The Internet, Pornography & Young Minds

One wonders what a lot of young people would be doing with all the free data and cheaper megabyte available to everywhere today. I wish I can easily wish away the rising and near alarming rate of pornography consumption in the country today. I admit its indeed a tough battle ahead because mobile technology has made it easy for anyone to consume any type of content he or she desires anytime, anywhere.

In 2015 alone, people consumed 4 billion hours of pornographic content and over 50% did so from their smartphones. The porn industry has never had it this good and this is basically because mobile technology has made it so easy to access porn freely and conveniently. Do you know that it is estimated that one third of the entire Internet traffic is pornography related?

I remember carrying out a private research a few years ago and I discovered that at least 10 pornographic websites where among the top 100 websites that Nigerians visited - yes you heard me right, forget all the pretence. We are a society that avoids the issue of sex or sex education like a plague, but because of my knowledge of the Internet, I believe we should start looking for innovative ways to protect our young minds from becoming porn addicts.

My focus in this piece is not exactly on adults, although my personal preference will be for everyone to stay off pornography, but then, I know that is impossible, so, I rather focus on bringing up the issues so that children and young teenagers do not become victims of pornography or become entangled in the vicious and complex world of porn and the kingpins behind them.

According to a 2015 BBC news report, 10% of U.K. 12 and 13 year olds fear they are addicted to porn. 12% of 12-13 year olds admitted to participating in a sexually explicit video.

I know this is the part many parents will hate to admit, but the possibilities are real as long as you have rewarded your wards with an Internet enabled smart device.

You may say this is not the UK but Nigeria. If you ask anyone who understands the Nigerian 'peculiar' technology landscape, he or she will tell you that we usually leapfrog many other countries in adopting new technologies and also how we consume content. What this simply means, is that, it may start slowly but before you know it, it takes off very quickly like wild fire if not stemmed.

In another survey report commissioned by the centre-left Institute for Public Policy Research think tank and published on the daily mail website, it was discovered that 80% of UK teens say porn is “too easy” to access or stumble upon on the internet. About 46% of teens said "sexting" is a part of everyday life for teenagers and 70% said porn was seen as normal by their peers at school. Finally, 2/3 of girls and nearly 50% of boys said, growing up would be easier if porn was harder to access.

I wonder how many Nigerian parents know about sexting? These are come of the complexities of today's world we leave in and we should not seat down and do nothing otherwise we may have ourselves to blame. McDonald's and Starbucks recently announced that they will start blocking porn from their Wi-Fi networks all in a bid to stem this ugly trend. This is what I can plucking your lowest hanging fruits, is there any lesson for us in this move?

Honestly, what are we doing about it or are we just waiting for the worse to happen? This is because, as access and affordability increases, the quest or curiosity to want to consume porn content via mobile increases. Should we just raise our hands helplessly or try to at least fight for the future of our young ones?

Quite frankly, it is a tough one because of how ubiquitous mobile is and coupled with the fact that the porn industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry with a huge war chest to be at the forefront of creating content for future technologies. In fact, as I write, some of them have started releasing some porn content that is suitable for virtual reality consumption which again is hinged on the instant success of Pokémon go.

I am not a psychologist but as a certified life coach, I can posit that addiction to porn or any other thing for that matter can produce the same symptoms as addition to drugs. This is why all hands must be on deck to ensure that technology does not make our young minds sway because nothing of those is real!

 
CFA is the founder of www.techsmart.ng and co-producer/presenter of Tech Trends on Channels Television