How Kids Get Porn

Access to pornography is more readily available then ever. Through the rise of the Internet and the development of new technology, porn is at everyone’s fingertips, including your children. The avenues to exposure are many and diverse in nature. Sometimes the most innocent things can be a porno pipeline.

In a recent USA Today article Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future states, “There is no silver bullet. There are so many ways that kids can stumble onto stuff. Unfortunately, I think this is a moment in time where the best answers are the most old-fashioned. You know: talk to your kids, engage with what they are surfing on the Web. Then, on top of that, do whatever you can electronically." We think that’s good advice.

Websites
There are twenty-one million American children and teenagers using the Internet and it has become one of the main portals into the world of pornography. We live in a day and age like no other where access and anonymity are unchecked in the Internet world. Logging onto pornographic Websites is a common way for children to be exposed. Whether accidentally or intentionally, porn exposure for kids is often through the Web.

PSP: Sony’s Play Station Portable
Though the PSP’s original purpose is for game playing, porn has crept its way into this device. Because the PSP can access the Internet wirelessly and the fact that it can hold digital files, this makes the device a porn ready piece of technology. It’s Wi-Fi capabilities and internet access means porn is just a click a way on the PSP. Some companies have even created specific hard core content which sells for about eighteen to thirty-five dollars and runs off the UMD disc. Similar to a DVD but significantly smaller, this disc can be inserted into the PSP and run porn content. The PSP is also able to hold images and pictures which can be downloaded from popular porn sites. This innocent gaming device can really be a dangerous porno pipeline.

IPod
With over sixty million IPods sold by Apple Computers, this music player has probably made its way into your home. Now you probably think it’s just for playing music, but it’s not just for music anymore. Many IPods now play video files and display pictures which once again makes it a pathway to porn. Though the ITunes store does not contain any explicit or pornographic content, these types of files can be found elsewhere on the Internet and downloaded to the IPod. Thus this device should be monitored by parents because of its capabilities to store pornography.

Cell phones
With virtually everyone from the age of ten to 90 carrying a cell phone, chances are someone in your family has one. Cell phones are supported by many different services, such as Cingular, Verizon and Virgin. Each of these services allow you to specialize plans and payment methods for you and your family. Many cell phones now have the ability to go online via satellite connection and allow you to surf the internet, download pictures and access your e-mail. There are even websites that will send pictures to your phone with extra billing or age verification. With this brilliant blend of technology and communication there is ample opportunity for accessible explicit material.

A startling report found that cell phone porn is now a 1.3 billion dollar industry. Not only is it a significant way to access porn but there are very few safeguards or technology to protect kids from accessing it. This is certainly a growth market for the porn industry and a critical issue for parents to be aware of.

File Sharing
This is a feature of many instant messaging services that allow users to trade files, such as photos and video files, with anyone. When someone wants to trade files it is as simple as clicking a button and the files are transferred from one computer to another. There is no way to tell who is sending the files, who is receiving them and what they are really sending. Often these files are explicit hard core pornography transmitted both through video and picture files. This type of internet file sharing is also very difficult to track and would not show up in a typical computer history check.

Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging(IMing or IM) is a downloadable program that allows the users to talk to each other similar to a chat room or an e-mail. There is no real verbal communication, these programs just give the users the opportunity to talk to each other by typing messages to each other and sending them off. The correspondence is instant and immediate and like a typical conversation. These conversations are called “chatting.”

There are also now free upgrades for each person using an IM to communicate using live video feeds from one to another. It is also good to know that many IM programs allow you to check the history of chatting.

Search Engines
Search engines provide an abundance of opportunity and is a one stop shop for pornography. Type in a key word like porn, sex, or XXX and you won’t believe what pops up. Many times the most innocent searches can lead to bad places. One of the most popular searches on the Internet is for the word sex. Many times porn operators bury key words, including brand names of popular toys, in the code of their Websites to attract kids. Many search engines like Google also offer image searches which would pull up pornographic images. Today’s search engines are more powerful then ever and can deliver some of the most extreme and niche pornographic material. From rape videos, to teachers seducing students, a search engine will find it and bring it right to your children. The reality is with just a couple clicks you could be deep into porn.

Stealth Sites
These are porn sites that steer users their way through a variety of techniques, including buying up expired domain names, exploiting common misspellings, or using well known names of companies or artists.

Home Page Hi-jacking
This involves planting a Java script command on computers to change the user’s default home page to a porn site. Changing the site back seems to solve the problem but when the computer is rebooted the offensive site re-appears.

TV/Cable/Satellite
You would be hard pressed to find a home in the United States that doesn’t have a television somewhere. The television has become the most familiar and comfortable part of our familial surroundings, and yet there are so many dangerous aspects of it that we refuse to protect our families from. Whether the TV is connected to satellite or cable is irrelevant, both provide some form of parental control in the form of ratings and in some cases, restriction based on that parental control, but they still are not perfect. Many cable and satellite providers provide soft core and hard core pornography content. Also, HBO, Showtime, and other premium channels provide graphic sexual content on their stations.

DVD
As the VCR fades off in the proverbial sunset, the DVD emerges as the newest form of visual entertainment. Every home has at least one DVD player, whether it is in the form of a standard DVD player or a video game console. DVDs have become popular because the discs are no longer limited to just popping in a movie and watching it. Now it is possible to put extras features on the disc itself. The DVD, when paired together with pornography, is only considered something to worry about when it is directly related to porn. Popular movies just coming to DVD often have bonus features and scenes as well as unrated content that wasn’t put into theaters, and more often than not, it wasn’t put into theaters for a reason.

DVD’s are an incredibly popular format for pornographic movies and content. With millions of porn DVD’s in circulation, it is a major way that kids access porn.