Heather Bellamy spoke with CARE about the increasing numbers of young people who are requesting genital plastic surgery.

Rachael: What Australia has done to combat this is they have recommended that the girls receive counselling instead of being put forward for the surgery. They have requested a cooling off period of up to three weeks after they have made the request.

Heather: Do we have a similar problem in the UK?

Rachael: It's very likely that we have got a similar problem here, due to the number of young people that are accessing pornography and also the amount and ease that pornography is available in the UK.

Heather: Who was surveyed?

Rachael: They surveyed a large amount of doctors and asked them about the patients that were coming with requests about genital plastic surgery.

Heather: What do you think needs to happen to address this problem?

Rachael: In the UK, how we could address the problem, is by introducing some robust safety measures around explicit content that is accessed online. The authorities of television on demand found in 2014 that 23 out of 25 of the top adult websites visited by UK internet users provide instant, free and unrestricted access to hard-core pornographic videos and still images featuring explicit images of real sex. If there is no robust protection or age verification then young people have access to this.

CARE is supporting Baroness Howe's Online Safety Bill. We are also hoping that the Digital Economy Bill is strengthened so that it provides the robust protection that is needed, so that young people are not gaining access to this inappropriate content.

Heather: What would your message be to young people that have been influenced by a pornography image and are considering going to the doctor about something like this?

Rachael: They have to recognise that pornography is very damaging and consider that it is altering their perceptions, self-worth and self-esteem. They need to reach out and ask for help. Pornography is deeply damaging in how it's shaping our young peoples' opinion of themselves and how they view relationships.

We would like to see that discussion take place on how damaging pornography is, so that more young people can be aware of the negative influence that it's having on them.

Heather: Is there a need of more positive influential voices that would counter the pornography image?

Rachael: Definitely. We would like to see the debate shift around so that more young people are getting better, positive images of themselves.