Child Pornography: Shelve the report now

A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says that pornography may not always be harmful to children. And preventing children from watching porn may violate their human rights, based on extensive interpretation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Profoundly strange as it is, this report seeks to repudiate the long-held and proven perception of porn as harmful to children and young people. We are confounded by the research findings by the UNICEF and question the moral standards inherent in them.

Technology has exposed mankind to a world much smaller, information and movement much faster. So have children become more knowledgeable as they grow faster. It stands to reason, therefore, that standards for their upbringing deserve reforms. Some things, however, cannot be changed for any reason. Whatever would influence children in their developmental stages undesirably and destructively is unhelpful and is universally so acknowledged. Children are our future. It is the reason their civil and human rights are fiercely protected by parents and laws around the world. It is the reason the UNICEF was established to ensure a world safe from the effects of their poor upbringing.

The study claims that 39 percent of Spanish children who watched pornography were happy. We do not know the science behind the experiment. We think too that the study in itself is an infringement on the rights of the children in the first place, and that the study must be quickly shelved and the planners, sponsors and organizers given lessons in objectivity.

We don’t know the form, shape, and content of the UNICEF study but we would rather think that the civil and human rights of minors are violated when introduced to sexual activity at the early stages of their lives. Children are not matured enough to make such decisions, and the laws that protect them are elaborate globally. It is also a universally acceptable principle in every culture to insulate children from anything that would lead them to sexual depravity and behaviors unbecoming.

Dr. Sharon Cooper, a forensic pediatrician and faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, writes “imagery definitely affects children” and that children receive unhealthy sexual images from adult pornography. She goes further to say that pornography normalizes sexual harm by portraying lack of emotional relationship between consensual partners, unprotected sexual contact, and, in some instances, violence and rape.

It has also been proven beyond doubt that children exposed to porn and sexual depravity grow up to be pedophiles, wife beaters, and women haters. They are a scar on society and are prone to criminal behaviors. Most often they have been known to engage in incest and domestic violence.

Our cultures, customs and traditions in Africa have so far been relatively able to protect our children against predatory sexual practices. We have been shielded mostly by limited access to technology – but for how long? Ours is a conservative society where child rearing is based on conservative values steeped in culture and tradition. We doubt that Spanish culture and traditions would approve of the study and methods used to reach the conclusions reached in the study.

We do not expect a repeat of the attempt by the International Planned Parenthood Association to foist on Ghana and some African countries gay practices as legitimate and to recognize and accept it against our cultures and traditions under the guise of Comprehensive Sex Education. Nobody is taught how to engage in sex. We grow into it as humans. So do animals. Already there are several studies and experiments aimed at Africa even as we struggle to attain our developmental goals. Such incoherent and irrelevant studies need not be introduced nor adopted. We are currently at the bottom of the long line of countries waiting to be vaccinated against the Covid 19 epidemic and do not have the pleasure of indulging in anything irresponsible as exposing our children to pornography and depraved sexual practices.

We only hope that the study is merely an academic exercise. Amandla urges that the report be shelved and/or destroyed for the good of mankind. Our children deserve better than such lame projects in the name of scholarship.

Posted by on Jun 10 2021. Filed under Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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