Minors and porn sites: 3 tips to prevent your children from consulting them

Nearly one in three minors visits at least one pornographic site each month. In total, nearly 2.3 million minors are exposed to pornographic images for more than 50 minutes on average every month, far from what their parents can imagine, often abandoned and without advice in the face of this scourge.

"These figures do not surprise us at all, reacts to the Parisian Justine Atlan, director of e-Enfance, Association for the protection of children on the Internet. There are no miracle solutions to combat it. Parents can't manage on their own, but they still have a role to play. Here are some tips to limit porn consumption among your children.

1. Become aware of the problem

"Yes, there's a very good chance your child will watch porn, even if they're 12 years old." The director of e-Enfance prefers to be honest: "Becoming aware of the problem is the first step to be able to fight against it." A first step easy to say, but not so easy to do.

"Parents just didn't live in the same world with such easy access to sites. And anyway, you have to understand that your child does not tell you everything. Don't be in denial too. If the father or mother watches it, the child can also have access to this content, "warns Justine Atlan. In its study, Arcom describes "a mass consultation of pornographic sites by minors" which is done "essentially on smartphones, that is to say out of parental gaze".

🔴🔞 Minors' access to pornography is a massive phenomenon that worsens from year to year: the @Arcom_fr unveils the latest figures from @Mediametrie which testify to a worrying increase in the number of minors exposed (+36% in 5 years) #ProtégerLesMineurs 🚸🔽

— Arcom (@Arcom_fr) May 25, 2023

Electronic devices are therefore the heart of the problem. "When parents offer a tablet, a phone, a technological tool whatever it is, they are offered access to pornography. In fact, it can be said that pornography is not prohibited to minors. The first advice is not to buy these devices too early, "recommends the director of the association.

2. Talk about it

After becoming aware of the problem, it's time for action. And the first thing to do is to talk about it. "Not informing is letting it happen. To protect is to inform about the risks," sums up Justine Atlan. Again, the task is not so easy.

"When you walk on the sidewalk, you warn your child about the dangers of the road. There, it's the same. It is simply necessary to tell him that he risks falling on content that can scare him, content that is very dangerous for him. It must be established that this is not a taboo subject. It's when we don't talk about it, that we expose our children even more," explains the director of e-Enfance.

" READ ALSO Young people and porn: "Do not wait until your child is 12 years old to talk to him about the risks"

"What we have observed is that young children who come across this type of content feel guilty and close in on themselves. We must anticipate and make it feel guilty upstream so that they are better able to discuss it," advises Thomas Rohmer, founder of the Observatory of Parenting and Digital Education (Open).

Among teenagers, the problem is different for the director of the Open: "They will anyway seek to defy the ban and consult this content. The problem is rather educational so that these images do not become tutorials. Here again, opening a space for dialogue with your child is essential. If the parent is not comfortable, and has the right, they must be able to redirect them to a resource person who can talk about it, such as a school nurse. »

3. As a last resort, censor

The last tool is parental control. For once, there is nothing simpler. Parental controls exist on all ISPs, on all types of electronic devices, etc. This system allows two things: filter content prohibited to minors, and set connection times.

"These functions are very effective at filtering pornography, through keywords and nudity. It's much more useful for a child under 12, because in adolescence, you have to leave a little more freedom," explains Justine Atlan.

Read alsoPorn sites: why it is so complicated to filter access to minors

Second rather effective tool: SafeSearch. This configuration tool from Google, the first search engine to achieve pornography, drastically restricts access to unwanted content. "We must not delude ourselves either. These systems are not foolproof. A normally constituted child nowadays will look for and find how to circumvent these controls via tutorials, "tempers Thomas Rohmer.

A last piece of advice for parents, but also for children. The national 3018 number allows you to make a free, anonymous and confidential call to discuss the matter with an advisor. The number is open 7 days a week, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.