Sky News report
A study by the YMCA’s Dignify Project reveals that children up to the age of five are being exposed to pornography over the internet. The testimony of Shaniah Williams, exposed at age seven, illustrates the serious psychological impacts including depression and suicidal thoughts.
Children as young as five are being exposed to online pornography, leading to addiction, . A survey carried out and published by shows that the age of children who view sexual content on the internet is getting older and older in reduction.
The project, which works to protect children and young people from the harmful effects of pornography, said children “can’t forget what they saw”.
The average age of children who view pornography is 12 years old, according to the project.
Nicola Lee, do Dignifysaid to Sky News who, by digging deeper into the data, found that some children who saw pornography for the first time at age five or younger report “addiction to pornography.”
“So it wasn’t just about them having seen pornography at that age,” added Nicola, “in fact, it developed-se with them as they grew up, and now they say-nos who have an addiction.”
Addiction in the first person
A young girl, Shania Williams, tell Sky News who first viewed pornography at the age of seven, after being “exposed to harmful sexual behaviors” at the age of six, which sparked “a curiosity” to look for answers online.
At eight years old I was already watching extreme pornography.
At age 12, she said she was addicted:
“I didn’t understand why I felt so depressed. Consuming more of this stuff kept-me saddle, but the thoughts didn’t stop every minute of the day. I just wanted it to stop.”
“It stole my childhood”
Despite restrictions on devices, Shania said that the material he saw when era child left-a terrified and confused, and subsequently suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts.
“I could look at the kids in the park and tell which ones had been exposed to this, just by the language they used,” he explained..
“I used to wish I was like the girls who hadn’t been exposed. I was in the dark, in a prison of my own creation.”
Shania calls on parents to talk to their children. “It was scary. I didn’t know human beings were like that,” he said.
“It was a child, I had never seen that. I thought someone was killing someone else. I thought it was torture. It stole my childhood,” he added..
“I won’t get it back. But that doesn’t mean other children can’t have it. So I’m begging you, parents, please. For their sake”left the appeal.
