Boy, 11, bombarded with porn on sleepover

ALERT: Via smartphones and internet pads, children are being exposed to online pornography with alarming frequency.

SLEEPOVERS are supposed to be good, clean fun.

But for one 11-year-old an overnight party last week turned into a disturbing, confusing nightmare after he was exposed to a bombardment of hardcore porn on mobile devices.
"The night he had to endure makes me sick to my stomach," said mum Karen, after her son Ben was shown explicit videos and images by two other primary school children.
"I am devastated at the loss of his innocence and I would like this to be a warning to other parents."
The concerned mother contacted The Sunday Mail after an investigation in last weekend's paper revealed the increasing trend for young children to access pornography on their smartphones.
Karen said one of the boys took her son's phone and accessed extreme pornography freely over the household wi-fi, while the other looked up more explicit material on his own iPad and showed it to the group.
"They knew exactly where to go and exactly what to look for," she said.
The experience left Ben shaken and confused.
"He was such an innocent naive little boy and it all changed in one night," she said.
"Ben wasn't titillated by it, he was quite disgusted, he was upset, he was embarrassed and he was ashamed."
Karen said the experience had made her more vigilant about her child's internet use, and less likely to allow him to go to sleepovers or other events away from home.
Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said that it was time for all parents to wake up to the dangers exposed by such easy access to illicit material.
She said research showed that children who regularly visited porn sites were at higher risk of sexually offending and there was an increased chance they would be preyed on by internet pedophiles.
"This is a highly alarming situation and is a growing trend that must be responded to urgently," Ms Johnston said.
"More and more of our clients are children harming other children mostly due to their own exposure to sexualised behaviours or imagery."
As voting continues on The Sunday Mail's online poll "Should the Government put a blanket ban on internet porn?" most readers have said "no".
A spokesman for the Premier Campbell Newman said: "The Newman Government is concerned about the increasing potential of underage people accessing internet porn.
"Our Government is committed to working closely with the Queensland Police Service on these issues. Parents need to be responsible for monitoring their child's internet use and ultimately the issue of internet security is a Federal Government concern."
Ms Johnston said children often imitated what they had seen and studies suggested that exposure to pornography could prompt kids to act out sexually against younger, more vulnerable children.
"However experts still differ over the link between pornography and sexual offending," she said.

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