I agree that early porn exposure is a factor in sexual crimes rising among young people (Over 470 youth arrested for sexual crimes in 2023; offenders’ exposure to porn cited as a reason, April 16). I was appalled to learn from my daughter in Secondary 1 that most, if not all, of her male classmates are exposed to porn. This is no longer a secret and they can be heard boasting about their “knowledge”.

Restricting phones is no longer an option. The danger lurks in young minds because of the daily digestion of explicit materials. They are not ready to be discerning in filtering what is right or wrong. We have to agree that long-term exposure will mould them into having an unstable and narrowed mentality. This could result in them sexually objectifying girls or perceiving them as the weaker gender they can easily abuse.

While I applaud government agencies for improving training for counsellors to protect and support young victims of sexual offences, we need to also address the issues faced by the perpetrators which prompt them to act in the first place.  

One important group of stakeholders is not mentioned – from Big Tech down to smaller platforms and messaging apps. They provide the platforms which the young are accessing via the search engines. The information that one can gather on the internet is unlimited.  

Greater controls on information must be imposed on these stakeholders and this can only be implemented through government regulations, as not all organisations have strong governance. 

These companies need to be made to comply with requirements, starting with age verification for their users, for example. Platforms will have to prevent younger users from seeing age-inappropriate content, such as pornography, cyber-bullying and harassment. They can release risk assessments of potential dangers to children on their services and give parents easy pathways to report concerns.

While the various agencies, together with the Ministry of Education, can conduct talks at schools and institutions, it is still up to every individual to abstain or indulge. We cannot simply leave it to these individuals. 

Thus, content providers have an important role to play and have the responsibility (or should be compelled by law) to come out with more control policies.

Let all stakeholders work hand in hand to tackle this worrisome issue.

Clare Chong Li Ling