Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, who carried out the research, said the findings were “deeply concerning”.
One in 10 children have watched pornography by the time they are nine years old, according to a new report.
A quarter of 16-21-year-olds first saw sexual adult content on the web while still at primary school, research by the children’s commissioner for England has found.
By the age of 13, half of youngsters had been exposed to it.
Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said the findings were “deeply concerning”. The research linked the exposure to porn with low self-esteem among young people and harmful views of sex and relationships.
In a survey of more than 1,000 16-21-year-olds, 38 per cent had found explicit content by accidental.
It also discovered a worrying amount of content involves violence.
Four out of five (79 per cent) of youngsters have seen pornography involving violence by the age of 18, while one in three of those questioned have actively sought out content of a sexually violent nature such as physical aggression, coercion and degradation.
Nearly half of the survey participants assumed girls either “expect” or “enjoy” sex which involves physical aggression, such as airway restriction.
De Souza wrote in the foreword to her report: “Throughout my career as school-leader I have witnessed the harmful impact of pornography on young people. I will never forget the girl who told me about her first kiss with her boyfriend, aged 12, who strangled her. He had seen it in pornography and thought it normal,” she wrote in the foreword to her report.
“We urgently need to do more to protect children from the harms of online pornography. It should not be the case that young children are stumbling across violent and misogynistic pornography on social media sites. I truly believe we will look back in 20 years and be horrified by the content to which children were being exposed.”
The commissioner said it was “crucial” not to miss the opportunity offered by the Online Safety Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, calling for it be finalised urgently.
