Are you shielded from pornography?

At the beginning of this week, I overheard a neighbour narrating to her friends how she entered unannounced into her 10-year-old son’s room and “almost jumped out of her skin” on discovering he was watching a pornographic video. “I was so embarrassed and confused,” she said in a sad and frustrated tone. A couple of days ago I walked into an internet café, three kids, seated in one corner giggling with their eyes pointed to the computer screen captured my attention. I drew closer to share what could have been amusing them but I was lost for words on discovering these “foolish puppies” were feasting their eyes on pornography. With the advent of the internet coupled with the unrestricted access to it, children have more exposure to pornography than ever before. Parents barely bother to monitor what their children watch on T.V. Pornographic exposure in children has adverse effects which can last a lifetime. Frequent exposure may erode young people’s ability to see the opposite sex in a wholesome way, for example; males are likely to begin viewing women as mere sex objects and therefore begin to treat them with little respect. They also develop distorted perceptions about sex, perceive it as a form of recreation like having a drink in a bar, playing a favourite game etc. Recent studies have demonstrated that addicts of pornography are likely to commit sexual evils like rape and incest and masturbation since excessive exposure stimulates abnormal sex drives. According to a research conducted in the USA, slightly more than one third of child molesters and rapists testified to have been porn addicts. So parents take caution, your child may become victim!It devalues the essence of having and being faithful to a single partner therefore one loses confidence in marriage as either a viable or lasting institution thus building a generation of infidelity and promiscuity. It initiates sexual activity because children always want to imitate what they see so as to experience how it feels, in that event they end up becoming victims of premarital sex with its attached share of problems like unwanted pregnancies, contraction of STDs, dropping out of school and HIV/Aids. Pornography causes mental trauma and weakens concentration of its victims since these explicit pictures stick into the brain and are difficult to erase. One survey also notes that most victims of porn are usually poor performers in class. After evidencing the imminent danger of exposure to pornography, we shouldn’t just sit back and watch as children get trapped in this vicious cycle of moral damage. ivan.ngoboka5@gmail.com