The analysis of transcripts of interviews, with both children who were victims of abuse and those accused of carrying out harm, reveals at least one reference to an act of sexual violence such as coercion, humiliation and physical aggression in 50 per cent of 379 testimonies.
The most common act reported was the use of derogatory names.
Some 35 per cent of transcripts included a reference to an act of physical aggression, such as slapping, strangulation or punching.
A manual review of 32 transcripts also found instances of both police and children drawing direct links between the incident of abuse and the abuser’s exposure to pornography, with two children who were harmed stating they had been treated “like a porn star”.
The report, which also analyses data from a Sexual Abuse Referral Clinic, found that children who had harmed acknowledged that their exposure to pornography was excessive or unhealthy, citing previous research from the children’s commissioner’s office which found that on average children are first exposed to pornography at age 13.
Children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, said: “For too long we have brushed the issue of pornography under the carpet as awkward, uncomfortable, or too difficult to solve – but we cannot shy away from discussing the nature, scale and impacts of online pornography."
She added that the testimonies of children and young people makes for a “stronger case than ever for bringing in the most robust protections for children online”.
“No child should be able to access or watch pornography. Passing the Online Safety Bill must be a priority if we are to protect children quickly and effectively - but it is also just one part of the essential and urgent work of protecting children from sexual abuse,” she said.
This report comes as the Online Safety Bill, which sets out a new regulatory framework for internet services to ensure platforms have processes in place to deal with the risks caused by illegal and harmful content, has returned to the House of Lords for amendments relating to children’s exposure to pornography.
The children’s commissioner’s report sets out a number of recommendations to tackle the risks of children’s exposure to pornography, including that the Online Safety Bill must be passed with urgent priority and should make it compulsory for all sites to remove illegal content, including child sexual abuse material.
It also recommends that the Bill ensures that platforms hosting pornography should have robust age verification in place, and that requirements to protect children from online pornography are consistent across all types of regulated services.
