The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced yesterday in an interview with the newspaper El País that his Executive will approve a comprehensive law for the protection of minors on the Internet, considering that we are facing a “genuine epidemic of minors who have access to pornographic content.” ”. Sánchez warned that one in four young people under 12 years of age has accessed pornographic content and warned that the Government’s action to try to stop this phenomenon “is not puritanism”, since it significantly affects the education of Spanish adolescents. .
Sánchez explained that his cabinet will promote a “country agreement” based on three axes. The first will consist of the drafting of a comprehensive law for the protection of minors on the Internet. The second will be the approval of “a multidisciplinary strategy from the field of education, digital skills, also in the field of equality.” Finally, the Government wants the devices to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content. The president indicated that the Executive already works in this line with the Spanish Data Protection Agency and with the Mint and Stamp Factory, which is the state responsible for cryptographic security systems.
The study Youth and pornography in the digital age: consumption, perception and effects, published by the Reina Sofía Center of Fad Juventud and financed by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, indicates that children, pre-adolescents and adolescents regularly watch porn . 25% of children between 8 and 11 years old watch porn; 6.5% do so before turning 8 years old. This access for which they are not prepared, with their developing brains, occurs without parents being aware of what they are consuming.
Experts point out that at these ages the consequences are dire, because minors believe that what they see is the reality of sexuality, so the chances of them later wanting to apply it in real life multiply. It must be taken into account that what one in four of them see is pornography with physical and verbal violence and almost 17%, content with high physical or verbal violence or humiliation.
The study was carried out using a representative sample of the young population residing in Spain between 16 and 29 years old (1,259 young people). The first contact with pornography occurs around the age of 13. Almost half of those surveyed watched porn for the first time between the ages of 12 and 15, and one in 4 watched porn for the first time before the age of 12. 6.5%, before the age of 8. The study revealed that pornography consumption is widespread among young Spaniards. Almost two thirds, 62.5%, consume porn at some point. Only one in three does not access content. 72% of boys watch porn, while it is 52.6% for girls. Increases by age.