Daily Mail

Is online porn behind rise in harassment?

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MPs are to investigat­e whether online porn leads to ‘routine’ sexual harassment of women and girls in public places.

Maria Miller, chair of the Commons women and equalities committee, said it was now common for women to be harassed on public transport, in bars and on the street.

She launched an inquiry after a survey showed the number of reported sex offences on trains had doubled in five years.

There were 1,448 offences in 2016/17, up from 650 in 2012/13.

The MPs will consider the effects of easy access to hardcore porn on the internet – which the Mail has campaigned against – and whether it makes boys see girls as sex objects.

Mrs Miller said: ‘We want to find out why it happens, what the Government is doing to root it out, and what more can be done.’ The fresh inquiry follows the committee’s 2016 report which found sexual harassment and assault of girls at school was routine. It concluded that online porn was exacerbati­ng the problem.

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