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Children have besides easy access to pornography and patostreaming.
The Ombudsman for the Rights of the kid calls for stricter law
14 February 2025
97% of young people see harmful events online. They consider it the most harmful to hate, shake and print someone's image without his consent – according to a PBS survey commissioned by the Ombudsman of Children's Rights. The writer, Monika Horna-Cieślak, calls for changes in the law that will increase the protection of the youngest. This includes the introduction of a ban on the publication of content on the network by certain individuals and tools for effective age verification that will hinder access to harmful content.
– erstwhile we look at feedback from children, they inform us that there is hate, hate, patostreaming, erotic content that they should never have contact with. So on the 1 hand, we know all the time that the net is simply a place where young people get cognition and establish contacts, but on the another hand, young people themselves say that they are sometimes afraid of the net due to the fact that there are various kinds of threats – says Newseria Monika Horna-Cieślak.
The PSB survey conducted on students aged 12-17 shows that only 1% of teenagers do not see any threats in the online world. The remaining group of respondents indicate a number of harmful phenomena. The 3 most dangerous in their opinion are hatred (84%), stalking (77%) and publishing someone's image without his consent (74%). Girls (85%) than boys (77%) and students of secondary schools (86%) than simple schools (75%) are more likely to receive worrying materials. Girls besides more frequently than boys indicate hatred (90 percent vs. 78 percent) and the creation and processing of photos by AI (55 percent vs. 48 percent) as dangerous phenomena. The boys, in turn, find it more disturbing to break into profiles (73 percent vs. 64 percent) and scams (71 percent vs. 62 percent).
– Over the last year, we have dealt with quite a few individual cases in which young people or their parents or legal representatives have told us that children have experienced sexual abuse, unwanted sexual contacts, hatred, peer force on the Internet. The young people themselves or in cooperation with their parents have besides signaled to us that there are content on the net that should not be public,” says the Spokeswoman of Children's Rights.
The NASK study "Teen 3.0" of 2023 shows that all 4th young individual watches the alleged patostreams – live coverage, tiktoki, photos with social harmful content, illegal, frequently with elements of pornography. 16 percent of respondents could not clearly find whether the content they watched could be qualified for this category.
Every 3rd teenager claims that he has been given a bare or half-naked photograph via the net (sexting). Over 2 thirds of youth (68.4%) believe that hatred speech is simply a problem in the network. all 3rd individual examined was challenged, and nearly all 4th individual was ridiculed and humiliated. There is simply a increasing feeling among teenagers that those who offend online are unpunished (2022 – 51.3 percent vs. 2018 – 36%).
As the Spokeswoman of the Rights of the kid has repeatedly stressed, many service providers do not take appropriate action to counter illegal content online, leaving parents and children virtually helpless.
– Even if we have a situation that for any time platforms decide not to print the incorrect content, after a while it returns again, only with another incorrect content. For example, she published content regarding sexual abuse or hatred of a social group, these content and account are removed, and then this individual returns with his image as patostreaming, but already begins to apply, for example, force against animals. Therefore, I believe that there should be a ban on online publication for certain people,” says Monika Horna-Cieślak.
As he emphasizes, children and young people in Poland have besides easy access to content that is widely considered harmful, so it is essential to seal the regulations. In November, the spokeswoman called on the Minister of Finance to take urgent action, which would prevent children from utilizing services offering alleged rinds for a fee to popular gaming networks. Although theoretically only for adults, young people can easy make an account there. The only barrier to entry is the declaration of adulthood, without actual verification of age.
It may besides be besides easy to access pornography on the Internet, as 73% of children and 71% of young people indicate erstwhile it comes to online content availability. The average age in which children first saw pornographic content is little than 11 years. According to the diagnosis contained in the paper "Negative consequences of utilizing pornography", the massiveness of the phenomenon has long grown to specified an degree that pornography should be considered a serious public wellness problem. The Ministry of Digital Affairs has prepared a bill to defend minors from access to harmful content on the Internet. According to the assumptions, it is mandatory to verify the age that prevents teenagers from accessing specified sites.
– If we are talking about prohibiting access to certain content, we are primarily talking about sexual, erotic content. Minors now have access to specified content on the Internet, and we request legal changes that will make the boundaries clear first, but they will besides make it clear that minors do not have access to specified content, and in order for them not to have access, this must simply be age verification," the Child's Spokeswoman emphasises. – This can be done, but we besides know that it is simply very necessary, that without clear boundaries, without certain solutions, nothing will change. I trust that this task is about to be a bill that will be adopted above divisions, due to the fact that the safety of children online must always be above divisions.
The bill provides that NASK will keep a registry of domains allowing access to pornographic content without prior age verification. net providers will block websites entered in this porn registry. The government besides imposes fresh obligations on electronic service providers, including primarily on website providers (where they are or possibly may be presenting content harmful to minors). Suppliers will be required to analyse the risks of children gaining access to content under the service.
– We besides keep in contact with the Ministry of athletics in the field of galas, which are inappropriate, in which there is brutality, where cognition of what athletics should look like is not passed on, but around this athletics is besides aggression, curses, and behaviour inappropriate – says Monika Horna-Cieślak.
Children have besides easy access to pornography and patostreaming. The Ombudsman for the Rights of the kid calls for stricter law - National Journal
