Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bises­sar is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment and stake­hold­ers to be­gin dis­cus­sions on the pornog­ra­phy epi­dem­ic and the ex­ploita­tive over-sex­u­al­i­sa­tion of chil­dren.

In a me­dia state­ment yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said pornog­ra­phy ad­dic­tion has be­come a silent epi­dem­ic for adults and chil­dren and is the fastest-grow­ing ad­dic­tion in the world. She added that in light of re­cent me­dia re­ports of more than 2,000 cas­es of sex­u­al abuse of girls and 500 cas­es of sex­u­al abuse of boys made to the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty be­tween 2020 and 2021, she felt com­pelled to speak on this is­sue.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said there are sev­er­al rea­sons for the in­crease in sex­u­al abuse in T&T over the past decade but two of the main con­cerns are the over-sex­u­al­i­sa­tion of chil­dren by adults and the pornog­ra­phy epi­dem­ic.

“The in­no­cence of child­hood is be­ing de­stroyed with an over­load of sex­u­al con­tent be­ing made avail­able to chil­dren. Over-sex­u­alised con­tent is di­rect­ed at chil­dren as young as five years old through video games, tele­vi­sion shows, car­toons, movies, ad­ver­tise­ments, and so­cial me­dia.

“In­di­vid­u­als are al­so ex­pos­ing chil­dren to sex­u­al­ly charged con­ver­sa­tions, in­nu­en­do, mu­sic, danc­ing, and be­hav­iours. It is not un­com­mon to see adults en­gag­ing in sex­u­al­ly sug­ges­tive and in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iours in pub­lic or pri­vate events in the pres­ence of teenagers and chil­dren.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said chil­dren are be­ing co­erced to ap­pear sex­u­al­ly at­trac­tive and en­gage in be­hav­iours that are not age-ap­pro­pri­ate for their prop­er men­tal de­vel­op­ment.

“Our boys and girls are be­ing groomed through self-ob­jec­ti­fi­ca­tion, and adults ex­ploit this. Teens are fac­ing pres­sure to be­come sex­u­al­ly ac­tive at younger ages be­cause of poor so­cial val­ues. Thir­teen-year-old girls and boys are en­cour­aged to look like sex­u­al­ly ac­tive twen­ty-five-year-olds.”

She added: “And to com­pound this over-sex­u­al­i­sa­tion of chil­dren, there is an epi­dem­ic of porno­graph­ic ad­dic­tion af­fect­ing both chil­dren and adults. Pornog­ra­phy ad­dic­tion is a se­vere is­sue that should not be taboo for dis­cus­sion.”

Com­pared to decades ago, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, pornog­ra­phy is read­i­ly avail­able on var­i­ous in­ter­net plat­forms and pornog­ra­phy ad­dic­tion can have de­bil­i­tat­ing ef­fects.

“In ad­di­tion to men­tal is­sues, so­cial­i­sa­tion is af­fect­ed, and in­di­vid­u­als’ ex­pec­ta­tions of sex­u­al re­la­tion­ships be­come skewed, which of­ten leads to sex­u­al vi­o­lence,” she said.

She added that dur­ing the COVID-18 lock­downs when ex­tend­ed pe­ri­ods were be­ing spent at home, pornog­ra­phy view­ing by chil­dren and adults sky­rock­et­ed, and this was a fac­tor con­tribut­ing to the in­creased cas­es of sex­u­al abuse.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go is un­der siege from a myr­i­ad of crime is­sues. We can­not re­duce sex­u­al crimes with­out pub­licly ac­knowl­edg­ing the dri­ving fac­tors be­hind them, even if it is an un­com­fort­able dis­cus­sion,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar is call­ing for talks be­tween the Gov­ern­ment, civ­il so­ci­ety, the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Au­thor­i­ty of T&T (TATT), the Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion, and oth­er will­ing stake­hold­ers on so­cial, leg­isla­tive, and ed­u­ca­tion­al in­ter­ven­tions to ad­dress the pornog­ra­phy epi­dem­ic and the ex­ploita­tive over-sex­u­al­i­sa­tion of chil­dren.