Children call charity’s helpline over online porn

An increasing number of children across Scotland are contacting a charity helpline over worries after seeing online porn.

NSPCC-RUN helpline Childline’s bases in Glasgow and Aberdeen took 248 calls from young people on the issue in the past two years – 119 in 2014/15 and 129 in 2015/16.

Across the UK the number of calls by children worried by online porn has increased by 60 per cent in the same two-year period, from 529 to 844.

More than half of the callers in 2015/16 were aged 12-15 but 10 per cent were 11 or younger.

Many of those who contacted the free 24-hour helpline said they felt “ashamed”, “guilty” and “addicted” after viewing porn online and some were being pressured into watching it by other young people.

The charity is calling for tougher laws to ensure porn websites strictly enforce age verification policies to protect children.

The NSPCC believes current proposals contained in the UK Parliament’s Digital Economy Bill for commercial porn websites to require age verification do not go far enough, and is concerned that fines will be shrugged off by companies who breach the legislation.