LONDON, May 1, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A British woman has told the Daily Mail that Internet pornography has turned her 11 year-old son into a shell of the boy he was. The mother, who is not named, said her son, “Charlie, ” changed “beyond recognition” after he started using Internet pornography on his computer in his room without his parents’ knowledge.
“Not just his behaviour,” the woman wrote, “but his entire character started changing.” From being a normal “cheerful, friendly, sunny” boy interested in sports, Charlie became “withdrawn, moody and sullen,” losing his appetite and ceasing to sleep at night. He started writing notes to himself: “I hate myself,” or “Charlie is s***” on scraps of paper, books and magazines around the house, and drawing obscene cartoons.
Charlie’s mother wrote that she broke down the day she discovered the words “I am disgusting” written on the inside of his arm. She was shocked to learn the cause of her son’s personality change was pornography addiction, not drugs or drinking.
“An 11-year-old boy with no credit card had been able to access websites that presented every possible kind of perversion. Today’s pornography is vile beyond description,” she wrote. Scenes of violence, sadism, degradation of women and child abuse were common among the material stored on Charlie’s computer.
“In a peculiarly disturbing twist, some of the most vile, paedophiliac images were presented in cartoon form, so that children were abused in the very medium that children most like to watch,” the woman wrote. She saw the “hateful, loveless and deeply offensive way that porn degrades the female sex” and worried about the effect it would have on her son’s social development.
“It sickens me to think that Charlie and millions of his young male peers might want to treat the girls in their lives in the way that porn treats women.”
Charlie’s mother says her son has recovered and has left Internet porn behind after counselling.
The Daily Mail notes that the woman’s testimony comes as government is in a fight with Internet service providers (ISPs) over making technology available to parents to block children’s access to offensive material. In 2010, the government announced it would be investigating ways to entirely block pornography from the ‘net. The government’s proposal is to create a system where pornography sites are automatically blocked unless the user specifically requests to see it and can prove they are over 18.
As part of that battle, the High Court ruled on Monday that a Swedish website which allows users to download without paying for pirated music and videos must be blocked by UK ISPs. Activists hope that the ruling will set a precedent to allow media vendors to block offending websites.
The Mail quoted the Labour Party media spokesman Helen Goodman, who said, “Large businesses are able to enforce their rights through the courts because they can afford to.
“But parents wanting to protect their children don’t have this option. This is why the Government needs to step in, on the side of ordinary people.”
In April, a cross-party inquiry MPs looked into children’s safety on the Internet and concluded that government must step in and force ISPs to do more to protect young people. The committee found that children have easy access to violent and pornographic material and called for stronger filters on “adult content”.
Claire Perry, a Conservative Party MP and chairman of the MPs’ inquiry said, “While parents should be responsible for their children’s online safety, in practice people find it difficult to put content filters on the plethora of Internet-enabled devices in their homes, plus families lack the right information and education on Internet safety.”