There’s a really interesting article on the BBC website about the use of pornography by children and young people. According to the article:

figures obtained by the BBC from Nielsen NetRatings reveal one in four of those aged 12 to 16 who goes online at home looks at sexual images at least once a month. That is one in three among boys and one in five girls.

What an incredibly scary and challenging thought. If that figure is correct, then a quarter of our youth groups are REGULARLY accessing porn. What does that mean for us as youthworkers? How do we start to address such ‘underground’ issues?

The article itself balances out the views, suggesting that it could be causing dysfunction in relationships and damaging to society in general, or conversely, just a phase and part of growing up. To illustrate the point they quote a 17 year-old who regularly watches porn on his mobile:

“If I didn’t have work I’d be watching it constantly every day because it’s something to do, like a drug… No-one can change my attitude to porn. I mean, I’ve been watching it for years. I’ll carry on watching it, probably till I die. I see it as a normal thing and will always see it as a normal thing. No matter what people say.”