Children as young as seven or eight are getting exposed to pornography or age inappropriate content because now they have unrestricted access to the internet, said psychiatrists, counsellors and others who work closely with kids.
At times, students approach counsellors because they are curious to know more and sometimes parents take them to professionals because of behavioural issues.
A 10-year-old required help because he was addicted to child pornography and was skipping classes.
The access to devices and the dwindling parental supervision as many of them have returned to work is one of the reasons for this, said teachers.
“Students, right from junior school and as early as seven years of age, are viewing age inappropriate or sexually explicit content, much more than what we saw before the pandemic,” said Farishta Dastur Mukerji, psychotherapist and counsellor.
Dastur Mukerji said that sometimes inappropriate content pops up on the screen, which increases the curiosity of the child to know more. Schools have been closed since March 2020 as a precaution against Covid and children have been attending online classes since then.
During classes, teachers can feel that the children have multiple tabs open but it is not possible for them to ascertain what they are watching.
“Earlier, if a child alone with a phone would raise a red flag, but now it is a given that they would use a device and parents ensure that they have an uninterrupted connection,” the head of a school said.
Parents also do not check the phone history.
“Two out of the 10 YouTube videos that a child who is in a primary class is watching can have inappropriate content and slowly the child gets trapped into it. The dangers are much more if the child is alone at home with a help,” said Rishi Kant, social activist at Shakti Vahini, an NGO working against trafficking.
Parents often do not come to know about it unless the child shows any behavioural problems and hence supervision becomes important.
Kant, too, said seven-eight years was the age group when a child now gets access to pornographic content.
“The age of puberty is dropping and the age of viewing of pornographic content has also gone down,” said psychiatrist Sanjay Garg.
“The content that is available all over fills children with the concept of ‘boys and girls’ from a very early age,” he said.
Garg said that for older children, the addiction to porn is also because many of their romantic ideas like holding hands would be gratified in their social circles or when school was open.
“They are seeking gratification online and shifting to pornographic content,” he added.
Schools understand it is a real problem when the device become a double-edged sword.
“For primary and middle school children, this is a real risk we are dealing with. Practically, they have unlimited and unsupervised access to the internet,” said Amita Prasad, the director of Indus Valley World School.
