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‘No Consensus On The Degree To Which Pornography Is Harmful To Children’: Report From U.N. Agency UNICEF

   DailyWire.com
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A report released by the U.N. agency UNICEF (U.N. Children’s Fund) states that while “age verification tools may prevent children from accessing pornography from commercial websites, it is unlikely that they would prevent children from accessing pornography completely,” adding, “There is currently no universal agreement on the nature and the extent of the harm caused to children by viewing content classified as pornography.”

“UNICEF also claims that asking for age-verification to access pornography online may deny children access to what it calls ‘vital sexuality education,’” The Center for Family and Human Rights reported. “It should be noted that critics charge ‘comprehensive sexuality education’ is pornographic and harmful to children.”

The UNICEF report states, “Any restrictions on ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) rights must be the least intrusive instrument available among those that might achieve the desired result. Accordingly, children should not be age-gated out of any online environment, or have their access to content or aspects of an online service limited, without solid evidence that this is necessary.”

“The term ‘pornography’ has many legal definitions within different jurisdictions, so it is not always clear across the literature that consistent definitions are being used,” the report continues. “Top-ranked digital sexuality education media worldwide accessed by children include websites, apps and YouTube vloggers, most of which are in the English language and based in the US. Some of this content may be classified as ‘pornography’ in certain contexts: if it were age restricted, this could deny children access to vital sexuality education materials.”

Then the report states no consensus has been reached as to the harmful effects of pornography on children: “There are several kinds of risks and harms that have been linked to children’s exposure to pornography, but there is no consensus on the degree to which pornography is harmful to children. Prominent advocates point to research arguing that access to pornography at a young age is linked to poor mental health, sexism and objectification, sexual aggression and other negative outcomes. The evidence suggests that some children appear to be harmed by exposure to some kinds of pornography at least some of the time, but that the nature and extent of that harm vary.”

The report cites a study that looked into the degree to which children were “happy” about watching pornography: “The 2020 EU Kids Online study compared survey findings from 19 countries and found that in most countries, most children who saw sexual images online were neither upset nor happy (ranging from 27 per cent in Switzerland to 72 per cent in Lithuania); between 10 per cent and 4 per cent were fairly or very upset; and between 3 per cent of children (in Estonia) and 39 per cent (in Spain) reported feeling happy after seeing such images.”

Lisa Thompson, vice president and director of the Research Institute at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, reacted to the UNICEF report, saying, “UNICEF’s report ignores the vast body of research demonstrating the harms of pornography to children. By ignoring the real harms pornography can have, UNICEF is playing roulette with children’s health and safety. … Mainstream pornography contains horrific sexual abuse, rape, incest, racism – all of which children should not consume. UNICEF’s milquetoast assessment of the impacts hardcore pornography on children does nothing to challenge the political narrative that pornography is benign, and as a result, puts children in harm’s way.”

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