardon my shock, and perhaps I am a bit of a prude, but I find that deeply troubling. Why? Well, I suppose it is because I am one of those people who truly believes that young people are influenced by what they see and hear (how could they not be?), but also because I am gripped by wishful-thinking and find it hard to accept that parents are so absent from their childrens' lives that they do not know what their kids are up to and are not taking measures to prevent them from what (I am certain) is harmful exposure.
That leads me to the second article, "Shouldn't We Be Fighting Back?" It seems reasonable to expect that the government might have a role to play in the regulation of Internet porn. I mean, think about it, the State works to stop kids from smoking and drinking, and, more relevant to this discussion, from watching R- and X-rated films, as well as violent or sexually explicit television, so why wouldn't it take some interest in minimizing the extent to which kids can access online pornography? In 1999, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) decided that it would exempt the Internet from the standards it requires of mainstream broadcasters, but I think this makes little sense. I understand that the Internet is exponentially harder to control than the more "hard" forms of media, but there are a few things that might be done. One suggestion offered in the article is for the CRTC to require telecom providers to offer filtered Internet to their customers, so that parents need not be on constant guard. Another is providing Web filters in combination with a movie-style rating system. And the Australian Government has decided to implement "a plan to block out 'inappropriate' content at the ISP level (adult users can contact their ISP's to opt out)," so perhaps this is something that, depending upon its success, the Canadian Government can look to as an option. Really, I'm pretty out of touch with how the Internet works and what is or is not feasible, but I believe that a government that claims to be concerned with the welfare of it's young citizens must at least consider what it can do to shield them from online porn.
Any thoughts or ideas? Am I totally out in left-field here?
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8 comments:
Hi Alana!
Great post! Terrifying, though. I had no idea things had gotten so bad.
I wonder if the Government's relaxed attitude stems more from inability or apathy? Certainly, implementing a nation-wide regulatory program would be a monstrous task - but, as you mentioned, the welfare of our children is surely worth the effort.
I find it hard to ignore the undertones of desperation in information-technology related policy-making over the past ten years in Canada. That is, I can't shake the feeling that the Government is always just trying to stay out of last place - like its goal is only to avoid being left behind as the rest of the world gallops ahead. While certainly not a sufficient argument against the filtering out of pornography available to school children, perhaps the fear of stifling information-flow of any kind prevented earlier governments from acting.
Luckily for parents, of all possible leaders, Harper seems like the most likely to take a stand against X rated content on the web. And it wouldn't be soon enough, obviously: "9 out of 10 children between the ages of eight and sixteen have viewed something that qualifies as online porn."
Cheers :)
This is a very interesting topic. I had no idea that children that are so young are being exposed to something like pornography. I too always had the perception that curious teenagers are the ones that usually go on to these sites. The younger generation seem to be picking up on so much more and a lot faster than our generation had. I blame the media, if you watch TV you notice that there are a lot more "kissing scenes" or "modified sex scenes" even on family shows. Kids watch these shows and get curious and since we usually not turn to the internet to get all our answers, why wouldn't kids.
I know that there are some web filters that parents can use to make sure that children cannot access these pornographic sites on their computer. BUt what about the parents that do not have this filter. I'm sure that a child can go and tell their parents that they are going to go to their friend's house to play and really can just access these sites from there. Kids these days have access to these sites almost anywhere.
And the government needs to do something. Young children have brains that need to be molded and they need to be told what they can and cannot do. But if kids start viewing these sites then how will they know whats right and whats wrong?
The government should start with filtering out pornographic sites from school libraries and computer labs. I know from personal experience that when I was in elementary school and we had some time to play games on the computer. My classmate had searched "cyber games" and automatically their page was filled with pornographic sites. These sites also give viruses and pop-ups that you just can't seem to get rid of. I remember that because of these pop-us my teacher had to completely shut down the computer and did not allow anyone to go on the computer for a whole week. They were scared that these pop-ups would come back if we restarted the computer.
Basically my point is that if you do not start taking control in the places that kids are at the most like school then how will you be able to take control of the other places? And also what is the Canadian government going to do about this issue?
This post ties directly into your last post regarding the white-supremacist mother's right to "edumacate" her child in the proper manner of thinking (as she see's it)in the reverse.
Here it is very much whether or not the negligence of the parent is at fault. We cannot watch our children all the time. We must trust in the inate "good" or at least proper sensibilities that when we aren't watching them - they aren't "up to no good."
It should not be the Government's job to step in and raise our children. (Save in the instance where our negligence brings harm to our child. Note that is harm, not potential harm) There are age-appropriate filters and companies out there that have either purchasable or free software that inhibits the ability your children will have to access age-inappropriate behaviour via the internet. It is the onus of the parent to put those filters on their computer. Just as it is the onus of the parent to lock up their sport rifles and ammunition. A free and unlimited internet in the hands of a wily 8 year old would be like giving them free reign with a socially unacceptable loaded shotgun.
Also, don't take those statistics you're quoting too much seriously - afterall, what was the base group they took their stats from, how many kids were involved, what socio-economic groups were they from and was the cross-section of ages equal? Are 9 out of 10 eight year olds viewing online porn, or is that 1 out of 10 primarily made up of eight year olds?
Children are influenced by what they see and hear in the context of how it relates to them, and it is poor parenting that doesn't show the relation for the child. We can't stop them from seeing and hearing - but we can help them understand and influence their reasoning in the matter.
(And porn, by the way is not the worst thing on the internet - I'd hate to see little malevolent 8 years olds learning how to make pipe bombs, or, heaven forfend, appreciating W. Bush.
That seems nutts. I feel really old reading about things like that. It didn't seem like we had these issues when we were kids. I guess there is a downside to so much unlimited access to information. But how can the government control things like that? The whole internet bullying thing is a similar issue. How can you control what people do when they are sitting at home? And how can you possibly know for sure who is doing it?
Alana,
Like Amanda, I had absolutely no idea that this issue of children viewing pornography was so huge! I must be naive too because I NEVER would've guessed that 9 out of 10 kids say they themselves or their friends have seen porn. Unbelievable. First, although parents cannot watch their children 24/7, I think they need to monitor their children MUCH more closely when they are using the Internet. Setting up parental controls and blocking sites are no difficult tasks, so in my opinion, parents need to pay more attention to the pages their children are on.
Furthermore, I think instead of trying to pass legislature to ban illegal downloading of music and copying such to iPODs should be "set aside" and more pressing issues like this one should be addressed in parliament. This is no doubt a HUGE issue and kudos to MacLeans and those researchers for bringing these alarming stats to the public's attention. Harper's government has the chance here to do something big and make an impact on this country and I believe this issue is something they can adamantly work on crushing.
Censoring the internet doesn't work. There's too much information on it building up at an alarming rate for censorship to be viable. Additionally, the internet doesn't fall under any single government or organization, which makes things a bit tricky.
I think that we'd be better off leaving this responsibility to parents. A lot of parents buy computers for their kids without quite knowing what they do. That isn't acceptable, especially in this day and age. I think a little bit of knowledge, and a little bit of talking to your kids about what they do on the internet, would be far more effective and practical than censoring the internet.
- Mo
This article reminded me a Supreme Court case I cited on David's blog ( ironically as a response to one of your comments )
The case was R v. Butler and set out guidelines for what may be deemed offensive in Canadian society in terms of pornography. Now the case is a bit outdated and preceded a time when the internet dominates. Still, I feel the precedent is important.
What do we deem offensive in Canadian society ? The issue in Butler involved magazine and movie distribution which is regulated to adults, now we're talking about innocent kids either with too big of an imagination or arriving at a wrong site accidentally.
I would support a ban on online pornography just as much as I'd support a ban on much of the questionable jokes and language that aires on T.V. We may often take for granted our ability to 'search the web' freely. Other nations such as China (probably because they are a communist nation ) have bans on questionable websites.
How many of us knew that Blogger.com that we use for this assignment is unaccesible in China, and you need to jump the firewall to be able to blog from that country.
In Canada I think its a simple decision for the betterment of our own brothers, sisters, neices, nephews, and someday kids. If we accept these statistics as true, which they probably are, then the Government should enforce a ban on this type of internet content.
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