Raising Kids in a Pornified World

Shockingly the average age most children in the UK come into contact with online pornography is 13, with 10 per cent having seen it by age 9, and 27 per cent by age 11 (Children’s Commissioner, 2023).

Crucially the images these children are viewing are not the softcore pictures their parents may remember from the 80s and 90s. 45 per cent of scenes on Pornhub contain one or more acts of aggression – such as spanking, gagging, slapping, hair pulling, and choking – the overwhelming majority of which are directed at women (Fritz et al, 2020).

In this milieu, how can we bring up children to form healthy relationships, set appropriate boundaries and speak up about abuse?

This workshop is suitable for anyone who cares for, or works with, children and young people. It will outline an up-to-date context of pornography and the sex trade and suggest practical strategies for:

• having age-appropriate conversations about pornography and the sex trade.
• encouraging children and young people to speak up if they feel unsafe.
• supporting children and young people to recognise the harms of pornography and the sex trade.

Helen McDonald has worked with children and young people for over 20 years, as a teacher, an advocate, and now as a therapist. She has extensive experience of working with children and young people subjected to sexual violence, as well as facilitating sessions with children and young people on issues of consent in relationships and the impacts of pornography. Helen has created resources to be used by school staff to approach issues of consent and to help them to support young survivors of sexual violence in school.

Emily Husain is a civil barrister and feminist who has volunteered with women’s organisations and groups addressing violence against women for several years. Emily has a particular interest in the domestic and international legislative framework surrounding prostitution and she joined NMN in 2023. Emily will act as moderator.

Workshop details

This workshop will be in the form of a webinar hosted in Zoom and is expected to last about 90 minutes. We will email registered attendees shortly before the event with details of how to join. If you can’t see the email, please check your spam folders.

Questions

There will be an option to submit questions during the event, but you are welcome to email in advance any questions you would like Helen to consider. Please put ‘Webinar Question’ in the subject line and email it to info@nordicmodelnow.org. Time constraints mean, however, that we will be limited in how many questions we can address.

This is a mixed event

This event is open to everyone. The event will include discussion of some difficult issues, including male violence to women and children. We ask everyone, but particularly men, to be mindful of this and how members of the audience may find this triggering because it resonates with their own experiences of male violence. We ask everyone to be open and respectful.