An 11-year-old allegedly molested a four-year-old. Experts say porn’s early influence fuels child-on-child abuse.
Explicit content, easily accessible on the internet, is having a serious negative impact on children who are particularly vulnerable, because their minds are still developing, says an expert.
Dr Rudzani Mhlari, a psychology lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Mpumalanga, said overexposure to explicit content could be one of the reasons for an 11-year-old boy recently molesting a four-yearold boy.
Mhlari said the effects of viewing explicit content were insidious because young children lacked the autonomy to choose right or wrong.
11-year-old molested a younger child in Limpopo
A mother from Tzaneen alleged that her son was molested and forced to perform oral sex by the 11-year-old boy whose friends filmed the act with their cellphones.
Speaking to The Citizen, the mother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, said: “Initially the police refused to open a case without giving proper reasons. But after the media started to contact them, yesterday the detectives came to interview me and the child.
ALSO READ: Why do courts need to protect children?
“I just received a call from the health department saying that social workers will come and offer counselling to all the affected children.”
The Citizen has seen the video in which the voices of other children could be heard in the background, laughing and encouraging the child to continue.
Shaheda Omar, a clinical psychologist at the Teddy Bear Foundation, said children who initiate sexual abuse of other children and the ones who are the recipients of the abuse were both victims.
Porn’s early influence fuels child-on-child abuse.
“The one initiating it is the victimiser. However, we have to understand that a young child cannot just conduct such age-inappropriate behaviour without a history of victimisation or having witnessed it, or been exposed to this kind of conduct.”
She said the initiator of sexual abuse needs to be thoroughly assessed to determine if the child has criminal capacity – the ability and maturity to distinguish between right and wrong.
Mhlari said: “Exposure to inappropriate content can prompt them to engage in risky behaviours that are harmful to them, their peers and younger ones.
“It is very important, therefore, that parents be on high alert to monitor and somehow control what children see.”
Robyn Wolfson Vorster, a child protection activist, said these kinds of stories mirror what the children were seeing across schools and communities where children under the age of criminal capacity (defined as 12 in South African law) are exhibiting harmful sexual behaviours.
Harmful sexual behaviours
“In the past, we would have been looking for signs of sexual abuse to explain the behaviour. It can be a factor, but many children are responding not to what they have experienced, but to what they have seen either in real life or online,” Vorster said.
“While we do not know why these particular children acted as they did, pornography is now a major contributing factor in the early sexualisation of children. Research shows that in South Africa, the average age of first exposure to pornography is 10.
ALSO READ: Communications department welcomes ruling on Meta’s WhatsApp and Instagram
“Research has shown that the younger the child when they watch pornography, the less they are able to process what they are seeing. Many young children feel compelled to either watch with other children or act out what they have seen with other children.”
Vorster said the children needed psychological support.
Children need psychological support
Although they are under the age of criminal capacity, the Children’s Act states that all sexual offences against children need to be reported to the department of social development or a designated child protection organisation.
Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba said he would check with the police station and revert, but had not responded by the time of going to press.
