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In a recent survey 42 percent of children and teens have been exposed to online nudity and pornography whether it was by accident or sought out. Of those 42 percent, 34 percent of the children said their exposure to the material was unwanted.
"It's appalling to see how many kids are being exposed to pornography these days," said Natasha Nassar, a fourth-year psychology student. "When I was that age, the Internet was just barely being introduced and my parents didn't have to worry about that kind of exposure for me."
In the survey, most kids who reported unwanted exposure were ages 13 - 17. Seventeen percent of boys and 16 percent of girls were 10 and 11-year-olds.
Filtering and blocking software have been created so that parents can block their children from certain Web sites and images. This software has helped prevent exposure but has not always been 100 percent effective. Children can accidentally stumble across pornographic images when downloading a game or mistyping a Web site address.
"Nowadays, it's common to run across sexually explicit Web sites or pornographic images," said Wendee Picou, a fourth-year communications student. "It's more of a nuisance than anything especially when you're looking up research for homework and you get all these XXX pop up ads."
Many students and adults believe that better methods need to be created to stop children from seeking out or accidentally stumbling upon pornographic images. Janis Wolak, a research assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire believes that it is "sometimes possible for people to overreact" to children's exposure to pornography. But many have to wonder what kind of effect will viewing adult material have on children.
While not every child will be affected or traumatized in some way, early exposure to adult material could lead kids to become sexually active too soon, or could put them at risk to sexual predators. Children also often imitate what they see and studies have suggested that exposure to pornography can prompt kids to act out sexually against younger, smaller and more vulnerable children.
However, many children who participated in the survey said they were not disturbed by what they saw and according to Wolak more research needs to be done in order to determine if exposure to online pornography has an effect on children.
Kim Le can be reached by e-mail at news@thepolypost.com or by phone at (909) 869-3747.
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