The dangers of pornography

Dr. Mathu H. Liyanage

Pornography has turned out to be an epidemic of the modern world, maiming young children and leaving behind mind-frames of twisted sexual relationships in general, and sexuality in particular.

With the latest technology, such as the smart phone, iPad and the laptop, a child can have access to the worst pornography and sexually explicit images in a couple of minutes.

Pornography provides a hollow understanding of intimacy and pushes girls, in particular, to believe that what they watch are true occurrences in life though they are, in fact, manipulated to make money by commercial enterprises.

Similarly, billboards in public places, along highways and at intersections, porn magazines stored in some bookshops next to children’s books and lolly-stands, hyper-sexualized messages and images on front covers of books and magazines and on T-shirts in youth surf shops go a long way to reinforce these shallow and shaky beliefs.

Physical and mental disorders

The distorted images of girls’ bodies and about their gender roles are indeed adultification of children and commercialization of childhood. Backed up by these wild persuasions, children try to become older than their normal age, constricting childhood years, the most impressionable, precious and valuable stages of their growth and development in life.

Pre-mature sexualisation, invariably brings about physical and mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders and poor academic performance, according to psychologists and child health professionals. They are also of the opinion that it is girls who are mostly affected.

It is expected of the publishers, manufacturers, retailers and advertisers to heed the community concerns about these highly erotic and sexualized books, magazines, posters and dresses. We live in a highly commercialized world, which takes precedence over spirituality and a more decent order of the society, but can we place confidence in them? Perhaps a regulatory system over vested interests seems to be the need of the hour. Intervention by responsible authorities is the answer that will be welcomed by the communities to save the young children who will be their masters tomorrow.

DVDs and movies

Pornography, these days, is not merely to watch naked bodies or images engaged in various sexual acts but, what you may, call porn-torture where females are subjected to aggravated positions or situations deliberately produced to attract larger and wider clientele with the sinister motive of amassing wealth by the sale of DVDS and short sex movies where such pictures and images are shown.

All women, with no fault on their part, invariably lose their dignity and self-respect, and become objects of ridicule, taunts and gestures, although the willing few, who sell themselves, are paid lucratively for taking part in the production of these DVDs and movies, do not give the slightest thought to the repercussions of their unpardonable behaviours and activities, and to the impact of the DVDs and movies has on the younger generation.

Text messages

Unaware of the dangers, even very young children are now experimenting with sexting. Sexting is a term coined by the media that generally refers to sending, receiving or forwarding sexually nude or semi-naked photos or sexually suggestive messages through text messages (mobiles) or email. Though not so common as yet, teenagers share images from a video of having consensual sex with their girl friends and release them to their friends for fun or sell them to outsiders. In the process, they obviously become victims of humiliation, blackmailing, harassment, threat, punishment from their schools and parents, and charged by the Police in a court of law for criminal activity. Our children should be made aware of this growing trend to keep them safe.

The responsibility for protecting children from the dangers and untoward consequences of pornography lies mainly on parents, who should to take a keener interest in the child’s activities and check, now and then, on what their children are doing with their mobiles, laptops, computers and phones to ensure that they put them to appropriate use.