‘Parents must act’ on online sexual violence
Teenagers online are being bombarded with disturbing sexual violence, with a risk that they could become desensitised by it.
Chief Censor David Shanks said that material was helping to form young people’s views and attitudes of sexual violence. It wasn’t an epidemic yet, but rather a perfect time to start a conversation.
‘‘I think we are at a point where the problem is really quite acute, it’s prevalent, it’s normal - this was really quite across the board,’’ Shanks said.
The findings were released by Office of Film and Literature Classification, in the report Young New Zealanders Viewing Sexual Violence.
Shanks said young people were viewing a variety of content, including serious and graphic material, across a huge variety of platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and pornography sites.
‘‘What they were telling us was often they would see things or come across content almost inadvertently and they really wish they hadn’t,’’ Shanks said.
Classification Office representatives interviewed 48 teens aged 13 to 18 from all over New Zealand about their reactions to portrayals of sexual violence and also healthy relationships in the media.
While there was a strong reaction from some viewers about the content, it was clear the content had begun to shape some attitudes towards rape, and around the topic of women’s sexual rights.
‘‘What potentially showed longlasting effects in terms of their attitudes was some of the ‘surrounding conversation’, for example, ‘the girl had kind of led him on and at that point it was going to be really hard for her to say no’.’’
Some impacts of long exposure to sexual violence included a reduction in empathy, blunting of attitudes and a lack of appreciating other people’s perspectives in relationships.
‘‘Some of the more bracing aspects of this report was that they are so alone in this, they’re not really talking about it, they seem to be seldom talking to each other about it and they are certainly not talking to adults about it and certainly not their parents,’’ he said.
Shanks would like sex education programmes in school to be directed at sexual violence portrayed in the media, and also to see a more active role from parents - such as watching TV shows with their children either together or on different devices.
‘‘I think what this research shows is that they are up for a more engaged adult conversations about these things if they have the chance.’’