Porn seems to have become increasingly organized and expanding into a massive industry, which targets potential younger audiences. Also, the growth of the Internet and Internet-connected devices have allowed kids even as little as ten to be used for watching videos, playing games, etc.
As a result, many children have accidentally accessed pornography and were heavily psychologically affected by it. The following article will summarize 4 ways pornography is targeting your kids and suggest some ways to better protect them in an online environment.
4 ways pornography is targeting your kids
Pornography is targeting your kids via social media
For example, Tumblr, although pornographic videos are not allowed to be posted directly on Tumblr, users are still freely posting links to pornography. Because of this, Tumblr has been widely criticized for containing a large number of pornographic materials on the site.
Among those bad things about Tumblr, this is considered Tumblr’s biggest harm to teenage kids who are in the age of extremely curious about their surroundings. Early exposure to pornography will leave tremendous serious consequences on your child’s development in the future.
Even if your kids don’t purposely search for pornography, they might still experience it inadvertently because the amount of pornographic content on Tumblr is too great.
Instagram is another prime example. Instagram has the Discovery feature, which algorithmically organizes content publicly based on user interest and interaction. Content that receives lots of likes, comments, and clicks will be easily displayed first.
Often the content that easily gets attention will be related to adult, pornographic images/videos.
Besides pornography, because searching on Instagram can also use hashtags, so your kids can face dangerous challenges, users with false or racist views, individuals using substances, violent photos, and other inappropriate content.
Also, another “nominee”: Snapchat. Snapchat has a Discover section that offers Stories, the content outside of your child’s friends. This content ranges from advertisements to publications to posts by some popular users.
Like Instagram and other social networks, the more clicks a content gets, the more likely it is to appear first. To get more clicks, the content must stand out and attract attention. You can easily guess that the topic that always gets a lot of clicks is: Pornography.
Pornography is targeting your kids via Podcast
As podcasts increasingly attract younger listeners, parents need to be wary of content their children might overhear. Pornography is no exception. Much of this content is aimed at adults, and your child can be completely heard by accident even if your child is only listening to topics related to children.
Some examples of porn targeting your child on Podcasts:
“You’re a babysitter, and the kids’ dad is late. He’s had a stressful night at work and wants to have some wine and a friend”.
or:
“Your mom is having a party, one of her guests is a charming old man talking on the phone outside of your bedroom. You have him discover you are eavesdropping on him. me. And he got you”.
Porn podcasts are just as harmful as pornographic images/videos but what is special is that podcasts have the added sound effects that make things more realistic.
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Porn appeared on Google Drive
Porn targeted at your kids through Google Drive – which never seems to be real. If your child has a Google account, they may be shared pornography and added to their Google Drive.
However, removing this content type is not as simple as simply deleting it because the file’s owner still has control.
When someone sends your child a file or folder, even if your child doesn’t give permission to the sender, the file or folder is displayed automatically. All they need is your Gmail account and from there they can send porn for anyone. We have some articles about block porn on your kid’s devices that we think you need!
Your child can right-click on the file and choose Delete. That will prevent the content from showing up in the “Shared with me” section, but it will continue to show up in the Quick Access area as well as in your child’s Google Drive search results.
Another problem is that if your child has “Only see” permission from the sender, he or she won’t be able to remove themselves from the share.
Pornography targeted at your child as a “sexual wellness centers”
Do you trust a porn site that can teach your kids about sexual health? That’s exactly what Pornhub, one of the most visited porn sites in the world, is proposing to do. They have “sexual wellness centers” and now have a gender curriculum for kids.
What if that porn site hosted videos of rape of children and victims of sex trafficking as well as millions of videos promoting topics of racism, violence against women, and incest?
What should parents do to reduce the risk of their children accessing pornography?
With podcasts, parents don’t underestimate the content of their children’s podcasts. You should check out the podcasts your child listens to regularly, or what is better – listening to podcasts with your kids.- Regularly discuss and educate your children about the harmful effects of pornography, such as pornography distorts their perception about body image, or makes your kids less smart or creates unrealistic expectations about sex.
- Whether your child has not used or already has a social network, actively and often discuss inappropriate content your child can be exposed to and encourage them to share with you when they encounter anything annoying such as images of abuse of animals, drugs, images of accidents, etc.
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How to protect kids from porn, technically? Taking advantage of one of the best free parental control software – online content filtering tool to hide 15 types of harmful content on the Internet, ensuring your child’s online environment is safe and healthier:
- Pornography
- Horrifying content like gore, accidents, ghosts, violence, murder, terrorism, etc
- Content about stimulants, addictive substances such as alcohol, beer, marijuana, drugs, etc
- Content with aggressive elements, hurting others like Hate speech
This free porn blocker extension can help to minimize your child’s access to harmful content, ensuring a healthy online environment for your child but at the same time, not invading their privacy rights.
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