Child (Parent) Statistics

Does your child have a tablet, phone, gaming system or a computer? If you don’t know what your child is looking at, then this child, potentially, could be yours looking at sexually explicit material.

Claire Lilley, head of child safety online at children’s charity the NSPCC, called the report “chilling”, and warned against the long-term effects of exposure to explicit content at a young age.

She said: “We have been warning for some time about the dark influence extreme, violent and pornographic material can have on children, who can sadly find it relatively easily online.”

Last month, a 12-year-old boy admitted raping his younger sister after watching porn on an Xbox. He walked free from youth court and is now working with social workers ahead of returning to his family home.

– The Scotsman, Two Years Old Found Watching Internet Porn, April 3, 2014 [25]

The next generation’s perfect addiction: Project Know conducted a survey of 73,000 participants. Today’s young adults are voracious consumers of online porn. An endless stream of videos can give you anything you want, whenever you want it. What happens when this habit becomes a problem? The next generation’s perfect addiction.

• The male sex drive is novelty-seeking; porn aligns perfectly.
• 42% of male college students regularly visit explicit Web sites.
• 19% feel they are controlled by their sexual desires.
• More than 50% have never had sex.
• 16% started watching porn before the age of 12.
• 53% started watching porn between the ages of 12 to 14.
• 64% say their taste in porn became more deviant and extreme.
• 36% say they are ashamed of their deviant and extreme behavior.

– Project Know, Taking a Whack at Porn, March 2014 [3]

Global Statistics

NSPCC ChildLine completed a survey of 700 adolescents ages 12 to 13:

• 10% of UK 12- and 13-year-olds fear they are addicted to porn.
• 12% of 12–13-year-olds admitted to participating in a sexually explicit video.
• Girl, who is now 17, said she was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend when they were both 12 years old.
• Girls in particular have said they feel like they have to look and behave like porn stars to be liked by boys.

- BBC News, “Education and Family”, March 31, 2015 [1]

One of the first large-scale surveys in Singapore of 836 13- to 15-year-olds found that: 50% have watched or read sexually explicit materials, some as early as age 7; 77% of these accessed porn through smartphones.

“I believe it is largely due to the inadequate discussions and lack of guidance from us, so young people look elsewhere for sex education, of which pornography is a poor teacher,” said clinical psychologist Joel Yang of SIM University.

– Asia-one, Singapore, September 8, 2014 [14]

Survey of 5,436 Canadian students in grades 4 through 11 about watching porn and “sexting”:

• 40% of boys admitted to looking for porn online.
• 33% of the boys admitted to viewing porn daily; another third said they did so at least once a week; one in five said it was at least once a month.
• Respondents who said they had sent a “sext”; about 25% of them said they knew of their message being passed on to others.

– Business Standard, June 13, 2014 [19]

Research showed 3,000,000 UK families had discovered their children viewing violent, explicit, or pornographic material on the Internet:

• Children as young as 2 have accessed explicit content online.
• 19% said their children got on the Internet at age 2.
• 38% said their kids were 3 or older when they accessed the Internet.
• 74% of parents surveyed were unaware of options to filter porn from their computers, smartphones, or tablets.

The study found many parents have resorted to snooping to keep track of what their children are up to:

• More than half admitted checking Internet history on devices.
• 16% have logged in to their children’s social media profiles to check who they have been talking to.
• 4 in 10 have uploaded parental control software attempting to block sites with explicit or unsuitable content.
• 34% allow their children to use the Internet only if the screen is within their sight.

– The Scotsman, Two Years Old Found Watching Internet Porn, April 3, 2014 [25]

References

Please note: The number in brackets corresponds to specific statistic(s). Questions or concerns about any listed statistic may be directed to CAP at the e-mail address feedback@c-a-p.org.

[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/education-32115162

[3] http://www.projectknow.com/discover/taking-a-whack-at-porn-addiction/#.VhvbYziFPIU

[14] http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/half-teens-here-exposed-pornography-survey

[19] http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/watching-porn-sexting-on-rise-among-canadian-teenagers-survey-114060301350_1.html

[25] http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/two-year-olds-found-watching-internet-porn-survey-1-3352304