Online poison, parental duty

The internet feeds children dangerous content daily. Parents must step up to protect innocence before it’s too late.


When children misbehave in a despicable manner, it is correctly believed they must have been influenced by similar behaviour they had witnessed.

This is because, even at a young age, all children are essentially innocent… at least in the sense they are not born evil.

They are that way because their minds have not developed to the extent they can effectively distinguish between right and wrong.

In the past, young people who were accused of abusing others were often found either to have been victims of similar abuse themselves, or to have witnessed something they could not fully process.

Today, worryingly, our youngsters are being exposed to the most vile, explicit and pornographic content on the internet.

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And, as well we all know, the World Wide Web (good and bad) is as close as a cellphone.

Our story today of an 11-year-old boy sexually abusing a four-year-old boy, say experts, is proof of the malign influence of online explicit content.

Not only did the assault take place, but it was captured on video by other children, who are heard laughing.

Parents cannot turn their backs and, though their offspring might resent it, they must be aware of and control what shows on their screens.

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