Porn: What's the Harm? Page #8

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talking about to your children.

'I never work in a primary school'

without at least first having

a session with the parents

because if I was the parent

I would want to know

who was teaching my child about

pornography at five and why.

When we were all young,

we couldn't access the things

that children can access now.

Even though there may be fear,

there may be suppressed anger

and shock at the beginning,

parents come round

when they suddenly realise,

"Yeah, this is necessary.

This is needed."

From ages three to six

they're interested in the

differences between boys and girls.

It's the whole title,

"Porn and Pornography"

and those words that are

terrifying for parents.

Now I've been in and learned

what it's going to be

and that it's in the right context,

I'm at ease with it.

My husband was terrified

thinking his little girl's

going to be taught about

pornography, but it's not.

'After 45 minutes

reassuring the parents,

'it's time to bring in

the five-year-olds.'

I find this so interesting cos

I don't know how you explain

where babies come from

to a five-year-old.

It's a lot easier than you think.

Oh, really? Cos I'm 27

and I don't think I've still

spoken about it with my parents.

Would you like to just sit down here,

please? Let's have a little line.

I've got lots of you.

That's brilliant, isn't it?

Now what we're going to do today

is we're going to

talk about keeping safe.

Does anybody know the

correct scientific word

for what a boy's got?

The penis.

Excellent, that's said like a proper

scientist or a doctor or a nurse.

Yes. I know the other one.

You know what a girl's got, do you,

the correct scientific word,

and what's that? Vagina.

Excellent.

'So far so good, but I'm still

not sure how Lynnette is going to

'broach the subject of porn

with five-year-olds.'

Now, we've got a boy taking

a picture of another boy.

Is that OK? Yeah. Yes!

But I want you to look

closely at this picture.

Is that OK? No!

KIDS GIGGLE:

Shh.

That's not OK, is it?

No! No! No.

Nobody should ever take

photographs of you like that

or the private parts of your body.

Let's have a look at this

next picture.

If you look at that,

somebody's got a phone or a tablet,

and can you see on that phone

or tablet? It's women!

It's a woman with no clothes on,

isn't it? Naked! Yeah.

Right, if any older children

try to show you photos or pictures

on their phones like that,

you need to tell an adult

or a grown-up.

I really think we owe it to children

and young people to keep them safe,

and, as we all know,

knowledge is power.

But if we can't get over the basics

of straightforward sex education,

how on earth can we tackle these

stronger issues like pornography?

Nobody should touch us there

between our legs,

and nobody should touch our bottoms.

KIDS GIGGLE:

We need to take this

far more seriously.

It's not an optional extra.

We've got to wake up and realise

that it's becoming a big, big issue.

Now what I want us to do

very quietly

is to go back to our class room.

KIDS LAUGH AND CHATTER

When I first walked in, you know,

it being a primary school

and then finding out

it was five-year-olds

broaching the topic of pornography,

I was a little bit reluctant

because I thought...

It felt slightly

unnecessarily young.

And yet within about

five minutes of the lesson

you realise how armed they are

with knowledge.

'What I found really interesting

'was that in the sessions with

the youngest children,

'the word "pornography"

wasn't even used.

'So I can see that if these ideas

are introduced carefully early on,

'it could make a big difference

'when kids come across

real porn as they get older.

'And certainly many of the

teenagers I've met

'wish they'd been better prepared

for what they've seen.'

I heard a group of, erm,

Year 8 boys talking about...

They'd been watching porn

and they're only, like, 12, 13,

and they were saying stuff like,

"Oh, is this normal, is that

normal?" and stuff like that,

so I don't think they

really understand that

not everything that you see on porn

is normal and what's expected.

I think it would be a good idea

to teach kids about porn

and what it's all about

and the things that they watch,

they shouldn't be

expecting that in real life.

I have seen some pretty

scary stuff on the internet.

If parents did see that they'd be

like, "Whoa, why is that on there?"

Or, "That shouldn't be on there,

that's disgraceful."

And to us it's just normal cos

we've seen it that many times.

So I don't think

parents have any idea

that that type of stuff

is out there.

I don't think there's ever going to

be a way of protecting all children

from seeing online pornography.

The internet's too big, it's too

vast and it's way too accessible.

But there is a huge difference

between the kids who are scared

and affected by what they see

and those who aren't necessarily,

the ones who put it into context

and they really understand

what it is that they're seeing.

We have to understand that this is

something that is in the homes

and in the lives and in the

minds of our children,

and we have to protect them

by discussing it

and educating them about

what it is that they're seeing.

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