Toon porn traps naive tweens

There was a time when parents worried about the effects of violent video games on their kids. But now, friendly Mickey, silly Tom and Jerry and hilarious Popeye could warrant a warning label. The growing popularity of ‘toon porn’ (animated porn featuring Disney and other children’s cartoon characters) could turn an innocent Google search into an undesirable situation for parents and kids, with 37,80,000 toon porn links being thrown up at the click of a mouse.
Because of the deliberately misleading labelling, ‘safe search’ is sometimes rendered ineffective and net-savvy kids, looking online for links to their favourite characters run the risk of being exposed to toon porn websites and images. Once ingenuous curiosity kicks in, download buttons are hit and children as young as nine become consumers of this very adult content. Experts confirm this could lead to not just warped notions about sex, but also behavioural problems.
Ranjana Haladkar, director, Roshni, confirms the alarming trend, “We often receive calls from children in their early teens, who have trouble concentrating on their academics. The reason they confess is because their thoughts are constantly on issues related to sex. These kids are usually exposed to porn.”
In one such recent case, a doctor couple in the city was shocked to discover that their 11-year-old son was visiting adult websites in their absence. The youngster (who had a room to himself after his brother moved out), would surf porn websites late into the night and acquired nearly 8GB of pornographic downloads. His addiction came to light when the once academically brilliant and outgoing boy began failing his subjects and preferred staying indoors all the time. Things came to such a head that he threatened to commit suicide when his parents terminated the Internet connection. It took several counselling sessions to help him get rid of his obsession with porn.
Children using the internet unsupervised find it easy to access adult websites. “We were shocked when we discovered our 10-year-old neighbour was addicted to porn. What started off with toon porn graduated to adult content as his college-going brother would surf these sites, which the boy easily accessed,” says Sandeep Rai, a parent.
Dr Phani Prashant, psychiatrist, Care Hospital warns that early exposure to porn often results in the premature onset of puberty and with behavioural problems like a heightened curiosity about the sex organs, concentration problems and even violent streaks. Psychiatrist, Dr Minhaz Nasirabadi explains the deep psychological impact on children, “Porn films and websites are crude in content and kids could display a violent streak as a result. long-term problems include warped notions of sex, unusual expectations from partners.