Dr. Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
Porn addiction has become alarmingly common today. Parents must move beyond silence and initiate open, non-judgmental conversations with their children. When children feel heard instead of judged, they are more likely to share their struggles. Disturbed parents and spouses are increasingly seeking professional help, and schools too are reporting growing concern. Unchecked exposure harms a child’s emotional well-being and fills young minds with distorted ideas about intimacy and relationships.
This is not an easy habit to break. Once the appetite for pornography develops, it tends to escalate rather than fade. The Central Bureau of Investigation recently dismantled an international child pornography racket that operated for two years through a WhatsApp group of 119 members across 18 countries. While society continues to debate the social and moral acceptability of adult pornography, child sexual exploitation is universally recognized as a heinous crime with no justification.
Excessive restrictions during adolescence often backfire, driving curiosity underground. When obscenity is packaged as a commodity, it threatens to erode the ethical bedrock of a healthy society. For this reason, age-appropriate sex education should be made compulsory before puberty. Children need to understand their bodies, consent, personal boundaries, and the risks of the online world. Yet most schools remain focused only on academics, with little emphasis on counselling or life skills.
The strongest safeguard is parental engagement. Free time should be spent interacting with children, not lost to television or separate screens. The influence of cinema, OTT platforms, and even advertisements on impressionable youth cannot be ignored. Many films and ads border on soft porn, normalizing behaviour that children are not equipped to process. At the same time, the internet in every pocket has erased privacy. Children often take money for “study material” but spend it watching porn at cyber cafes. Peer pressure further drives secretive access, and many fall into addiction without realizing the long-term impact on values, attitudes, and health.
Schools are ideal spaces to provide factual answers about sex and safety. With teenage pregnancies, abortions, and STIs on the rise, silence is dangerous. But our conservative culture makes it hard for children to approach parents or teachers, leaving them vulnerable to misinformation and predators. A holistic approach is needed. Standard textbooks on reproductive health and digital safety should be accessible online. Hesitation in classrooms can be reduced if women teachers guide girls and male teachers guide boys, creating a comfortable space for questions.
Legally, the POCSO Act, 2012 under Section 13 criminalizes using children for pornographic purposes, with jail terms up to five years. Still, the government has told the Supreme Court that a complete ban on internet porn isn’t practical, and cross-border enforcement remains difficult. The IT Act needs amendments to better curb access, transmission, and publishing of child sexual abuse material. Cyber etiquette and digital safety must also become part of school curricula to sensitize children early.
Parents have a critical role in monitoring online activity and noting behavioural changes that may signal abuse or addiction. People must be educated to spot trauma and intervene quickly. Children are gentle and vulnerable. They deserve protection from traffickers, abusers, and online predators. Sex education is not about encouraging sexual activity. It is about building values, teaching self-protection, and helping children understand healthy relationships. When abuse can come from relatives, friends, or strangers, awareness becomes the first line of defence.
Banning pornography alone is not the solution. What we need is a combination of open dialogue at home, effective counselling in schools, updated syllabi, strict law enforcement, and widespread public awareness. Academicians and policymakers must work together to design education that reflects today’s digital reality. Only through education, empathy, and vigilance can we curb child pornography and raise a healthier, safer generation.
(Dr. Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit is a Freelance Journalist, Writer & Cartoonist; He is the holder of Limca Book of Record (8Times)
