Saving the Children?: Pornography, Childhood and the Internet

Abstract

In May 2013, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England published a report entitled ‘Basically … porn is everywhere’: A Rapid Evidence Assessment on the Effect that Access and Exposure to Pornography has on Children and Young People (Horvath et al. 2013). Produced by a team of psychologists from three English universities, the report was accompanied by a press release that began as follows: The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England is calling for urgent action to develop children’s resilience to pornography following a research report it commissioned which found that: a significant number of children access pornography; it influences their attitudes towards relationships and sex; it is linked to risky behaviour such as having sex at a younger age; and there is a correlation between holding violent attitudes and accessing more violent media.