Kids and Porn: The Real Dangers of Exposing Children to Pornography

Pornography, with its message that sex without responsibility or care is both acceptable and desirable, can be causing more harm that many people realize- especially when it comes to our children. Beyond robbing them of their innocence and giving them an unrealistic vision of what sex should be, recent studies have shown that exposure to explicit sexual images at a young age can actually cause permanent psychological harm to kids and teens.

According to The Journal of Sexual Research, children under the age of fourteen who have been exposed to pornography have a greater tendency to become involved in deviant or criminal sexual behavior as an adult- especially rape. (That fact alone is enough to have many parents running to unplug their home computers) Additionally, because it is in a child’s nature to imitate the things that they see, read, or hear about, children and teens that have seen pornography are twice as likely to become involved in sexual activities at a much earlier age- a trend that can be tracked by the ever increasing number of teenage STD cases. Today, one in four sexually active people under the age of 21 is carrying some kind of sexually transmitted disease. That’s over three million cases annually.

As if all of that weren’t frightening enough, there is yet another scary trend that many say can be traced back, at least in part, to an early exposure to pornography: children acting out towards other children in a sexual or violent way. Like children who have themselves been molested, kids who viewed porn often end up forcing the things they have seen or experienced on their younger peers.

So what are a concerned parent’s options? More than a few have found themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place. After all, getting rid of your home computer is probably not going to work. But there are alternatives. For example, try moving the computer out of your child’s room, and into a public part of the house. Sit down with your teens, and explain to them the real dangers- not only of pornography, but of unprotected sex. And, of course, installing a quality internet filter can help you keep track of what your kids are doing while on the internet.