Campaign to bar children from porn sites

Some posters advertising locally made pornography are strategically pasted along ailes within the city. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • A boy aged 15 told Childine that he was “always watching porn,” some of it quite aggressive. “I didn’t think it was affecting me at first, but I’ve started to view girls differently recently and that is making me worried.”
  • The Conservative Party has promised that if it is returned to power at the forthcoming election it will act to prevent children from accessing websites which offer pornography.
  • While on remand, Gatiss was kept in segregation for his own safety and his defending solicitor said that in the prison van taking him to court he had been subjected to intimidation from other offenders. His prison time is unlikely to be comfortable.

One tenth of 12 to 13-year olds in Britain believe they are addicted to pornography, and 12 per cent of 700 young people said they had taken part in a sexually explicit video.

The national organisation Childline, which carried out the survey, said that viewing pornography was “part of everyday life” for many of the children who contact their helpline with problems.

Childline launched a campaign to raise awareness and provide advice to young people about the harmful effects of over-exposure to porn.

A girl, now 17, said she was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend when they were both 13. “He thought it was OK on some level.”

A boy aged 15 told Childine that he was “always watching porn,” some of it quite aggressive. “I didn’t think it was affecting me at first, but I’ve started to view girls differently recently and that is making me worried.”

Peter Liver, Director of Childline, said, “Children of all ages have easy access to a wide range of pornography. They tell us that watching it is making them depressed and making them feel pressurised to engage in sexual acts they are not ready for.”

Dame Esther Rantzen, founder of Childline, said it was shocking that children as young as 11 are turning to the Internet to learn about sex and relationships. “Girls in particular have said they feel they must look and behave like porn stars to be liked by boys.”

The Conservative Party has promised that if it is returned to power at the forthcoming election it will act to prevent children from accessing websites which offer pornography.

But there are two outstanding practical problems: How an age-verification problem might work, and how to deal with overseas websites which refuse to comply with British regulations.

Dame Esther said that improved education was vital.

“We absolutely have to talk to young people about sex, love, respect and consent as soon as we feel they are ready, to ensure that they gain a proper perspective between real-life relationships and the fantasy world of porn.”

***

Desperate for drugs, Richard Gatiss attacked a disabled pensioner, Alan Barnes, 67, knocking him to the ground and breaking his collarbone. There was an extraordinary public reaction when the frail old man’s picture was printed in the newspapers.

He was only 4ft 6in (1.3 metres) in height, weighing just 84 pounds (38 kilos) and had poor vision, all the result of his mother having German measles during her pregnancy.

And when an online appeal was set up, it raised an astonishing £330,000 (Sh46.3 million) for Alan to buy a new house.

Gatiss, 25, from Gateshead, where the old man also lived, was arrested a few days later and pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to assault with intent to rob.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, a term Mr Barnes said was “just about right.”

While on remand, Gatiss was kept in segregation for his own safety and his defending solicitor said that in the prison van taking him to court he had been subjected to intimidation from other offenders. His prison time is unlikely to be comfortable.

***

Nobody attending an Accident and Emergency Department at a UK hospital should wait longer than four hours to be seen — that is the official target set back in 2004.

Over the past three months of 2014, some 92.6 per cent of patients were seen within the four hours, the figures presumably affected by these being winter months when hospitals are at their busiest. The likely figure for all of 2014 and 2015 is 95 per cent.

There has been weeping and wailing over these results, especially with the NHS a major election issue. I dunno, surely a pass rate of 92.6 per cent in most other walks of life would be considered a success.
***

A mugger sticks a gun in the ribs of a well-dressed man and shouts, “Give me your money.”

The man replies, “You can’t do this, I’m a member of parliament.”

“In that case,” says the mugger, “give me my money.”

***

A teacher presented her class of six-year-olds with the first half of a list of well-known proverbs and asked them to complete them.

These are some of the results: Don’t bite the hand… that looks dirty. A miss is as good as… a mister. You can’t teach an old dog new… maths. If you lie down with the dogs… you’ll stink. Where there’s smoke there’s… pollution. A penny saved is… not much. Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and… you have to blow your nose.

Children should be seen and not… spanked. When the blind lead the blind… get out of the way. A bird in hand… is going to poop on you.