Child Sex Aggression Linked to Pornography
by Jason Collum
January 9, 2004
(AgapePress) - Incidents of young children displaying sexually aggressive behavior toward others appear to be on the increase, and exposure to pornography on the Internet is a key factor, a new study from Australia reports.The child-at-risk assessment unit at Canberra Hospital in Australia was seeing as few as three children a year in the mid 1990s who were involved in "sexually abusive behavior." By 2000, the number had grown to 28, and officials were expecting that number to reach 70 by the end of 2003.
According to Cybercast News Service, the report differentiates between sexual behavior in children regarded as normal and "developmentally appropriate" -- curiosity such as "playing doctor" -- and activity that was aggressive, secretive, coercive, and usually involved an age difference between the perpetrator and victim.
Of the 101 sexually abusive children seen during the past three years, almost all had access to the Internet, and 90% admitted having seen sexually explicit material online, the report said. One quarter of the children deliberately sought out pornography online as their main use of the Internet. Another 25% said they were shown pornography online by an older sibling or child.
"We're suggesting there's an association between the children's exposure to inappropriate material on the Internet ... and their acting out in sexually aggressive behavior, experimenting and modeling what they're seeing," said Dr. Janet Stanley, one of the child protection experts at Canberra.
Jason Collum, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a staff writer for AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. This article appeared in the January 2004 issue.
