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Half of Child Sex Abuse Cases in UK Linked to Online Porn

by Kathy Jones on Nov 22 2012 8:06 PM

 Half of Child Sex Abuse Cases in UK Linked to Online Porn
A new report has revealed that thousands of children in England are at high risk of sexual exploitation, and in half the cases, the impact of online porn is to be blamed.
The study by Sue Berelowitz, the deputy children's commissioner, into sexual exploitation by urban gangs found that the 'use and impact' of pornography was a major factor in 48 percent of interviews with abuse victims and perpetrators.

She said the easy access of porn online skewed young people's views about what is 'acceptable, required or expected' of sex, and could leave boys seeing girls as 'objects to be used and abused'.

According to the Daily Mail, Berelowitz said naive younger people were 'wandering round' in the 'thicket' of the internet, adding that 'there are some neighbourhoods where sexual violence and a sense of entitlement were completely normalised.'

The report warned that it was 'rare' to find abuse cases where technology such as mobile phones and computers were not in some way connected.

The deputy children's commissioner warned that thousands of youngsters in England were being abused every year, the report said.

This included encouraging girls to swap sexually explicit images on mobiles, adults grooming children on social networking sites such as Facebook, and the viewing of extreme or violent pornography and discussing it during sexual assaults, it added.

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According to the report, some 2,409 children were also confirmed as being victims of exploitation by gangs and groups between August 2010 and October 2011, with 15 being the peak age for abuse.

The report used evidence from police forces, councils, health trusts and other official bodies to reach its conclusions.

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"The reality is that each year, thousands of children in England are raped and abused by people seeking to humiliate, violate and control them. The impact on their lives is devastating," Berelowitz said.

"Each year, thousands of children in England are raped and abused by people seeking to humiliate, violate and control them," she added.

"These children have been abducted, trafficked, beaten and threatened after being drawn into a web of sexual violence sometimes by promises of love and sometimes simply because they know there is no alternative," she said.

The study also blamed the impact of technology giving easy access to online porn, saying that 'an abused child might be left assuming that pain and violence, inflicted by several people at once, is the norm in sexual activity,' the report added.

Source-ANI


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