What Is The Real Harm Of Explicit Content To Kids

Lots of kids and teens stumble upon explicit content online. Can you prevent it?

Internet certainly changed the way people interact with information. A few decades ago, before we went online, finding a piece of content, regardless of the subject was often not an easy task.

Today getting any kind of content doesn't seem like a problem at all. Even for a child. We can access to a great database of knowledge, accumulated by generations of people, using only our fingertips and a browser.

And this is great when we talk about useful information. Kids these day have unlimited opportunities for self-education, interacting with their friends or teachers, or just having a good time enjoying their favorite cartoons.

But there is another side of a coin. Web is filled with obscene harmful content. The fact that teenagers and children can easily find it online does not sound that positive.

Even more terrifying is that they may encounter it accidentally. Webroot shared disturbing numbers: 34% of internet users have experienced watching pornography through various kinds of pop-up ads, e-mail newsletters, etc.

It is more, than just nude pictures

Harm from youngsters getting to know about X-rated contend goes far beyond them "growing up fast" (which is definitely not a good thing as well). Modern kids not only start being sexually active early, they get a false idea of women-men relationships, which in its turn may lead to inability to create a healthy family in the future.

It means that when a boy grows up, he will think, that things like:

-Sadistic behavior during sexual intercourse;

-Exploitation of women;

-Unprotected sex;

-Having bestial fetishes:

-And other obscene things.

Are totally fine. And when a girl grows up, she won't see anything wrong with that.

It may sound like an exaggeration, but unfortunately, it is not. Remember, when you were a child, you believed, that cartoons were real, that superheroes are actually living in your hometown. You took fairytales seriously and created your own picture of the world according to them.

The same thing here. Kids believe that the relationship picture they see in porn is actually real, and build their perception of world around it.

The surprising thing is that kids and teens are not even ashamed to admit they watch some inappropriate videos. You can simply enter some hashtags such as "porn" into social networks and see how many young people discuss it.

You can find a great number of articles on the internet dedicated to the subject. Each and every one of them has a list of reasons for parents to limit their kids' access to this kind of content.

The idea of raising a child, who behaves antisocially, and not being able to do anything with that has been a nightmare for lots of families.

Stop it right there!

As statistic states, the majority of young people encounter indecent content using their own laptops or smartphones. And this is something parents are able to prevent.

Today we have an impressive number of different kinds of parental control software on the market.

Various programs and applications are created according to needs of different families. Some of them provide not only internet activity monitoring features, but also access to Skype, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc. accounts of children. Such software also offers keylogging options, which are also very beneficial for parents.

Unfortunately, a lot of parents consider such software the most effective and the only measure needed to provide child's security online.

Those apps will save a kid only if he can watch porn exclusively on his own device. But any child has friends, whose parents do not consider this a problem at all, and do nothing to protect their sanity.

Apart from installing s

oftware, it is crucial to talk to your kids about their behavior on the web and to teach them what to do and what to avoid.

There is literally no way you can protect a child for 100%, though.

Schools and parents

The "greatest" thing about all of this is those conservative groups, who are doing their best to forbid Sexual Education in schools. Still they do nothing to educate their children by themselves.

It is so ironic, that people, who are trying to protect their kids' moral, are the ones, who are actually making them grow up as mentally instable individuals.

We can't ban pornography obviously, and it is not necessary. It does not so much harm when gown-ups watch it.

What is the parents’ task

It might sound obvious, but the only measure that can actually provide protection from traumas is building a trusty relationship with your kid.

The problem is a majority of parents are just afraid to speak with their children about such things. Thus kids are not eager to share with families about what they saw.

Children prefer to talk about that with their peers. One young mind meets other, they share something they can't possibly understand that and voila, a problem appears.

Parents should understand that if they want to prevent something happening to their kids, they should prepare not themselves, but kids. Yes, it might be and will be uncomfortable and there is nothing you can do about it. But being silent is not an option at all.

Your kid will encounter pornography sooner or later, this is inevitable. Punishing them for it is wrong, as it will lead to bigger problems, as total mistrust towards parents and gradual becoming estranged from the family.

Children are victims here. Even if they look for pornography intentionally. They are just curious.

Parent's duty is to educate their children since the day they start to use the internet.

Don't hesitate to talk about it. It is much easier than watching your kids destroying their lives.