Children Searching for Sex and Porn – Yikes!

Norton Family Online recently released the most searched for terms by children in 2009. Across all three age groups (7 and under, 8 – 12, 13 – 18) sex or porn was in the #4 spot for most search for terms. Yikes!

This data was gathered from the 14.5 million searches done by people using their service to monitor and block certain web content. It highlights a significant issue and there is plenty of other collaborating evidence showing children are finding porn online.

Children Viewing Porn

Stories are being told from parents across the country about their elementary-age kids being given web site urls by their friends which turn out to be porn sites. Parents are shocked and upset when they discover what their children have seen. The children are also often distressed by the images they’ve seen.

I recently heard about a 12-year-old boy who is in therapy after his parents caught him getting up in the middle of the night to look at porn. Apparently he had been viewing porn since he was 8-years-old and was spending increasing amounts of time on it.

Stories like these help alert us to potentially serious problems.