Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit

Addiction to sexual explicit content is rampant in contemporary times. Don’t we think that parents should have more quality conversation with their children instead of keeping it bottled up? If they open up, then children feel easy to communicate with them without a fear of being judged. More and more disturbed parents and spouses have been seeking help, and there is even a growing concern in schools. It hurts a child’s spirit and infects the mind with unclean thoughts.
Consumption to sexually explicit is not something that can easily be stopped so easily. Once the appetite for it has developed, it actually increases. Recently the Central Bureau of Investigation has smashed an international-level racket, involving children, being run for the past two years through a WhatsApp group that had 119 members from 18 countries.
The depiction of sexually explicit content has existed for centuries and there has been a debate about whether it is socially or morally acceptable but as it involves adults, there is no law that is broken. But when children are involved in sexual exploitation, it is and has been rightly regarded to be a heinous crime in multiple nations. Adolescence goes downhill when there are too many restrictions. When obscenity becomes a commodity, it threatens to corrode the very bedrock of ethics on which a healthy society is founded. In such cases, sex education should be made compulsory for students before they reach puberty so that they understand sex and its functionality. Many schools focus exclusively on academics, paying little attention to effective counseling of adolescents. There has to be a policy to reduce the focus in the area of sex in general if our women and children are to be protected globally. At an individual level, addiction to such content, mostly ‘cyber addiction’ is one of the most notorious problems associated with its use today. The content involving children is a real and pressing problem that exists on local, national and international levels. Child Protection Act, 2012 provides protection to children from sexual assault, harassment and exposure to obscene content. In this Act, Section 13 makes use of children for purposes of sex a criminal offence that can lead to being jailed for up to five years. The world of internet and social media appeals to the child a lot and because of this young mind does not give a second thought to the dark side of that world. With the internet making its way into phones, people now don’t even care about who is sitting next to them. The government has already told the Supreme Court that there cannot be a complete ban on content available on the internet in the country and legal actions are also not possible in a large number of cases.
The only way out is for parents to spend their free time interacting with their children instead of watching boring television soaps. The influence of cinema and television on our impressionable youth cannot be underestimated. There are so many other movies that have explicit scenes. At times, there are even advertisements for safe sex or use of condoms which depict young girls and boys. We all know of scientifically proven bad effects of such explicit films. They tear families apart, objectify women and pollute children’s mind. Today the children addicted to such content bring about various changes in values, attitudes, development and also gives rise to unwanted health issues. There are children who take money from their parents saying that they need to download some study material from the Internet to complete their homework, but instead spend them watching sexually explicit clippings at the cafes. It is a part of socialization that seems to be a difficult proposition to accept as it is a by-product of child sexual abuse. It has become very important that people talk about explicit content involving children so as to raise awareness of the implications of such crimes in our society. Peer pressure is also a cause of the growing menace. It is high time that such a practice is dealt with separately and sternly.
Children being weak, gentle and meek should be protected from the world of criminals, shady people, negative people and so on. These vulnerable kids fall prey to the predators of child abuse, child trafficking, child etc. Sex Education today is both timely and apt as the importance of sex education cannot be overemphasized. Unfortunately, we do not take sex education seriously because there exists a huge communication gap between the political leadership and the scientific community. Schools are ideal places where students can get answers to basic questions on sex. With teenage pregnancies and abortions on the rise, and an increase in the number of those affected by AIDS, sex education for children is a must. Because of the conservative culture that exists in our society, children find it difficult to discuss sex with their parents or teachers. Due to lack of information and the cultural barrier, many of them become easy prey of pedophiles. It is necessary to prevent children from learning from bad peers and obscene books about sex. A holistic approach should be adapted to sex education by making available standard textbooks on the Internet for the middleclass children also. Banning sexual explicit content is not a solution. Sex education would help students develop personal values and understand interpersonal relationships as they explore their own sexuality. When sexual abuse comes from all quarter’s viz. relatives, colleagues and strangers, it is mandatory to teach the children how to overcome and protect themselves from such contingencies than about sex.
There is also an urgent need to keep the young informed of the measures to protect themselves against sexual exploitation. Effective counseling as an inclusive aspect in schools will lead to the overall wellbeing and healthy development of the child. Participatory sex education will provide the impetus for discussion and discourage prejudices. Academicians and policymakers should evolve a syllabus that is relevant to the changing times. The hesitation to discuss sex in open classrooms can be overcome if women teachers teach girls and male teachers educate boys. Other schools in the city should make sex education part of the curriculum to avoid such misinformation and restrict child abuse. There must be a check on their activities by the parents while using the internet. They must also be made aware of the pros and cons of the high tech modern world and social media. It is important to develop an understanding of the problem so that laws are made and implemented to curb such content involving children and the rights given to children are actually practiced. The Indian cyber law needs to be amended and made more effective to curb access, use, transmission and publishing of sexual explicit content. Also, cyber education and etiquette need to be inculcated in school curriculum to sensitize children about the huge explicit content available and how they should protect themselves from it. People should be educated to note the behavioural changes of the children and find out the reasons for abuses to save the child from trauma which may be prolonged. Sex education as a part of curriculum will create awareness and a healthier India.

– The author can be reached at dixitpatrakar@yahoo.in