The number of illegal websites blocked in New Zealand will increase from 700 to nearly 30,000.

The department will add daily-updated lists from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK not-for-profit, into its filter of websites hosting child sexual abuse material, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden said.

The IWF filter uses artificial intelligence and human analysis to identify web pages that host such illegal material. Legal adult content will not be blocked.

"This criminal material has no place in New Zealand. It is abhorrent. I am pleased that the department is taking steps to upgrade the filtering system to prevent more children from being harmed," van Velden said. Continue reading

Dame Rachel de Souza is urging governments and tech companies to introduce age verification checks.

She warned that access to hardcore pornography was shaping children's expectations of relationships and was partly to blame for thousands of testimonies of sexual harassment by schoolchildren published on the Everyone's Invited website over the last few months.

The testimonies prompted Ofsted to carry out a review of what was happening in schools. Its report, published last week, revealed that inspectors found sexual harassment and online sexual abuse to be a routine part of pupils' lives.

"We can't ignore that, nor should we," de Souza told the Observer.

"One area I'm clear on is that online hardcore pornography warps boys' expectations of normal relationships and normalises behaviours that girls are then expected to accept, and it's just too easy for children to access."

"Most children who have seen pornography say the first time it was accidental.

"In the real world, adults wouldn't leave something dangerous or inappropriate lying around for children to stumble upon - why should the internet be different?"

Recently, in her role as a member of the Gender Equality Advisory Council, she brought up the subject with G7 leaders.

She wants a focus on effective age verification online.

"Nobody thinks the acceptable price of privacy and freedom of choice for adults should be unrestricted access to porn for children," she said.

However, experts warned that blanket porn blocks may be neither effective nor helpful. Ruth Eliot, a sexual violence prevention specialist at the School of Sexuality Education, which runs workshops in schools, said that trying to stop young people from finding online porn was "a fool's errand".

"Abstinence-based education around sexuality has never worked. Young people choose to watch porn as a result of a perfectly natural and normal curiosity about sexuality.

"Instead of policing that, we should upskill them on how to experience porn in a way that makes them understand the cultural context and that it's not an instruction manual."

Ellena Martellozzo, an associate professor of criminology at Middlesex University, said her research showed that the priority should be on preventing children from accessing violent porn accidentally.

This kickstarts a cycle in which they shift from seeing it as "shocking" and "disgusting" to developing an interest in it.

"Children rely on porn to learn about sex and relationships when what they see isn't a healthy way of viewing relationships at all," she said. "Pornography is one of many risk factors that can lead to sexual violence." Continue reading

• Image: The Guardian

It gained positive attention this month through a video ad about Internet pornography, using their motif of every parent's worst Internet nightmare knocking on their front door.

"What is interesting about the New Zealand ad is that its offbeat, waggish attitude makes the problem of pornography approachable and less distressing.," write Sean Fitzpatrick in a post on Catholic Exchange.

"Without detracting from the seriousness of the issue, the ad dodges being condemnatory, preachy, or alarmist.

It is a true piece of satire, rendering the problem of pornography in a humorous light and therefore in a palatable light while levelling a practical and persuasive challenge to parents."

A new study published last month by The Broadcasting Standard Authority and NZ On Air found that while the rates of young people accessing harmful content were high, supervision from parents and caregivers had improved dramatically.

The Children's Media Use Study found:

• 87 per cent of children aged 10-14 had viewed television content that they found upsetting in the previous 12 months
• 72 per cent had seen it on the Internet and 54 per cent had heard it on the radio
• 20 per cent of parents reported this exposure resulted in nightmares or disrupted sleep
• 19 per cent said their children copied aggressive behaviour
• 15 per cent said they engaged in behaviour inappropriate for their age
• 30 per cent of parents reported their children had learned inappropriate words from the content
• 48 per cent of children said they knew how to change channels or click out of a website if they were disturbed by what they saw

BSA chief executive Belinda Moffat said they had seen "quite a big increase" in ways parents would limit and supervise the viewing their children had.

Source

• catholicexchange.com
• BSA NZA Study
• stuff.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• Image: Screenshot bsa.govt.nz

"While porn is supposed to be restricted to adults, our research shows a significant number of young people watch it too."

Proposals to limit New Zealander's access to online pornography could be on the table before the 2020 election. Read more

Ministry representatives appeared before the Education and Workforce select committee to discuss a petition calling for better, more inclusive sex education.

Associate deputy secretary Pauline Cleaver said the ministry is working on a plan to give teachers more skills and tools to manage more sensitive issues, such as consent, sexual violence, and the harmful impact of pornography. Read more

Auckland-based clinical psychologist Rebecca Daly-Peoples says the nature of the internet is restricting the opportunities to address the issue within a family context.

"It's completely influencing the entire way they're seeing sex and intimacy," she says.

"It's not just about teaching young girls about defending themselves, it's about teaching young men to treat their peers with respect."

Research from Middlesex University in London has indicated about 53 per cent of 11 to 16-year-olds have accessed explicit material online.

Daly-Peoples says access from such a young age is warping perceptions of sex and intimacy.

"These are not static images, they're graphic and a lot are quite brutal. It doesn't present a consensual relationship.

"One of the really big concerns is that the adolescent brain is the most at-risk to addiction."

During the development of a teenage brain the areas associated with planning and inhibition are not functioning correctly.

"When people are watching porn certain areas are stimulated which promotes an addiction.

"If that's happening to young people on the cusp of adulthood then we're setting them up for dangerous and unhealthy relationships right off the bat."

Telecommunications provider Slingshot found 75 per cent of Kiwi parents are concerned their children have access to online pornography.

Family friendly online filters can block out inappropriate or dangerous material, but Daly-Peoples says this is not enough - education is the answer.

"Sexual abuse of peers has increased three times over the past decade," she says.

"A form of sex education needs to start quite young. We really need to start teaching young people about consent and what that means.

"There needs to be a wrap around approach for parents and teachers. It should be in school and happening along with sex education." Continue reading

Sources

• Article by Alistair Lynn in Stuff
• Image: The New York Times

See also:

* Sexting, pornography and cyber bullying affecting younger students
* Young people and the inescapable world of pornography
* How internet pornography took over one teenager's life