image is taken in courtesy of: http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/stats-on-internet-pornography/
The
internet has enabled more content to be shared and exchanged effortlessly
online. It provides multiple resources for learning, exchanging of information
and conducting business transactions. Prior to the invention of the internet,
information were passed down through other channels of medium, mainly through newspapers
and magazines. However, the introduction of the internet has spurred thousands
of dangerous online activities; one of them includes the sharing of
pornographic contents online.
Statistics
by the Family Safe Media have shown that online pornography acts are becoming
more prevalent. Around the world, 3,075.64 dollars are being spent on
pornography every second. Each second, 28,258 internet users are viewing
pornography, and a new pornographic video is created in the United States for every
39 minutes.
One of the
reasons which accounts for the rise of pornographic activities online is due to
the openness and accessibility of the web. It is not only easy for users to
upload erotic contents online, but it is also difficult to control the activities
that take place online. Even though government censorship of a handful of adult
websites may help to reduce the pornography, the measure taken still has its
limitations.
Due to
these factors, online pornography is a disturbingly issue that needs to be
addressed. Users and interested parties are not only the ones affected by
pornographic videos. Teenagers and young children are also exposed to sexually
explicit material without their knowledge. For every website and link that a
child clicks, there is high possibility that they are inadvertently exposed to
various images and advertisements that hook them up with pornographic material.
The most frightening thing about this is
that little can be done to monitor and control the materials that teenagers and
young children get exposed through the internet.
Beyond this
lie deeper social issues which bring about negative consequences for teenagers
and young children. To begin with, the large presence of online pornography seems
to suggest that online pornography is normal and acceptable. Internet users who
come across pornographic materials online by accident would subconsciously feel
a need to confine to the sexual standards presented by the material. There are already
growing concerns that teenage girls feel pressurized to look like porn stars due
to online pornography.
In
addition, online pornography may deliver untrue information about sex to
children and teenagers. As children and teenagers are relatively inexperienced
and uneducated about sexual activities, they are highly vulnerable to sexual
content displayed online. It therefore goes without saying that there is a high
probability that they would trust the information presented to them on the
internet, without questioning its validity and accuracy.
An author, better known as Tim Chester pointed out, “15% of boys have seen child pornography online, 32%
have seen bestiality, 39% have seen sexual bondage, 83% of have seen group sex
and 69% have seen same-sex intercourse and the figures for girls are not far
behind.
“This is the sex education
our children are receiving.”
Certainly, the online sex
industry is thriving and proliferating. Although measures such as school talks
and education (informal and formal) have been taking place to warn children about
dangerous sexual content published on the internet, the fact that anyone and
everyone can access the internet, makes it all the more, an important social
issue.
References:
http://familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html#time
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