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In the Bull's-Eye: Pornographers Target Children Online
Thursday April 7, 2011
by Daniel Weiss
Pornographers as friends to children?
It seems shocking, but in the past few years the pornography industry has been diligently working to portray itself as a defender of children. One industry trade association was formed specifically to promote this illusion. The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is a nonprofit organization that claims to be “dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet.” And while it may publicly proclaim its opposition to child pornography and alert authorities to known child pornography, it also represents an industry known for promoting genres of pornography like “barely-legal,” “incest,” “schoolgirl,” “teen,” “babysitter” and “young,” all of which feature adult actresses with slight frames intended to create the appearance of a child or dressed to look like minors who are then sexually overpowered by adult men. Intentionally creating a fantasy of sex with adolescents is hardly serving children’s best interests.
Another highly public effort touted by ASACP is the RTA tag, which is embedded into a website to indicate it is Restricted to Adults. And while this also is a good thing, tens of thousands, if not millions of pornography sites worldwide have failed to adopt this simple and common-sense solution to youth exposure. Why the reluctance? Because pornographers know the tag will enable computers in homes, libraries and workplaces to keep potential visitors (and dollars) from getting to their sites. When Congress passed a law in the 1990s to hide pornography on commercial websites behind an age verification system, the pornography industry successfully blocked its implementation through a federal lawsuit. The money kept flowing, and children suffered.
The pornography industry’s assault on children is more insidious, still. Each year, millions of youth are exposed to pornography online because of the shameful traps pornographers use to deceive them into viewing their content.
Youth Exposure to Pornography Online is Typically Unwanted
Research indicates that 73 percent of youth (93% of boys and 62% of girls) encounter online pornography prior to age 18. The majority of youth are first exposed between the ages of 14 and 17.1
The Crimes Against Children Research Center found that 34 percent of youth Internet users ages 10-17 had been unintentionally exposed to online pornography in the past year. This is up from 25 percent in 2000.2
Youth reporting unwanted online exposure3
|
Age |
Boys |
Girls |
|
10-11 |
17% |
16% |
|
12-13 |
22 |
24 |
|
14-15 |
26 |
37 |
|
16-17 |
30 |
38 |
Unwanted Exposure to Pornography is Not Accidental
While the majority of youth exposure comes from unwanted incidents, research shows that these are not mere accidents. In fact, studies show that youth are intentionally targeted by pornographers. Most youth (83%) who were exposed to unwanted pornography came across it while surfing the Web, usually through searches, misspelled URLs, pop-up ads or clicking links in websites. 4
How youth were exposed
83% – Surfing the web
17% – Opening email or instant message or clicking on a link in email or IM
How website came up
40% – Link came up as a result of search
12% – Misspelled web address
17% – Clicked on link from another site
14% – Pop-up
13% – Other
4% – Don’t know
18% – Youth was taken into another X-rated site when exiting the first one
Exposure through email or IM
69% – Youth received email or instant message at a personal address
89% – Sender unknown
In Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later, authors further explain how youth are inadvertently drawn into the pornographic realm:
“A small number of topics popular with youth were mentioned over and over as sources of unwanted exposures to sexual material. One topic was ‘gaming’ including video games; online gaming sites; and ‘cheat codes,’ which are available at certain web sites and allow knowledgeable players to skip levels or gain advantages in other ways when playing particular online games.
“Another topic was searches for cartoons resulting in sites displaying cartoon pornography, such as anime or caricatures of well-known mainstream cartoon figures. Overall youth named a wide range of topics as subjects of web searches that brought up unwanted sexual material. Virtually all of these topics seemed quite appropriate — cars, cheerleading stunts, drum beats, hairstyles, skate-board tricks, song lyrics, and software patches were some. Youth mentioned seeing sexual material while doing searches for school projects including research for papers about famous poets; fire prevention; Benjamin Franklin; the Odyssey; Romeo and Juliet; and science projects about deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), diseases, forensic serology, liquids, and squid. Based on the wide variety of search terms that led youth to unwanted sexual material, it appears even innocent search terms may lead to material that is inappropriate for minors. It is easy to conclude sexual material is so pervasive almost any kind of search will bring it up. The fact that web sites are paid for by advertisers based on the number of ‘hits’ to the site may encourage those who operate pornography sites to use a wide range of search terms and links to help ensure their sites come up often during web searches. In addition pornography sites are sometimes ‘mousetrapped’ or programmed to make them difficult to exit. Clicking an exit button takes viewers into another sexually explicit site instead of allowing them to leave.” 5 (bold added)
Linda Smith, whose organization Shared Hope International fights global sex trafficking, confirms these reports. She told Focus on the Family’s Citizen magazine, “We found over 5,000 sites with key words and phrases that are associated with selling to kids, and in those it’s very clear they’re marketing the images to boys. I just cried, ‘That’s the age of my grandsons. They’re after my grandsons.’ They all play sports, and they all go online, and they all play these games, and they’re typing them and sending them porn.”
Youth Frequently Encounter Hardcore, Criminal Pornography
One recent study found that “considerable numbers of boys and girls had seen images of paraphilic or criminal sexual activity, including child pornography and sexual violence, at least once before the age of 18.” 6
Among youth who had been exposed to online pornography, what types of images they saw at least once before age 18
|
|
Boys |
Girls |
|
Naked people but no sexual activity |
98.3% |
88.9% |
|
Heterosexual intercourse |
93.8 |
73.5 |
|
Naked people showing genitals |
91.1 |
81.0 |
|
Sexual activity among more than 2 people |
83.2 |
57.1 |
|
Same-sex intercourse |
69.3 |
55.3 |
|
Sexual activity involving bondage |
38.6 |
22.6 |
|
Sexual activity between people and animals |
31.8 |
17.7 |
|
Sexual activity involving urine or feces |
21.8 |
16.4 |
|
Rape or sexual violence |
17.9 |
10.2 |
|
Sexual pictures of children |
15.1 |
8.9 |
Conclusion
The bulk of children’s exposure to online pornography is unwanted, most often resulting from the tricks, traps and deceit of an industry that cares more for profit than the health and well-being of children. Emory University behavioral scientist Ralph DiClemente told ABC News about the dangers of youth encountering pornography. He said, “They can’t just put it in their worldview, because they don’t have one. This becomes one of the building blocks that they’re going to put into their worldview, and that’s what we don’t want. It’s a lot harder to change someone’s views once they’re established than it is to try and instill healthy views to start with.”7
Many Americans are wondering when this industry will be held accountable for exposing millions of children to deviant, destructive visions of sexuality. Given that hard-core pornography, or obscenity, is prohibited by federal and most state laws, a significant amount of pornography exposure could theoretically be prevented if these laws were enforced. When millions of minors have seen images of bondage and bestiality, what will it take to attack online pornography as the scourge it truly is?
See also:
The New Normal? -- Youth Exposure to Online Pornography
Youth Exposure to Pornography Worldwide
Pornography in the Bedroom in a Digital Age
Daniel Weiss is ROCK's director of research and national outreach.
Endnotes
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1 Chiara Sabina, Janis Wolak, and David Finkelhor, “The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth,” CyberPsychology & Behavior. December 2008, 11(6): 691-693.
2 Janis Wolak, Kimberly Mitchell, and David Finkelhor, “Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users,” PEDIATRICS, February 2007.
3 Wolak, Mitchell, Finkelhor, “Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users,” PEDIATRICS, February 2007.
4 Janis Wolak, Kimberly Mitchell, and David Finkelhor, “Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later,” Crimes Against Children Research Center, 2006, http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf.
5 Wolak, Mitchell, Finkelhor, “Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later,” Crimes Against Children Research Center, 2006.
6 Sabina, Wolak, Finkelhor, “The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth,” CyberPsychology & Behavior. December 2008.
7 Dean Schabner, “Danger Zone?” ABCNews.com, 26 June 2002.
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