Court warns parents of dangers of internet pornography

[twinkles**stars]

The Children's Court in Canberra has warned parents of the dangers of the internet, after a 12-year-old boy downloaded pornography, showed it to his young cousins and had them re-enact segments.

The boy's actions, involving three girls aged between seven and 10, left his family "torn apart", a magistrate said.

The boy, now aged 14, was charged with multiple counts of indecent assault and one of sexual intercourse with a minor.

Magistrate Karen Fryar labelled it a tragedy of mammoth proportions.

"It is not putting it too dramatically, in my view, to say that as a result of these offences the fabric of the entire extended family has been torn apart," she said.

"As is often the case with offences of this nature, the shockwaves reach much further than those immediately involved."

Magistrate Fryar told the court the actions of the young boy went beyond those of youthful curiosity.

"The offences seem to have been fuelled by the young person's access to pornography over the internet," she said.

"In this technological age, the dangers of such influences on our children are ever present and require parents to be vigilant about what their children are accessing online.

"Somehow that did not seem to happen here."

'The trauma of these events will pass'

In their victim impact statements, the parents of the three girls wrote that they wanted their nephew to face justice.

"I must note that nothing the court does, nor any penalty it imposes, will undo what has already been done," Magistrate Fryar said.

But she said the fact that the boy had pleaded guilty and was making himself accountable for the crimes was a positive sign.

Magistrate Fryar said it was a case that had weighed heavily on her mind.

"That a boy who has barely reached puberty at the time of the offences should now face consequences that may last well into his adulthood is significant," she said.

She recorded a conviction for each charge and sentenced him to a good behaviour order for two years.

"Believe it or not, the trauma of these events will pass, but your children will continue to rely on you for years to come," Magistrate Fryar said to the parents of the victims and the young boy.

"Their best interests must be your primary focus."

[monman12]

I agree with you PSA, there are many ways to access "adult" material, and sadly,  parents in many cases are lacking in computer knowledge. That aside, morality and behaviour education are the responsibility of the parents who sadly are often lacking in approriate skills/education, or are embarrassed with matters concerning sexuality.

I think it a tragedy for the children that the matter proceeded to the point it has, and would point out that between the ages of 10 - 14 there is a presumption (doli incapax) that a child is "incapable of crime" under legislation or common law (all States). Or rather, the presumption that a child cannot form mens rea as they do not yet have a sufficient understanding between "right and wrong". In the context of Australian law, doli incapax acts as a rebuttable presumption for children aged at least 10 but less than 14."

Some adult lessons for the parents would now be in order.

nɥºɾ

[punch*drunk]

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@kennedia_nigricans wrote:

Can you give me an example what a child could type on the internet, doing homework that would get you on porn pages?

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A friend of mine was googling plants for her garden while our daughters were in the office with her. I cant remember what the plant was that she put in, maybe Sweet William, but the preview showed garden related stuff. When she clicked on it, it went to a photo of a stark naked, fully erect, rather well endowed man. Admittedly not quite porn, but not want you want to stumble across with a couple of 8yo girls standing next to you. She saved the search so she could show me how innocently she got to that place.

I nearly downloaded porn once, it came up as shrek, but halfway through the download when I hovered my cursor over it, it turned out to be a very different kind of movie involving a donkey. I've never downloaded movies since

Having said all that, we dont have filters on our internet, but all computers are in areas of the house where they can be seen and 9 times out of 10, the kids will choose to sit with us when they are on the net. The wireless internet doesnt reach into their bedrooms.

[polksaladallie]

I can google soft porn, but my antivirus system wouldn't let me go to some sites even if I wanted to. 

That is another problem with those sites, they attract viruses.

[i-need-a-martini]

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@kennedia_nigricans wrote:

I don't have a filter and I never see porn on the net. you have to actively google for it, it doesn't just pop up on the screen unwanted.

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The difference is in what you do on the net and what kids do on the net are like chalk and cheese.

I ony use the internet for work, ebay, FB, gardening sites etc - the kind of innocuous stuff a 47 year old would be interested in.

My 14 year old son is downloading music and movies, surfing the net for skateboard paraphenalia, celebrity info, teenage attracting blogs etc. If I look across at his computer screen, I can almost 100% guarantee that I will see soft porn images and advertising on the screen. It always shocks me but he doesn't even seem to notice as he is so used to it. Hard core porn is just a click away.

There is no way of filtering it. There is no way of banning it. The best I can do is communicate with my son about the implications of what he sees on the screen.

The days of setting screens and filters for any computer savvy child over 10 is a waste of time. 

Even schools are giving up. Our school has some basic filters (which most of the kids can easily get around) but they now employ an extensive IT department that monitors all searches done by the kids. So they know what the kids are looking at and the kids know their search history and paths are being monitored.

[cherry*135]

When my kids were that age (about 10 yrs ago) we only had 1 desktop computer in the living area, where the screen was visible to anyone walking past at anytime.

They got internet access on laptops, which they could use in their bedrooms, when they were over 18.

It is different now, as the internet can be accessed from many types of small portable devices -  i-pods,  mini i-pads, smart phones etc.

[twinkles**stars]

We have a friend, ex school teacher, who lost his job after accidentally coming across a porn site on the school computer. Students in the room saw this for a split second, reported him and that was that. Year 11 students 😞 He gave up the challenge to prove his innocence due to his MS.

So the schools filters were pretty useless when searching for history realated subjects.

[bryony_girl_baby]

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@kennedia_nigricans wrote:

Can you give me an example what a child could type on the internet, doing homework that would get you on porn pages?

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Get you on porn pages maybe not? But get porn popping up in an image search? Very easy. Pornography featuring popular children's cartoons is very big on the internets. So even a totally innocent image search of their favourite tv shows can be problematic. Can pretty much guarantee that any kid's cartoon you can think of will have pornography associated with it. Many of the shows featuring real people too.