Will we see a rise in sex crimes in a generation?

This is a topic that i have been thinking about for a while. The internet is amazing, and i can't really remember life before it. It has opened so many doors, for so many people.

But, we all know there is a darker side.

I remember when i was young, the only way you would see any type of porn, was on the top shelves in the news agents, or a porn mag someone chucked away on the street, but that was it really.

Now we are hearing more and more about children getting easy access to porn, any type of porn!. At an age here they are becoming sexually aware. Are we going to see more children growing up looking at the oppersite sex as just sex objects and nothing more, or even worse things?

There was a story about a month ago in the uk about a boy who watched porn round his mates house. Went home and rapped his sister. He said he just wanted to try it.

I just find it worry

reply to post by Jay-morris


Nature will find a way.

I don't think kids will start raping each other just because they saw a porno.

They will question it tho and that might be the best after all.

reply to post by Jay-morris


I'm not sure we will see a rise in sex crimes.

There are millions of people everyday who enjoy watching porn, for various reasons. They don't go out and then commit crimes of a sexual nature.

Think about the last time you watched porn. What your location was, the time of day, were you alone(?), all of those things. Did you feel compelled to then go out and see someone as merely a sexual object to be used for instant gratification, or to "see what it was like"? I don't think so. You aren't in the minortiy, and whilst it is easy to feel you are, thankfully the human race isn't quite as bad as we'd like to think it is.



Porn has been on the internet from almost 'day one'. In that time, millions of children have grown up with access to porn of one degree or another. You've gone from downloading short clips via dial up, to having dedicated websites streaming full-length features - a cursor internet search revals that kind of information.

1993, was twenty one years ago - roughly when the general populace began to have access to the WWW. In twenty-one years the population of the planet has had tens of millions of teens turn into adults - very few of whom have gone out and committed sexual crimes because of porn. I would hazard a guess to say that the number of people who have done this sort of thing, are in the low thousands (if not less). Sexual cimes are serious, they are ever present, but I don't think they are caused solely by porn. There are always a number of factors to take into account. What the perpetrator a victim/witness of historical sexual abuse, were they mentally unstable, have they been subjected to physical abuse or witnessed abuse between their parents, and so on and so forth...


It will be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next twenty five years though.

reply to post by yeahsurexxx


Hi

Im not saying that all kids will be effected by this. But i think we may start seeing a rise in sex crimes because of this. It is really worrying when you think about kids can see any type of porn online. Be it violent porn or whatever. And at that ageyour mind is molded into the person you will become.

reply to post by dampnickers


Difference is, when the internet first came out, alot of children did not have access to computers in there rooms, mobile phones, ipads etc. I remember when i first got the internet. Think i was 22, im 37 now. I paid a bomb for my pc, and a crappy dial up, as there was no super fast broadband at the time.

Yes, we can look at porn when we are adults, but when a child has not come into his own sexually, and has access to all this porn, you have to be worried.

reply to post by Jay-morris


I had a very religious friend whom belonged to a church that anytime a video store opened, and they rented porn, her church picketed that video store until they closed or stopped selling porn.

I asked her this question....

Did you or your church EVER think that perhaps by taking away that video's store ability to rent porn that perhaps you are also taking away a person whom might find porn as a relief of their problem? Now that you have successfully shut that outlet down, what if that person now goes out and rapes someone, because they no longer have access to their relief.

She was stunned when she thought about it in that way!

As far as children having access???? When I was a very young preteen, we found porn magazines along the road. We hid them and checked em out quite often. Not one of us ever raped anyone!

Perhaps the issue is bad parenting and not porn?

seeker1963
reply to post by Jay-morris

 

I had a very religious friend whom belonged to a church that anytime a video store opened, and they rented porn, her church picketed that video store until they closed or stopped selling porn.

I asked her this question....

Did you or your church EVER think that perhaps by taking away that video's store ability to rent porn that perhaps you are also taking away a person whom might find porn as a relief of their problem? Now that you have successfully shut that outlet down, what if that person now goes out and rapes someone, because they no longer have access to their relief.

She was stunned when she thought about it in that way!

As far as children having access???? When I was a very young preteen, we found porn magazines along the road. We hid them and checked em out quite often. Not one of us ever raped anyone!

Perhaps the issue is bad parenting and not porn?

edit on 6-4-2014 by seeker1963 because: (no reason given)

Im not saying everyone. Yes, like you, me and my mates have found porn mags when we were younger. But thats different to a child having easy access to any type of porn you can imagine. Adults looking at porn, no problem what so ever, but a child, thats different.

And yes, you could say bad parents because i believe unless you know 100% that you child is protect from internet porn, they should not have access to the internet in there rooms, but in this day and age, with everything connected online, computer,phone,pad, its hard.

Jay-morris
reply to post by dampnickers

 

Difference is, when the internet first came out, alot of children did not have access to computers in there rooms, mobile phones, ipads etc. I remember when i first got the internet. Think i was 22, im 37 now. I paid a bomb for my pc, and a crappy dial up, as there was no super fast broadband at the time.

Yes, we can look at porn when we are adults, but when a child has not come into his own sexually, and has access to all this porn, you have to be worried.

edit on 6-4-2014 by Jay-morris because: (no reason given)

You are quite right that a lot of children didn't have access to computers in their rooms, and that dial-up was slow. I was a young teenager in 1993, but by the time I was sixteen-years-of-age, not long thereafter, I had a computer, with access to the internet and everything thereon.

Yes, it was dial-up; yes, it was slow. But access to porn was just as easy then, as it is now. I was sixteen years old. I didn't go out and rape the next door neighbour, or my sister, or any other female I know for that matter. The thought of watching porn and then using that as an excuse to comit crim did not enter my head. In fact, the idea of porn was just as interesting as finding the pornographic magazines an older sibling of mine used to hide in his bedroom.

I had friends who would come round and we'd sneak out the house with the magazines and read them and wonder what it was all about - I'm talking about being a young teen again now. None of us ever did anything that would constitute a crime by any sense of the word, certainly not because of a bunch of magazines.

Fast forward to when I got the internet at home - I was everyone's best friend at that point. Few people I knew had the internet, and it really was a phenomenon everyone wanted to be a part of. I would have friends who came to see what a 'chat room' was all about. I had friends who would stay over and we would download porn, because we knew it was risqué but we were curious about what this "porn" thing was all about. Even before the days of google, it wasn't difficult to find what you were looking for on the internet. Certainly I had no trouble finding lots and lots of things to read about, and get into on the web. I used to frequent chatrooms and spend hours chatting to people I would never meet. In fact, one of my best friends, was someone I met in a chat room, and she lived on a different continent at the time!

Porn wasn't as easy to get hold of back in the early 90's but come to the late 90's and it was much much easier. Then you have the 00's there have been forteen years since then, and it has certainly been easy to access for at least the last eight or nine years. I can't say I've noticed an increase in sexual crimes due to porn alone.

This is actually an argument that has been raging a long time. First people argued that selling porn in magazines would lead to collapse of society, and lawlessness. Then it was porn on television. Now it's porn on the internet...

It's a big world, full of lots of people.

But who knows, right?

reply to post by dampnickers


Thanks for the reply. Again, im not saying everyone. But you were sixteen. You hear about children as young as 12 looking at porn. Surely, thats not healthy. And im not just talking about the normal run of the mill porn. Children have access to all types of porn.

I don't know. Maybe im worrying about nothing, but to me, its wrong and can lead to alot of problems. Remember you were sixteen when you watched porn. By that time im guessing you have had some sort of sexual experience, be it by yourself, or someone else.

Children looking at these videos at an age where they have just, or about to feel sexually can cause problems.

reply to post by Jay-morris


I think it all tends upon society itself and whether we really are different from rats. John B. Calhoun ran a little experiment with rats decades ago to see what would happen when a population of rats existed in a confined location where their basic needs of food, bedding, and water were still being met. What happened was really very shocking and not pretty at all. It basically introduced the concept of what is called behavioral sink. Basically, in Calhoun's rat experiments, as the population increased in density, the social interactions between the rats declined precipitously including what was dubbed "sexual perversion" and rape. Humans aren't rats though, are they? Whether social decay and behavioral sink will actually get reflected in human society as our populations increase is questionable and subject to a whole lot of debate:

nihrecord.od.nih.gov...
www.lse.ac.uk...

One thing that is of interest though would be seeing what is happening in some of the most population dense areas such as Japan. The populations within this small island country within its top 15 largest cities is in the millions and, interestingly enough, they have been fretting about some rather odd phenomena in their youth population--over 1/3 of their youth population is eschewing relationships and will not reproduce. A small subset of this population are what are called "Otaku" (as I tick off all the manga fans, lol--I'm a fan of manga, too--don't hurt me! lol). Additionally, there's been an increase in what is called "Hikikomori" or "shut ins" where some youth have shunned interaction in its entirety.

On the declining Japanese birth rate: www.bbc.co.uk...
About the Hikikomori phenomena: www.bbc.com...

As mentioned in the BBC article on the subject of Hikikomori, both Otaku and Hikikomori have had some association of being perpetrators of sex crimes within Japan. The issue with this association is that both Otaku and Hikikomori are already viewed with suspicion because their behaviors are so counter to Japan's overall society. Ergo, the two groups could be, quite simply, societal scapegoats in a very rigid and collective society.
www.cjas.org...

In a way, though, both of these responses do seem similar to Calhoun's rats in some ways in that the social interactions are completely disrupted, regardless of sex crime prevalence. We may not turn into total madness on the streets but, instead, may shut down and withdraw from social interaction and relationships entirely. Put into that perspective and looking at the rest of the world, that might not be so far off. How many times have you seen a table full of people with their noses buried in cell phones?

P.S. An anime from Japan itself called "Sayonora, Zetsubou-Sensei" has its storyline as a teacher whose class is filled with "societal deviants" in all their flavors, including Otaku and a Hikikomori.

reply to post by Jay-morris


if there wasn't a market for porn, it wouldn't exist.

I wish all those that watch it die and rot in hell.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Good post white alice. And i guess you can say the same for videogames (I am a gamer) You hear about these people, who stay locked in their rooms playing online games. I think i few have actually died. But i can def see society going that way, esp with virtual reality that will be hitting our stores very soon.

Also i might add, i read that scientists reckon we are about 25 years away from a form of holodeck. You can just imagine people locking themselves up in that and forgetting the workd around them.

palmalBlue2
reply to post by Jay-morris

 

if there wasn't a market for porn, it wouldn't exist.

I wish all those that watch it die and rot in hell.

edit on 6-4-2014 by palmalBlue2 because: (no reason given)

Its how they can warp childrens minds that worries me. I know you hear about adults addicted to online porn, and how it has ruined their lives, but there are many people out there who watch porn, by themselves and their partners and they love it. There is good and bad with adults watching porn. But children, thats different.

reply to post by Jay-morris

And yes, you could say bad parents because i believe unless you know 100% that you child is protect from internet porn, they should not have access to the internet in there rooms, but in this day and age, with everything connected online, computer,phone,pad, its hard.

I won't disagree with that statement. However, I am older than 50, I learned about the pleasures of the opposite sex from the older kids that rode on my bus!

Sexuality is a part of being human is it not! I think the problem lies with those on the religious right whom have pretty much proven the meaning of hypocrisy over and over again that to deny a human beings instinct that we are born with is also a big part of the problem!

Pushing blame on someone else for actions that you or someone else may take is pretty much why the world is so F''d up don't ya think? Using porn as an excuse for someone raping someone else is about as ridiculous as saying that eliminating guns will stop people from killing each other!

Why do women do porn? OR men for that matter? One of two reasons, the money OR they like it! Well, let me add one more, they are forced into it......

Sex is a natural urge, nothing more and nothing less. Imagine if the government created ridiculous laws against having sex as they have done against drugs? OH WAIT!!! They already have!

Jay-morris
reply to post by WhiteAlice

 

Good post white alice. And i guess you can say the same for videogames (I am a gamer) You hear about these people, who stay locked in their rooms playing online games. I think i few have actually died. But i can def see society going that way, esp with virtual reality that will be hitting our stores very soon.

Also i might add, i read that scientists reckon we are about 25 years away from a form of holodeck. You can just imagine people locking themselves up in that and forgetting the workd around them.

I'm a gamer as well so know exactly what you're talking about in terms of highlighting video games in association with violent offenders. Sure, it's going to possibly appeal to those with a propensity towards violence but one also can't apply that to the whole. Statistically speaking, those engaging in violent assaults upon society would represented by a very, very small percentage of the total gamer population. Same with Otaku. Not every Otaku is a pedophile but, because it does have rather childlike female characters, it could appeal to those who are and still be just a very small percentage of the overall population of Otaku.

The development of VR is a really interesting thing to me. Some of Calhoun's rats, through ingenuity, did come up with ideas to shelter themselves from the rest of their society and that's one of the biggest arguments about whether we have a rodent-like fate. We can actually adapt our environment in such a way to minimize the effects of population density and some of these ideas have already been implemented in a variety of ways (I think one of the articles referenced influences in architecture). Something like VR or holodecks could actually further reduce down the stress impacts of increased population density through the creation of quiet spaces and less dense virtual worlds. As things get more and more automated, imagine living in a world where going to work meant putting on a headset and entering a virtual office. Once we start looking at those possibilities, however, one has to wonder how long it'll be until we become The Matrix, lol, where we're born, live and die in a virtual world without realizing that it isn't real. I think that we're a long way off from that though, lol. I also doubt we'd even actually get to that point as the one thing that is playing out in many areas around the globe are declining reproduction rates.

I think porn skews a person's idea of what a healthy sexual relationship is. Look at Japan. They can barely stand to be in bed with each other now. People begin to prefer to idealized world of porn or fantasy sex to reality and they can't relate to each other in intimacy.

ketsuko
I think porn skews a person's idea of what a healthy sexual relationship is. Look at Japan. They can barely stand to be in bed with each other now. People begin to prefer to idealized world of porn or fantasy sex to reality and they can't relate to each other in intimacy.

What exactly is your definition of a "healthy sexual relationship"?

Being that I asked you the question, I will give you my definition of a "healthy sexual relationship". It would define two adults whom consent to making each other feel good! It doesn't require the approval of the church OR the government. It isn't anyone else's business!

Pretty easy for those of us whom believe in freedom!

As far as I can see, those whom do the most to oppress a natural human instinct are usually the ones that get caught in the so called perversions they preach against! Not to mention that IMO, those whom usually advocate against sexuality seem to be the most guilty of the so called "perversions" they so adamantly speak out against!

How many preachers, how many priests have been brought down by a natural human urge? And let me clarify the priest! The Catholic church knows damn well that by suppressing a natural human urge that perversions WILL occur! As much as I hate anyone whom sexually molests a child, I put the blame on the Catholic church for denying them and inborn instinct.

reply to post by Jay-morris


No need to thank me. It's one of the things I love about coming to ATS, you can have a frank discussion with people of differing opinions and it doesn't descend into chaos and personal insults.

You could be absolutely right about the fact that young children having access to pornographic material is a bad thing. However, I am not so sure that we should leap to that conclusion. Rather, I would feel more comfortable suggesting and aligning with the thought that perhaps giving children access to more information would be a good thing. Certainly limiting access to pornography via some means could be a good thing - however, having the Governments of the world do it, would be a very bad thing indeed.

I certainly don't have all the answers, but I do feel that our education system could use a bit of a shake up, and in that sense we would be wise to ensure that children are taught to think, rather than to simply repeat what they see in a classroom, or anywhere else... Thinking seems to be something that has been removed from daily life, and perhaps if this child had the ability to think and 'connect dots' perhaps the outcome would have been different.

reply to post by seeker1963


A healthy sexual relationship is one where the two people in question are real people and a realistic idea of what sex actually is. It isn't what you see on porn.

The sex acts you see in porn are idealized in some way. Either the people are idealized physically or the outcome is idealized or both and that's without getting into the realm of fetish porn.

I understand you know I'm Christian, but I wasn't injecting faith into this at all.

It's true that the Japanese can barely relate to each other intimately anymore. They'd rather not bother. Part of that is the porn - it's just so much better than the reality.

ketsuko
reply to post by seeker1963

 

A healthy sexual relationship is one where the two people in question are real people and a realistic idea of what sex actually is. It isn't what you see on porn.

The sex acts you see in porn are idealized in some way. Either the people are idealized physically or the outcome is idealized or both and that's without getting into the realm of fetish porn.

I understand you know I'm Christian, but I wasn't injecting faith into this at all.

It's true that the Japanese can barely relate to each other intimately anymore. They'd rather not bother. Part of that is the porn - it's just so much better than the reality.

Again, what is "Realistic"?

My second wife was bi sexual! Is that realistic that she liked to be with both men AND women? Perhaps she like being spanked! Is that realistic? I could go on and on and on and on!

FREEDOM!!!!! Oh how the word has become such a perversion! I could care less what your religious beliefs are. What concerns me is when people use "their" religion to deny "FREEDOM" to those whom believe differently!

What makes me sad, is that I actually do know the meaning of freedom, and YES, I even stick up for your religious beliefs even though I don't necessarily agree with them........That's how much freedom means to me.....