Protect kids from porn - FBP
2010-07-27 14:06
Cape Town - Greater responsibility is needed at all levels of society to protect children from exposure to pornography, the Film and Publication Board (FPB) said on Monday.
"We believe those who should know better are not taking the care they should to protect our children," FPB CEO Yoliswa Makhasi said in a statement issued at the start of a two-day symposium in Cape Town on what needs to be done to safeguard children from pornography.
The education department, Freedom of Expression Institute, Watchdog International, Childline, the SA Police Force Cybercrimes Unit, the Justice Alliance Network, Icasa and Doctors for Life were among those attending the symposium.
Makhasi said some people believed because publications dealing with sexual matters - as well as so-called soft-pornography publications, along with films and DVDs - had to be submitted to the FPB for classification, enough was being done to protect children.
"We believe this is not the case. Adults need to take responsibility or face the consequences of a generation forever scarred due to their unwillingness to take proper care of their children," Makhasi said.
Subconscious
In the spotlight at the symposium is research carried out by Doctors for Life (DFL), which links contact with pornography in young children to later deviant behaviour.
The FPB statement quotes DFL head Dr Albu van Eeden in this regard.
"The primitive brain (limbic system) matures in a child long before the thinking brain (neocortex and prefrontal cortex)."
"That means the child can 'feel', 'experience' and 'taste' sexual images or sexual touches from an adult before the child can even express him or herself."
"These memories are stored sometimes subconsciously and can lead to deviant behaviour later in life," he said.
- SAPA