Today's pornography has become more "aggressive and coercive," urging children who have access to porn websites to commit sexual crimes against each other, Mary Sharpe, a researcher in the field of family relations and sex, said.
"We've seen a massive rise in child-on-child sexual abuse in the past 10 years as more and more kids are accessing this material," the analyst noted.
Due to their young age, they don't understand that what they view on the internet is "commercial sex" and consider it normal sexual practice, the researcher explained.
According to Sharpe, watching pornography "is like a drug, an addiction that affects the brain."
"Some experts call it electronic cocaine. With normal drugs, you need more and more of the same to get back hit. With pornography, you need new, indecent and more shocking to get back hit. And of course, internet pornography provides that," she said.
In particular, openly talking to kids about sex would be very helpful, she said.
"The children who are perpetrating these crimes are themselves victims. The treatment has to be educational. Putting them in prison is not the answer. Kids need to be learning about the changed environment and how it is impacting on their behaviors," Sharpe said.
According to Sharpe, "shaming kids" about the use of pornography and punishing them for that only creates a vicious circle. This would make kids feel bad but they still will continue "looking at more stuff," she said.
Experts and charities have blamed the availability of online pornography for the damaging effect on children. Nearly 75 percent of the reported child sex cases have resulted in no further action.
