Culture, Media and Sport CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Ann Farmer

I would like the Committee to take into account the dangers of online pornography to children and young people, especially in negatively affecting them mentally and emotionally.

My research into eugenics and population has found a significant overlap between these movements and the campaign for “value-free” sex education; both movements have historical links with the pornography industry.

The aim of the pornography industry is to maximise profits by turning people into sex addicts, searching for sexual material on a regular basis, often of an increasingly extreme nature. Eventually they may seek more extreme “thrills” by acting out what they have seen online: two recent cases of rape and murder of young girls, April Jones and Tia Sharpe, have featured the use of pornography by men unknown to police.

There is also evidence that young boys are themselves becoming child molestors, acting out the pornographic scenarios they have seen online.

Pornography dehumanises women and children, depicting them as sex toys to be used at will, often in a brutal manner; even those women who participate willingly do not remain psychologically unharmed. It also dehumanises the viewers of pornography, reducing them to their sexual appetites, and encouraging them to believe that there is a “right to sex”.

Even without these extreme negative outcomes, we must face the prospect of a society where the younger generations have learned to view other people through the distorted prism of a perverted sexual desire; the history of pornography shows that lust swiftly turns to cruelty, thus we must tackle this problem of easily accessible online pornography if we do not wish society to be composed increasingly of uncaring sociopaths who care chiefly about their own sexual appetites.

September 2013