Does 'rape culture' accurately describe (many) societies?

New report cy the Children's Commissioner:
This report is among the most sobering my office has ever published. It paints a stark picture of what childhood looks like in 2025 with an online world that is, in many ways, completely unfit for children. As Children’s Commissioner, I have heard from a million children, parents and carers. Without fail, they all tell me the online world and social media are some of the most significant issues facing this generation.
 
“Sex is kind of broken now”: children and pornography:
Shockingly, as this report highlights, pornography is no longer something that children might seek out in adolescence. Today it has become something many children stumble upon accidentally while they are still in primary school. It is something that is shown to them without even looking for it on the same social media sites that were designed to help them connect with other people and be entertained. And it’s not just any pornography. It is violent, extreme, and degrading often portraying acts that are illegal - or soon will be.
 
arthwollipot said:
The parents don't do that because they too were shamed and guilted. Society as a whole needs to stop treating sex as shameful. Educate the children and the teenagers appropriately, and they will do the same when they are having children of their own. But that's for future generations. Right now, teach it in schools. Put it on the curriculum. I was 14 when I did my mandatory sex education in my second year of high school. Yes, it was awkward, yes there were giggles, and no, in 1984 it still didn't address a lot of aspects of sex and sexuality, but yes it did prepare me for when it mattered.

I can't believe that I'm making arguments for education on this of all forums.
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You'll get no push back from me - but education can only go so far, what do we do with the kids that don't get such education from their parents, what do we do so that parents can make this change - you are talking about a generation's worth of education, in the meantime we continue to allow these big companies to harm the kids?
 
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Helen said:
I do think that internet access can be harmful, but social media seems far more damaging than porn. ...snip...

Unsupervised social media, on the other hand, can be a dangerous place for kids.
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Couldn't agree more - yep we need to be sure that a 9 year old can't come across hardcore pornography but my real issue is with Facebook, TikTok, X and the like - these are ones that allow kids to be harmed, and as can be evidenced by Facebook thinking sexually grooming a 13 year old is OK, harming kids is part of their business model.
 
arthwollipot said:
Your meaning is clear.
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No, but you have expressed arguments in defence of the easy access of porn:

arthwollipot said:
Meanwhile, the OSA is also providing an unnecessary and unwanted barrier to adults, for whom porn is completely legal.

I'll quote De Souza from her new report:
I want this report to be the last of its kind. A final record of the worst days of the internet before real regulation, before real accountability, before the moment we decided that children’s safety online is not optional. A society is judged by how it protects its children. Let us be judged well.

Bonhoeffer, Mandela and Gandhi have all made equivalent statements. Right now, our record is a disgrace.
 
Gandhi et al had views on internet porn? Well, colour me surprised (which I hope would bea nice, dark cherry type of colour)!

While I agree with the sentiment, I think their views had more to do with health, enough food, a roof over the head, clothes, and education.
 
From the report:
3. Children are most likely to see pornography by accident • More than a quarter (27%) of respondents had seen online pornography by the age of 11. • Some respondents reported having seen pornography by the age of “6 or younger”. • 59% reported seeing pornography online by accident up from 38% in 2023.
 
I must challenge those figures. I'm online all the time; I go to weird and wonderful and not-so wonderful websites thanks to links from here or doing research. I have never, ever come across pornography by accident. My mother a cackhanded user of an iPad who clicked in all the wrong places for several years never once came across pornography by accident.

I really would like to know what that "by accident" really means.
 
Darat said:
I must challenge those figures. I'm online all the time; I go to weird and wonderful and not-so wonderful websites thanks to links from here or doing research. I have never, ever come across pornography by accident. My mother a cackhanded user of an iPad who clicked in all the wrong places for several years never once came across pornography by accident.

I really would like to know what that "by accident" really means.
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Whilst I agree that is true for us adults - I suspect it's different experience for youngsters. It's possible that many young people are lying - but, either way, they are still seeing porn.

De Souza isn't making this up.
 
The report:
X (formerly Twitter) remains the most common source of pornography for children, outstripping even dedicated pornography sites.
 
Elon Musk appears to be the worst offender in allowing children to see porn:

The gap between the number of young people who saw porn on X and the number who saw it on dedicated pornography sites has widened in the last 2 years. X now accounts for 10% points more exposure than dedicated pornography sites (45% vs. 35%) in 2025, compared to only 4% points in 2023 (41% vs. 37%). • 8 out of 10 of the main sources children access pornography are social media or networking sites.

4. It is normal for the pornography children see online to be violent
 
Darat said:
Disagree - adults should be able to access porn, and all the other weirdness of the internet, what we have to do is restrict children's access to the internet. It should be illegal for them to have devices that connect to an unfiltered internet, such restriction need to be hardware based.

ETA: they should be able to access such educational sites as Myriad mentions but that should be on a network that is separate to the internet. We should charge the large social media companies with the cost of maintaining a useful network for kids.
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Noted

However if what the anti-porn crusaders are saying is true and underagers are not only running into porn on far more than regular porn sites and sharing it amongst themselves on various types of social media then those same anti-porn crusaders are doomed with age restricted devices.

What is iFunny anyways? I hear there's porn on it.

So now we're looking at blocking far more sites/content than those simple sites where all you have to do is lie about your age.

Like others on this thread, I never accidently run into porn. I don't use social media so I can't speak to that but as previously mentioned, searches don't return porn sites like they used to do in the 1990s. I have to actively search for it.

It's either go big or go home and these anti-porn crusaders, most definitely want to go big.
 
No my policy would be that kids cannot have devices that can connect to the internet - it would be hardwired, they would be able to access a network of approved material and content, they would not be able to download social media apps and so on. The internet ceases to exist for those under 16.
 
Darat said:
No my policy would be that kids cannot have devices that can connect to the internet - it would be hardwired, they would be able to access a network of approved material and content, they would not be able to download social media apps and so on. The internet ceases to exist for those under 16.
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They will borrow a mobile.
 
Poem said:
The government needs to stop children using virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass age checks on porn sites, the children's commissioner for England has said.

Dame Rachel de Souza told BBC Newsnight it was "absolutely a loophole that needs closing" and called for age verification on VPNs.

So, as things stand, the OSA isn't really working.
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Seems to me the OSA is working pretty well. Robust age verification systems seem to have been quickly and widely adopted. There's some technical issues, but that's to be expected, and will be corrected over time.

VPNs are an obvious loophole, and I'm surprised they weren't addressed to begin with. But this doesn't mean the OSA isn't working at all.

I wonder if the plan is actually to go after VPNs piecemeal. Yesterday the OSA, tomorrow something for the VPNs, and so it all comes together.

So to speak.
 
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