Heather Bellamy spoke with Nola Leach, the CEO of CARE, about the results of a new survey.

Nola Leach

A major new survey from the NSPCC has warned that children are at risk of becoming desensitised to online pornography, because they are watching so much of it, and an entire generation is at risk of being robbed of their childhood. To find out more Heather Bellamy spoke with Nola Leach, the CEO of CARE.

Heather: What did this survey look at?

Nola: This survey was jointly commissioned by the NSPCC, with the England's Children's Commissioner. It was looking at young people's habits of viewing online pornography and it came up with some very disturbing results, in the percentage of young people, at very vulnerable ages, who regularly viewed pornography.

Heather: Who took part in the survey?

Nola: There were over a thousand young people who took part.

The results showed that 53 per cent of young people, aged between 11 and 16, have watched very graphic pornography online. Of those young people, 94 per cent have viewed it before they were 14 and some of them as young as 11. That was really concerning.

What was also worrying was the effects of that on them. There'll be those who say that it doesn't really affect, but it does, because more than half of the boys surveyed said they thought it was a realistic depiction of sex. Of the 13 and 14 year olds who responded, a third of them said that they thought those actions were the actions they wanted to copy.

Heather: What are your concerns for the future if this doesn't change?

Nola: My worry and the worry of those in CARE, and all concerned parents, both Christian and non-Christian is that this is really affecting a generation in a very dramatic way. We know, as I've just said, that they're saying this is normal and they want to copy it. We know that it portrays a very unrealistic view of sex. The images that are being portrayed are not what real life is like, so it distorts the image of what relationships can be like, or should be like. There are real worries going forward, about how this affects behaviour, in that they want to copy it and they think it is something that's good to do. We know from other research that when children and young people watch this sort of very graphic material, it does affect the development of their brain and that's very concerning.

Heather: In what way does it affect the development of their brain?

Nola: It affects the healthy growth of the brain and the brain development, in term of reasoning. That can be damaged.

Heather: Who did that research?

Nola: I can't remember who did it, but there is the evidence out there.

Heather: Who is responsible for this amount of young people viewing this amount of pornography?