The Digital World of today’s Teenager
In a two-hour Professional Learning seminar for teachers Mr. Ninnes shared real-life stories as well as some disturbing statistics including that:
- The average age of first exposure to online pornography for all children is 11 year
- The earlier the exposure the greater the chance of addiction
- 20% of Australian boys say that they looked at porn at age 8 or younger
- 1 in 5, 16 & 17-year-olds watch porn at least once a month
- “Porn” in top googled words for children
- 13-25% of all internet searches are for erotic content
- On the whole parents, teacher and pastors are not in touch with the extent to which pornography influences the lives of children and young people and are therefore not speaking about it and providing guidance.
How to become informed and empowered:
- Begin by viewing with this 12-minute professional learning session by Paul Ninnes tinyurl.com/y7ezdwd6 and find more resources at RealTalk Australia www.realtalkaustralia.com
- Ask your school to subscribe to Dr Michael Carr-Greg’s SchoolTV http://schooltv.me/eform/submit/register-school to make available to parents short interviews with experts regarding issues like pornography, sexting and cyberbullying as well as other mental health and wellbeing issues.
- Go to Culture Reframed https://www.culturereframed.org/ to learn how to respond appropriately WHEN your child is exposed to pornography
- Read the children’s book “Good Pictures, Bad Pictures” with your younger children
For more assistance on the topic of relationship and sexuality education contact Archdiocesan Manager for Marriage, Family & Relationships, Lara Kirk 0429 192 869 lara.kirk@cg.org.au