Dealing with the scourge of pornography (1)

In 2015 alone, people consumed four billion hours of pornographic content and over 50 per cent 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?

In fact, what fuelled the need to write this piece is a recent experience I had. I walked into the office of an elderly acquaintance whom I have a cordial relationship with. Although he said hello, I noticed he was engrossed with his phone. I moved closer and there he was on a porn site. He did not even bother to shift ground. So, I said hello again and hurriedly left the office.

Walking out of his office, I asked myself; if this guy who has given birth to a teenager spends his time consuming porn, what then does he expect from his ward? I bet you that in today’s world, anyone who frequents the Internet without aim and purpose is simply a candidate for porn addiction.

I remember carrying out a private research a few years ago and I discovered that at least 10 pornographic websites were among the top 100 websites that Nigerians visited. 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 per cent of U.K. 12 and 13 year olds fear they are addicted to porn. Twelve per cent 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.

The question is; 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.

The Internet, for me, is a two-edged sword that has a good and bad side. In my opinion, porn is simply on the other sides of it. I remember I had a chat with Muyiwa Matuluko of Techpoint.ng, who informed me about the argument that porn drives the adoption of new technologies, particularly in developed economies. I searched online and saw a number of articles to back that up, but then, it brings up all sorts of theories which time will not allow us to go into right now.

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 per cent of UK teens say porn is “too easy” to access or stumble upon on the Internet. About 46 per cent of teens said “sexting” is a part of everyday life for teenagers and 70 per cent said porn was seen as normal by their peers at school. Finally, two-thirds of girls and nearly 50 per cent of boys said growing up would be easier if porn was harder to access.

I wonder how many Nigerian parents know about sexting. Ok, from this point I will like to address what I think we should be doing as a people, starting with parents and of course the rest of the society.

What should parents and guardians do?

1. Get enlightened & stop making assumptions

Quite a number of parents simply assume that all is well and for that reason, have not bothered to really delve in to understand the intricacies of the World Wide Web. It goes beyond WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. You have to be in the world of teenagers if you must understand the type of content they consume.

I came across a story of how a 12 year old girl simply added filters to her mother’s email account because they both used the same free email service and she did not want her mum to know she sees explicit content and adverts every now and then. Her mum never discovered this basic trick and I bet many parents here would not discover either.