Pornography is sexually explicit material that aims to arouse people who are looking at it. For children aged 5-8 years, seeing pornography can be upsetting, confusing, and uncomfortable.
Pornography is so common among children. Up to 17 percent of kids below 12 years are exposed to explicit content, which accounts for 1 in every 5 kids compared to 1 in every 20 in the last two decades. The sudden rise is attributed to internet penetration and the introduction of smartphones. However, so much has led to this. Here are some reasons why your kids could be watching pornography right under your nose.
You Give Out Your Phone To Your Kids Without Supervision
During one of my visits to a friend of mine, I noticed that we arrived at their house, their daughter rushed to him and without even saying hi, grabbed the phone. He helped her to unlock it and as soon as he finished, the girl dashed to the bedroom and locked herself. We talked for hours without seeing her. All the while I kept wondering what the girl was watching but the parents were not bothered. This is just but one of the many examples that are currently happening in our homes. Kids are using their phones with little to no supervision at all. They end up getting to sites that are completely inappropriate for them.
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You Search Adult Content Using Your Personal Google Account.
If you share your phone with your child, kindly don’t search for things using your personal account. Go incognito. This prevents Google from bringing to you targeted ads that your child is likely to accidentally tap on.
You’ve Not Turned Off Automatic Downloads
Take a look at your phone settings, including apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, and all. They all have a button to restrict automatic download. But sometimes we don’t bother to restrict it. We then end up with photos and videos that are very inappropriate not only to us but to our children being downloaded to our phones.
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You Have Untrained House helps
The cost of living today has forced most parents to be out there working, we end up leaving our kids with house helps. These house helps are sometimes totally unaware of our kids being around. They end up watching explicit material that is inappropriate for their children.
You’ve Not Installed Parental Controls
Unlike before, nowadays TVs and phones come with security settings that can allow you to lock channels and apps that you wouldn’t want your child to access. Many of us, however, don’t bother to do this, exposing our kids to the threat of inappropriate content.
You Don’t Pre-watch What Your Kids Watch
It was recently discovered that some of the cartoons meant for kids actually carried pornographic material and content. It was shocking because the said content had been listed in an app specifically targeted at kids. Therefore, this is a wake-up call to all of us to first watch anything and everything that our kids are to watch before they do.
Here Are Some Questions To Ask Your Child If You Suspect That They Have Been Exposed To Pornographic Material.
- A lot of people have questions about pictures of people without clothes, or people having sex. Is there anything you’d like to know?
- Have you heard about naked pictures of people on the internet?
- Have you ever seen pictures of grown-ups without their clothes on?
- What have you heard about these kinds of pictures?
- Do kids at school talk about these kinds of pictures?
Our kid’s minds are innocent, however, that innocence can be taken away in a second. Stay close to your child, monitor their every move, and above all, pray for their young minds.
