Sex and children: How young girls are hooked to pornography

Children as young as nine years are reading and watching pornography. Teachers who spoke to the Sunday Nation expressed concern that the vice has led to exposure of children to sex. Investigations show that pornography, obscenity and casual sex are on the increase in schools, abetted by a permissive society and carefree sections of the media.

Sample this. One morning, as he was going around the school to ensure everything was going on smoothly, the headmaster of St Mark’s Nyabera Primary School in Kisumu’s Nyalenda slums found pupils in Standard Four perusing a pornographic magazine.

“What I saw left me speechless. I could not believe the children were enjoying such a magazine,” said the headmaster, Mr Dominic Wachio, a born-again Christian. The magazine had photographs of men and women having sex in different styles.

He learnt that the magazine had been in the school for close to three weeks. A girl aged nine years had brought it along after getting it from her mother’s lover. She said the man, whom she referred to as “Uncle”, had indicated the magazine had “good things that men and women do”.

Two months earlier, a 10-year-old girl in the same class had been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease. She said she had been lured into sex by a man who showed her a pornographic movie.

Children exposed

The incidents in Kisumu are not isolated. Stories about children exposed to sex and pornography have been told from many parts of the country.

Information Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo admitted that Kenya is a major producer and exporter of pornography, especially to China.

On the day he spoke last week, there was news of a school in Kericho in which 24 out of the 25 Form One female students had dropped out of school due to pregnancy.

Although the law prescribes heavy punishment for those responsible for the exposure of children to sex, the contrary seems to be the norm.

Section 15 of the Children’s Act states: “A child shall be protected from sexual exploitation and use in prostitution, inducement or coercion to engage in any sexual activity, and exposure to obscene materials.”

Investigations by the Sunday Nation have established that, apart from the magazines, CDs are being hawked in almost all major towns, making them available to children.

Psychologists say the use of sexual images is a powerful tool in the hands of some people, including paedophiles, to arouse the interest of those they target for sex. Aware of this, sex pests are using pornography to lure girls into sex. Boys are going for girls or prostitutes to experiment the presentations they see in magazines and on video.

In Dandora estate in Nairobi, at least two primary schools are grappling with this problem. Some pupils photocopy pornographic magazines and sell the copies to fellow pupils at Sh20. Pupils at Dandora I Primary School admitted to have seen such magazines with their friends, who had bought photocopies with their lunch money.

Teachers in the schools have on several occasions summoned parents and guardians to seek ways of stopping the flow of the materials to school.

Teacher complained

“Early this year, we had a parents’ meeting where a teacher complained of having confiscated such materials from two boys,” said Mary Wairimu, a parent at James Gichuru Primary School in Dandora.

Some schools have introduced tough measures to deal with such cases by tracking down the suppliers of the materials.

Our investigations show that, with the introduction of computers and Internet in schools, techno-savvy students are surfing pornographic sites and downloading the images on their cellular phones. The process becomes much easier for those with Internet-enabled phones.

And, with the loopholes in the law, or in some cases lack of a legal regime on such issues, those behind this pornography racket are getting away with murder.

At Kisumu and Lela day secondary schools, a number of boys who have been treated for sexually transmitted infections, especially gonorrhoea, admitted to having slept with prostitutes to experiment the styles they saw in pornographic materials.

“On several occasions some of the boys have confessed to me that they have pornographic materials whose styles they can try with prostitutes,” said a teacher who requested anonymity as he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the school’s administration.

At Kisumu Day, students admitted that pornographic materials were circulating secretly in the school.

Sex styles

“Some of our friends say they try the sex styles they see in these magazines with prostitutes in town or with their girlfriends,” said a Form Three student.

A teacher at the school admitted that cases of gonorrhoea have been reported among the students, with some having to be circumcised to cure the problem.

Teachers and parents blame the proliferation of pornography in schools for the increasing cases of rape, unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion among students.

In boys’ boarding schools, pornographic magazines are being blamed for rising cases of homosexuality. Schoolgirls who are lured into sex and get pregnant have to drop out of school, a matter Mr Wachio says is of grave concern. This year, three girls at his school dropped out due to pregnancy.

A 12-year-old Standard Six pupil at St Mark’s Primary School recounted how his colleagues in Nyalenda were using pornography to solicit sex from girls in the same age group or younger.

“They just tell the girl to try and do what is in this video or papers,” the pupil said. What is worrying teachers is their lack of skills and language to tackle the issue.

At St Mark’s Nyabera Primary School, teachers are pleading for training on how to handle pupils found with such materials.

“One thing we want to do is understand why these students are doing this, and how to talk to those supplying them with these materials,” said Mr Wachio.

Dolphine Okech, the executive director of Kefeado, an organisation that works with schools on issues around sexual maturation and young people, said most schools have only one teacher who counsels the entire pupil population.

Ms Okech said many parents have no idea what their children are exposed to. “The most unfortunate thing is that parents have left everything to the teachers and the maids. They do not know what is going on in the lives of their children,” Ms Okech said.

Teachers are now asking parents and guardians to take an active role in monitoring the activities of their children.

– An AWC feature