New research conducted by the Children’s Commissioner for England has found that the number of children accessing online pornography has worryingly increased.

This comes despite the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023, which was designed to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate content by making social media and search platforms more responsible for user safety.

A survey conducted in May found 27% of children had seen pornography by age 11.

The survey contained questions about sexual consent, and concerningly, almost half of respondents agreed with the statement “Girls may say no at first but then can be persuaded to have sex”.

The survey also found that almost 60% had seen porn depicting strangulation, 44% had seen porn depicting someone sleeping, and 36% had seen clear depictions of non-consensual sexual acts.

It is clear that rules and regulations are simply not enough to protect children from exposure to pornography, and thereafter developing unhealthy attitudes towards sex. If we cannot fully prevent children from accessing porn, we must ensure they thoroughly understand the concepts of consent, misogyny, and how to have safe, positive, healthy relationships.

Last year, we delivered a pilot programme across schools in Tameside designed to tackle misogyny and educate children on what safe and healthy relationships look like. After completing the programme, 81% of children felt more confident about consent, and 84% could better recognise gender stereotypes.

We want programmes encouraging healthy relationships, delivered by experts, rolled out in schools across the UK to ensure children and young people don’t fall victim to holding porn as a benchmark for intimacy. We must act soon and address this problem with education rather than solely relying on technology that can be easily bypassed.