A generation ago, a teenager in search of adult content needed to be resourceful. At the very least they’d have to rummage around under dad’s bed for the girlie mag stashed there. Now access to adult content is infinitely easier, thanks to that global pornography network politely known as the internet.
According to the Internet Filter Review, the net hosts 4 million porn websites (12 per cent of the total) and 372 million porn pages. In addition, porn features in 70 million daily search-engine requests (25 per cent of the total) and 2.5 billion daily emails (8 per cent of all emails). Proof positive we are obsessed.
In response to the parade of digitised flesh, concerned parents can install family filters. However the filters are a bit of a joke because for every shield there’s a sword.
Given that kids are “digital natives” and usually a million times more technically adroit than their guardians, doubtless most can easily beat the filters, switching them off and on at will and tapping friends or file-sharing systems for the prohibited material.
