Children are being scarred for life by stumbling across internet pornography before their brains are able to cope with it, according to a leading neuroscientist.
Dr William Struthers told MPs that in eight out of ten cases, youngsters come across hard-core images by accident.
If they are between nine and 14, when their bodies are becoming sexually mature but their brains are not emotionally developed, early exposure can lead to lasting damage including withdrawn behaviour and acting out what they see onscreen.
Dr Struthers was speaking at a House of Commons seminar sponsored by Claire Perry, the Tory MP who wants to block web porn from computers unless adults ‘opt in’.
The American academic’s remarks came as the Daily Mail continues its campaign for a limit on the unregulated flow of internet porn into homes.
Dr Struthers, an expert in sexual arousal who researches the impact of pornography on young people, said: ‘When asked to recall their first exposure, most individuals will say it was accidental, unintentional and inadvertent.
‘A typical story would be a young lad who is sent a link to a website by a school friend as a prank.
‘The website may have a perfectly innocent-sounding name and the boy logs on. Even though he didn’t give his consent, he then sees images he didn’t want to see. It’s in this way that children’s minds are being violated.
You can’t “un-see” something. These images are not easily erasable and become almost tattooed on the cortex. It is a powerful shock to the system.’
Dr Struthers, associate professor of psychology at Wheaton College, Illinois, found that research subjects were able to recall the first images of porn they ever saw in remarkable detail even though they could not remember images they had seen more recently.
He said that impact was profound because although the hypothalamus – the region of the brain which controls sexual development – is preparing the body for sexual maturity, the higher thinking regions of the brain are not developed enough to deal with viewing extreme sex.
‘They feel aroused but they don’t know how to make sense of that,’ he said. ‘This creates a sense of unease that they have done something wrong. On top of that, 80 per cent will never talk to anyone about what they have seen. They don’t get the benefit of adult sexual maturity to help process this information.’
While not all will be affected, for vulnerable children porn can be the ‘straw that breaks the camel’s back’ which tips them into becoming withdrawn and antisocial.
‘As they are exposed to more porn, their self-confidence goes down because they feel inadequate and their use of sexually explicit material goes up.
They become more socially isolated and have more difficulties forming attachments with care-givers.’
Neuroscientists have found that sexual images make such a deep impact because the brain is wired to search them out, in the same way as it is wired to pick out human faces.
Furthermore Dr Struthers says research is finding that children are copying pornographic behaviour.
Simply viewing explicit images online makes them more likely to act out what they see. When the human eye sees an activity it has not seen before, it triggers brain cells called ‘mirror neurons’ which start working out how it is done.
Dr Struthers explained: ‘If your attitudes are already becoming more permissive because of your pornography use, it could then become something you try out.’
Dr Struthers told MPs there is now ‘a broad consensus’ among academics from every discipline that pornography is changing the way children behave. He said studies have found that porn is an ‘accelerant’ which brings down the age at which young people first have sex.
Overall, Dr Struthers believes the easy availability of porn is creating a generation growing up with the belief that sex is ‘a recreational commodity primarily for entertainment’.
He welcomed British moves towards an opt-in system for home computers, which has been championed by the Daily Mail’s Block Online Porn campaign.
The proposal for a default block, now under consideration by David Cameron, would not only limit the amount of material allowed into homes, he added, but would also give parents the incentive to discuss the subject with their children.
# Source: The Daily Mail, By Tanith Carey
