Children are being exposed to more pornography online than ever before. A recent study found that 42% of all American children aged 10-17 had been exposed to content of pornographic nature. 70% of those kids stated they were not looking for pornographic content.
While there are many harmful side effects of children viewing pornography, it has to be said that not every child who views adult content will be negatively affected and traumatized. The harmful effects of pornography are more cumulative in essence, like the effect of an addict whose increasing craving for his drug leaves him more and more depraved until he is no longer able to recognize reality from fantasy. This is what parents should be most worried about. Children exposed to pornography over a longer period can develop a very unhealthy view on sexuality and may act out in ways that make them susceptible to predators.
First of all though, we should understand that not all children that are exposed to pornography will be damaged from it. Children are able to separate fantasy from reality and they are not necessarily going to be traumatized from a few exposures to nudity or erotic pictures. That is not to say, you shouldn’t take actions. There are several reasons why. Studies have shown that repeated viewing of porn has many damaging effects on children. Children exposed to porn are more likely to act out sexually and get STD’s and unwanted pregnancies. Even more disturbing is the fact that pornography can make children potential victims of sexual predators. The long term effects of exposure to porn in children are similar to those of an addict. It becomes increasingly difficult for the child and teen to distinguish fantasy from reality and that leads to the above mentioned risks.
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The major problem with most internet filters today is that they put the burden on the parent. You have to manually block and password protect sites that you don’t want your children to see. You have to spend hours seeking out porn sites to block them. I don’t know about you, but that isn’t something I would enjoy. The problem is also that this kind of service only blocks the websites you choose. That doesn’t stop older kids or other people from emailing or using messaging programs to send porn. In fact, user shared content is the reason the internet is so popular and there will always be a new website to replace the old.
If this prospect does not sound good to you, then you are better of going with a managed internet filtering service. This type of service will do all the work for you by using both technology and human eyes to compose a massive database of website, keywords and even filenames that are blocked. This means that even files or images sent by email or messaging is blocked before your child can open it. These services are by far the best choice.
