Dr. Gail Dines, president of Culture Reframed, a US-based organisation working on kids, porn, and hypersexualised media, has blamed popular social media websites like Snapchat and Instagram for driving kids to porn industry.
“Most parents are unaware that porn is…infiltrating mainstream social media sites such as Snapchat and Instagram,” writes Dines in the Globe Magazine piece, titled “What Kids Aren’t Telling Parents About Porn on Instagram and Snapchat.” In fact, this infiltration is part of the sophisticated business model of the porn industry designed to lure kids to mainstream porn sites.
“Porn is now more affordable, accessible, and violent than ever before, and many boys are watching it as early as age 11 or 12,” writes Dines.
Kids are vulnerable to the porn images because many of them have no experience with sex, said Dines. This means that porn (and the social-media sites that link to porn) serves as the major form of sex education for millions of kids. What are kids learning? That violence, degradation, and humiliation are central to sex, said Dines.
“It’s critical that parents learn about the content, effects, and impact of porn on kids and develop tools to have courageous conversations with their kids about porn,” said Dines.
