2020 – Posted in: RSTV – Tags: abuse, adhoc committee, Child Protection Against Sexual Offenses Act 2012, Child Sexual Offenses Protection Act, pornography, sexual content, social media, Technology Act 2000

PORNOGRAPHY- IMPACT ON CHILDREN; SOCIETY

Introduction

The ad hoc committee of Rajya established by the president Mr. Venkaiah Naidu made 40 powerful recommendations to prevent sexual abuse of children and to limit the access and transmission of child pornography content on social platforms.

The report of the Committee was presented by the Chairman of the Committee Jai Ram Ramesh in Naidu. Expressing concern at the seriousness of the prevalence of the terrible social evil of child pornography, the Committee recommended major amendments to the Child Protection Against Sexual Offenses Act, 2012 and the Technology Act, 2000 information, in addition to technical, institutional, social and educational measures. and state-level initiatives to address the alarming problem of pornography on social media and its effects on children and society in general.

What is child pornography and what are the characteristics of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offense (Amendment) Act?

Under the Child Sexual Offenses Protection Act (POCSO), child pornography is any visual representation of sexually explicit behavior involving a child, including photography, video, digital images or computer generated, indistinguishable from a real child.

The definition includes digitally transformed images used for sexually explicit content, as well as images of adults posing as children who perform sexual acts.

Characteristics of the law

The law defines a child as any person under the age of eighteen and considers that the best interests and well-being of the child are of the utmost importance at each stage, in order to ensure physical development, emotional, intellectual and social health of the child.
It defines different forms of sexual abuse, including penetrating and non-penetrating assault, as well as sexual harassment and pornography, and considers that sexual assault is “aggravated” in certain circumstances.
Persons who traffic children for sexual purposes are also subject to sanctions under the incitement provisions of the law. The law provides for harsh sentences with the gravity of the crime, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a fine.

Impact of pornography on children and society

Psychological impact: Pornography creates a psychological impact on children. It is associated with depression, anger and anxiety. This can lead to mental anguish. It also affects children’s daily functioning, their biological clock, their work and their social relationships.

Impact on sexuality: When seen regularly, it gives a feeling of sexual satisfaction and sexual obsession, which leads to the will to do the same things in real life.

Sex addiction: According to some experts, pornography is like addiction. It has a similar effect on the brain produced by regular use of drugs or alcohol.

Behavioral impact: The use of pornography among adolescents is associated with stronger beliefs in gender stereotypes, particularly among men. Adolescents who watch pornography are often more likely to view women as sex objects.
Pornography can reinforce attitudes that support sexual violence and violence against women.

The family and pornography

Married men who participate in pornography feel less satisfied with their marital relationships and less emotionally attached to their wives. Women realize and are upset by the difference.
The use of pornography is a path to infidelity and divorce, and is often an important factor in these family disasters.
Two thirds of couples affected by the addiction of a spouse experience a loss of interest in sexual intercourse.
Both spouses consider watching pornography to be infidelity.
Viewing pornography leads to a loss of interest in good family relationships.

The individual and pornography

Pornography is addictive and neuroscientists begin to map the biological substrate of this addiction.
Users tend to become oblivious to the type of pornography they are using, to get bored and to look for more perverse forms of pornography.
Men who regularly watch porn have a greater tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual assault and promiscuity.
Prolonged consumption of pornography by men produces stronger notions of women as a commodity or as a “sexual object”.
Pornography creates more sexual permissiveness, which in turn leads to an increased risk of births outside marriage and STDs. These, in turn, lead to even more weaknesses and weaknesses.

Efforts undertaken

Agencies around the world share information to fight child pornography. New technologies and methods are being adopted.
Coordination between the police and ordinary people to identify the critical points of child pornography.
The Uttarakhand High Court asked the Center to strictly enforce the ban on pornographic websites, following reports that a school girl was raped in a group in a Dehradun school by her classmates after watching pornographic videos.

What are the appropriate solutions?

Awareness / Education: Banning everything is difficult and, as we know, the technology is available for free. Sex education must be in school so that children can understand exactly what it is.
Parents must play a very important role. They should keep watching the children for what they are doing.
There must be a type of program in which parents, teachers and students interact openly and discuss sex education.
From a technological point of view, we have to be extremely selective and more vigilant and cautious when developing our pornography policy.
There is a need to separate the types of pornography and prohibit them accordingly. We must ban all types of child pornography and sexual abuse pornography.
We should not ban normal porn sites that are regulated, as this will help restrict or prevent the user from accidentally exposing themselves to sexually violent content.

Way Forward

Sexuality is the basic instinct of human beings and cannot be stopped simply by prohibiting it. Parents and teachers should learn such skills so that they can teach children about the safe use of information technology.

The government must also conduct some sort of crowdsourcing activity so that experts from different fields can give their opinion.

Children should also be educated on basic laws, such as technology laws and the legal aspects of violating these laws.

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