MONTHS of home confinement and easy access to the internet, necessary for virtual learning, have drawn more children, some as young as seven, to pornographic websites, psychological experts said.

Some of these children have also spied on family members taking baths or changing.

Experts warned that obsession with pornography could create various social issues. They urged parents to talk and listen to their children.

D’Dawn Psychological Development Centre founder and psychological counsellor Tan Chee Seng said he has treated primary school pupils to high school students during the Covid-19 epidemic.

“After they were discovered by their parents, they were brought in for counselling,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“And we found that these children were curious about sex after they browsed pornographic websites.”

Gender expert Alice Lee said many youngsters surfed pornographic websites during the epidemic in what she called a social phenomenon.

“There could be little contact between members at home… so they hid in their room and browsed through pornographic websites,” she said.

Lee said there might not be anything for the young people to do at home or there could be a lack of healthy communication between family members.

She said some turned to pornography to satisfy their desires or to get emotional relief.

“The other (cause of addiction) is inner emptiness. It may be trauma in the process of growing up and there is the feeling of emptiness,” Lee said.

According to Pornhub statistics in 2020, the browsing rate for pornographic websites in Malaysia ranked fourth in the world and first in Asia. The top three are Slovakia, Bulgaria and Ireland respectively.

The adult website said th surge in page views was driven by isolation and work-from-home arrangements.

Last month Kemaman MP Che Alias Hamid from PAS raised in parliament the issue of children accessing sexual content on the internet, urging the government to look into it.

Being addicted

Sexual health consultant Ngoh Chee Meng advised parents to face the fact that their children could be looking at pornography online.

“The convenience of the internet now makes it relatively easy for them to access these websites. Parents must also look back at their own growth experiences,” he said.

“Parents may block content ar home but there is free internet everywhere else so there is no way to fully block it from your children.”

In his engagement with parents, Ngoh found that most of them had difficulty having conversations with their children about sex.

“If you are unsure about how to talk to your children, perhaps you can share with them the right websites for them to browse and learn the correct information,” he said.

Tan from D’Dawn also believes in the importance of sex education.

“Many parents don’t know how to teach their children about sex. Regardless of whether the child will have sex in the immediate future, sex education is a precaution,” he said.

Tan said addiction to pornography directly affects interaction between the two sexes.

“And it will come in between couples at the stage of dating or cause the relationship of newly married couples to be less harmonious,” he said.

He added that the impact is especially great on growing children once they become obsessed with pornography.

“The younger you are, the greater the impact will be. Nowadays, under the new normal, children take online classes and have more access to the internet.

“It is easy for them to access pornographic content, which, in turn, arouses their curiosity.

“They may try to peep or touch as they become curious about the bodies of the opposite sex and this creates various social problems.”

Tan said even though people are aware that what they see on the pornographic websites is not real, frequent browsing will lead to addiction.

“Those addicted will start to feel less motivated and life will seem empty and meaningless,” he warned.

Ngoh, however, said looking at pornography does not necessarily mean that the person is addicted.

“The determinant of addiction is whether the person can still control (what he is doing). For example, if I don’t do this today, will my whole body feel uncomfortable?”

He said addiction interferes with a person’s life.

“People who are not addicted won’t feel guilty because they know they can choose not to do it.” – January 5, 2022.