Children don’t just watch porn. Tragically, they now star in it

By
Jan Moir

16:51 EST, 5 April 2012

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16:53 EST, 5 April 2012

as you do: Two fourteen-year-olds made a video of themselves having sex and posted it on facebook

as you do: Two fourteen-year-olds made a video of themselves having sex and posted it on facebook

That children have access to porn and watch it in increasing numbers is bad enough. Now they’re making their own porn, too. And not just making it — they’re starring in their own pornographic home movies, filming each other having sex and passing them around the class as entertainment.

This week in Gloucestershire a boy of 14 was arrested for making a pornographic film of himself and a schoolgirl of the same age.

The children — who cannot be named for legal reasons — do  not attend the same school, but  were friends.

Some time at the beginning of March the boy made the film of them having consensual sex and posted it on Facebook. As you do. Check us out. Isn’t this great!

Dear God. For weeks, the footage was in common circulation in Cheltenham schools, and is thought to have been viewed by thousands of pupils before being removed from the site.

What is going on?

When I was at school, children would pass around copies of  Jackie or Hotspur comics as  amusements —not porn-grade footage of each other making whoopee in the playground.

The more sexually presumptuous fifth-form boys might enjoy the occasional snigger at a Playboy   pin-up — or have curious feelings about seeing Susan Stranks appearing on Magpie in a pair of hotpants, but that was about the extent of our sexual experience and knowledge.

Porn was something someone called Linda Lovelace did. Details of exactly how and when she did it were hazy.

We thought we were so cool, but in retrospect we were as innocent as a row of cauliflowers.

Poring over homemade images of some random girl from 4B in intimate scenes with her boyfriend? It would have been as likely as  Marc Bolan turning up to take the music lesson.

Things are very different now. The Gloucester Constabulary schools unit said the practice of pupils posting compromising or even pornographic pictures on the internet was happening with increasing frequency all over the country.

Perhaps in some ways, it is sadly inevitable. Children today have the smartphones, the technology and the desire. They see or hear of reality stars, football stars and pop singers such as Tulisa featuring in sex tapes — it has become all too commonplace.

Inevitable: Is it any surprise that we've come to this when children see stars like Tulisa as role models, pictured here talking about an internet sex video involving her and another man

Inevitable: Is it any surprise that we’ve come to this when children see stars like Tulisa as role models, pictured here talking about an internet sex video involving her and another man?

So, naturally, some youngsters want to copy them and make films of their own.

In this case, the boy was arrested and given a police warning for making and distributing an indecent video. No action was taken against the girl, though officers spoke  to her and her parents. And that was it.

Of course, it is illegal in this country to have sex with anyone under 16. Yet the legislation is not intended to prosecute mutually consenting sexual activity between children under 16, unless it involves abuse or exploitation.

'Proud': the unnamed 14-year-old has apparently been boasting of his actions, which involved filming a girl, 14, performing a sex act on him

‘Proud’: the unnamed 14-year-old has apparently been boasting of his actions, which involved filming a girl, 14, performing a sex act on him

The girl agreed to take part, so no charges are brought and no punishment applied — but I doubt very much if punishing the children in some way would even help.

What could jail, fines or community service achieve in such a wretched set of circumstances?

The fault line goes much deeper than any penance inflicted upon them by a disapproving society. The fact that they don’t know it is wrong is what is so depressing.

We have to mourn the loss of innocence of an entire generation  of children — many of whom have been lavished with computer games, smartphones and all sorts  of wondrous modern communication tools and contrivances, but have received scant moral guidance about using them for good purposes, not bad.

For so many of these children  there are no boundaries —  only opportunities.

Local teachers have warned of the ‘evils of modern technology’ and spoken to the schools concerned about the lack of dignity and  self-respect of those who allowed themselves to be portrayed in  such a way.

But it hardly seems enough in the face of growing smartphone sex.

All we can hope is that most children reap the fantastic benefits that modern technology offers without falling into the moral abyss that comes with abusing it instead.

Sassy judgement? Rihanna

Sassy judgement? Rihanna

Rihanna just won’t give up on her violent ex-boyfriend, the rapper Chris Brown. You’d think she might have the sense to run a mile from the man who brutally assaulted her in 2009, but no way.

There is speculation they may have rekindled their romance and, despite warnings from her management team, Rihanna seems set on, at the very least, making a record with Brown.

In an interview for U.S. Elle magazine’s May issue, Rihanna went even further, saying the beatings were a catalyst; the public exposure that ensued gave her a liberation that set her free to be the person she wanted to be. She said she understood some might be appalled if she reconnected with the man who battered her, but insisted: ‘I’m still going to do what I want to do.’

You do that, Rihanna. Don’t let anything like good sense or bitter experience cloud your sassy judgment. Who knows what goes on in her head — but I do know that hooking up again with her abuser is a terrible message to send to her millions of young and impressionable fans.

To be fair, Rihanna has never set herself up as a role model, but still — have a heart, if not a shred of good sense. Bruises can fade, but a capacity for causing them rarely does.

Those who work with women who suffer domestic violence say the biggest problem is making them understand they have to get away from their violent partner. Particularly if there are children involved.

Yet no one can tell this star that she might be making a mistake. To paraphrase Madonna, Chris Brown was the lesson Rihanna had to learn, but the tragedy is that she has failed to do so.

I can’t help but think she is making a bad choice as she heads off down the yellow brick Whitney Houston road.

How Vinnie Jones saved my friend’s life

‘It was just instinct.’ That was the modest response of actor Kenny Solomons, who saved the life of a knife victim stabbed at a party in London this week.

As a crowd of slack-jawed onlookers gathered round the scene, gaping at the gore in the usual fashion, the 25-year-old leapt into action.

He grabbed a bar towel and wrapped it and his hands around the victim’s throat to stem the flow of blood. He had no medical training — he just thought it was the right thing to do.

It was. Paramedics later told him he had saved the young man’s life. Well done, Kenny!

It reminds me of the friends on a recent fishing trip in Scotland. When one of their number had a heart attack, they saved his life by remembering the advice given by Vinnie Jones in The British Heart Foundation adverts — don’t bother with the kiss of life, just push hard and fast in the centre of the chest to the rhythm of the Bee Gees’ hit Stayin’ Alive.

Elsewhere this week, a grandma landed a Cessna aircraft when her husband had a fatal heart attack in the cockpit — talked down by the air traffic control. Fantastic stuff.

In any life-threatening emergency, I hope I would stay cool and calm, saving lives through heroic and bold deeds. But I think it’s quite possible I would stand mute with fear like a giant owl, arms immobile by my sides and eyes whirling. Brave Mr Solomons and his ilk are an inspiration to us all. When trouble strikes, don’t do nothing — do something.

Pete Doherty complains about not being invited  to Amy Winehouse’s funeral, even though he was in a bad way at the time. Or ‘knee-deep in my own filth’, as he puts it.
He’ll be at a funeral soon enough if he carries on this way. His own.

Licence to swill: James Bond is giving up his usual martini in favour of a pint

Licence to swill: James Bond is giving up his usual martini in favour of a pint

It’s Oik Oik Seven

The worst possible news.  In the next James Bond film, Daniel Craig ditches the spy’s traditional martini aperitif  and relaxes with a glass of  lager instead.

Stop it, Oik Oik Seven. You are breaking my heart. And Bond author Ian Fleming must be spinning in his grave.

For Fleming did not choose  the cocktail by chance. It  meant something. It hinted at a man who knew his way around the world. And the chilly brutality of a martini  was synonymous with Bond’s character; it semaphored that he was sophisticated and strong, but with an icy interior.

What does a pint of lager say about him? Only one thing. Which is that Bond has begun  a downward spiral that might end up with The Man With The Golden Cider wearing trackie bottoms and a sleeve tattoo.

Burp! Come back Austin Powers, all is forgiven. And  bring that glass of Babycham with you. Raar!

Do spare us the trendy vicar act

At an Easter reception in Downing Street this week, David Cameron quoted from the Gospel of Luke. He spoke of ‘we Christians’ and of welcoming something he called the Christian ‘fightback’.

‘The values of the Bible, the values of Christianity are the values that we need,’ he said.

It is a measure of societal shifts that when the Prime Minister speaks about God and Christianity, people are shocked. It is almost as if Christianity or being a Christian is something to be ashamed of — a dirty little secret between you and God, something to be kept hidden from polite society, like leprosy or a pair of Crocs.

In your view, the Guardian newspaper even asked its readers, is it acceptable for a modern prime minister to espouse Christian values so openly?

In my view, all I wonder is if it is acceptable for a modern prime minister to refer to the gospels he is reading as the Book of Luke. Far too ‘trendy vicar’ for comfort.

Life changing? The push-up bra

Life changing? The push-up bra

Give thanx for Spanx

What are the greatest inventions of the past century that have changed women’s lives? A recent poll put them in this order: the Pill, push-up bras, washing machines, tampons, pregnancy tests, disposable nappies, mascara, jeans, ready-made meals and contact lenses.

I can’t possibly agree with that list. Surely every bra is a push-up, otherwise what is the point? No pun intended. Ready-made meals might be a labour-saving option, but they are usually full of salt.

Contact lenses are of equal benefit to men so they don’t count.

Glaring omissions include opaque tights, maximum strength Nurofen, fake tan, Spanx, Clarins Beauty Flash Balm and TV remote-control devices. You might say  the last of these are of equal benefit to men, too — but only when we are not in the room. For only then are they actually allowed to use ’em. It’s the law.

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