EDITORIAL — Minors and porn

A city councilor is now calling for measures to prevent easy access by minors to pornographic content on the internet.

During a privilege speech, Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover, brought attention to the plight of an eight-year-old raped by three minors in Toledo City. The incident was blamed on the perpetrators' exposure to content they saw on porn sites.

“Dali ug yano nalang kaayo ma-access, or masud sa mga menor de edad ang porn sites sa internet… This is very alarming because almost all of us are using social media, whether minors or adults; everyone now has access to social media,” said Alcover.

He said civil society should help the city government establish countermeasures against explicit digital content.

Indeed, ways must be found to stop minors from being able to access pornographic material.

We cannot deny how much technology has benefited us in terms of being able to research practically anything, to ask any question and get answers almost immediately. But this convenience is also a double-edged sword as anyone with an active internet connection can access practically any material, including obscene and mature content. And by anyone we include minors who may not yet understand what they are seeing or be fully cognizant of the consequences of their actions.

While we do not necessarily believe that all minors who see pornographic material will immediately want to act them out on others, their curiosity will be piqued nonetheless; and while we have no issue with certain age groups being able to access content that is appropriate to their age, those who shouldn’t be seeing material meant only for adults shouldn’t be able to see them.

Restricting what minors can access on the internet is doable but certainly challenging when we consider how easily minors can access the internet. And we aren’t talking about the pisonet internet services being offered almost everywhere; anyone with a gadget can get online anytime and anywhere.