There's a growing epidemic among teens that, for one lecturer, is more severe than obesity. More teens are now being exposed to dark, violent online porn.
In an article published in One News Now on Monday, October 27, Jonathon van Maren, a lecturer, expresses his deep concern over the growing exposure and dangers of viewing not just ordinary online porn but dark and violent ones. Moreover, their exposure now begins when they are still in their preteens, around 10 to 11 years old.
He cites not only the easy accessibility of the Internet through mobile devices such as cell phones or tablets but also the amount of screen time teens already have these days as the main reasons. In Canada, for example, teens from 10 to 16 years old get as much as a little over 6 hours of screen times on a daily basis. Most of these periods are spent in front of a television then computers.
He also speaks of his frustration from parents and church leaders who still don't believe the prevalence of online porn among the youth. Many of them, in fact, had gone to accuse him of causing alarm and that he's making pornography only controversial.
Nevertheless, he stresses that this phenomenon is real and is happening at a very alarming rate by backing it with statistics.
These include the data that more than 80% of teenage boys have already engaged in online group sex. Over 20% of teenage girls, meanwhile, have encountered sexual bondage or BDSM over the Internet, wherein couples, often women, are tied, handcuffed, or restrained as a way of increasing sexual stimulation and pleasure.
More than 30% of the teenage boys, on the other hand, have already viewed online porn more than they can keep track of while surprisingly 9% of these girls have already seen child pornography and 32% of boys have encountered online bestiality.
He cautions that these types of exposure to the darker side of porn may give teens a demented idea about sex and sexuality, especially since at these ages, they're still forming their mind-sets.
