Deep Dive Podcast: Battling against easy access to sexual content on social media

X, formerly Twitter, recently announced its official policy to allow consensual production and distribution of adult content. While the company says there are safeguards for those under 18, what impact does access to pornography online have on young people and whose job is it to deal with the consequences?

Steven Chia and Crispina Robert get the facts from Tham Yuen Han, addictions specialist and executive director of WE CARE Community Services and Dr Shobha Avadhani, senior lecturer at the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore.

Jump to these key moments:

• 3:17 Teens accessing sexual content via social media platforms
• 7:37 When parents don’t know what kids are watching
• 11:23 If parents can’t communicate, do schools step in? 
• 15:26 Taking the shame out of discussions

Here's an excerpt from the podcast:

Tham Yuen Han:

I've been working with people with compulsive sexual behavior for many years, and one thing we always want to point out is not every person who is addicted to pornography is a sex offender. They are not the same. But how do (offenders) chance upon that particular habit? Very often it starts from a young age, an introduction to particular sexual violence content in the early days when they chance upon pornography.

This is what we mean when we say the risk for young people being exposed to highly stimulating content at a very young age is that ... if they are aroused with a certain type of content, the formation of the arousal template is shaped at a very early age.

Steven Chia:

Does it lead to more devastating consequences in the long term?

Yuen Han:

This is why we talk about early education on what is right and what is wrong. Having the education on values is very important, because if they have a compass, and they know that, "Hey, this is wrong", they are able to pull themselves back. But if they never had the conversation, and basically, all they are seeking is sexual stimulation and you have a child in a highly stressful in an environment where there's not a lot of communication going on with the parents or with any safe adults - this becomes their way of relieving stress. 

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