“Porn” is damaging youth relationships

In an interview with Lusa, reflecting on the seven years he spent as head of the National Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Children and Young People (CNPDPCJ), Rosario Farmhouse warned about the impact on children and young people exposed to pornographic content, based on international studies.

“[A pornografia] “It completely changes the relationship between teenagers because when they start to reach puberty, their example was based on the content they saw that was not appropriate for their age,” he noted.

According to the person in charge, affective connections are lost and teenagers experience “serious problems starting their lives.” [sexual] “.

“They don’t know where to start because they want to repeat what they saw, because they think what they saw should be the model,” he explained, noting that this often leads to relationships of submission and violence.

Rosário Farmhouse stressed that some teenagers “end up in relationships they don’t want because they think it’s normal.”

“They feel violated, a lot of girls complain about it. Boys feel a lot of disappointment because they don’t react, and that’s because they haven’t been trained and because they haven’t realized that they have a long way to go before they can do whatever they want with their bodies,” he warned.

“There is a whole path that consists of several steps that need to be taken,” he added.

According to the person in charge, there is currently no data on this reality in Portugal, and the most recent studies are based on Australian and English experience.

The Council of Europe is trying to create materials to help countries cope with these “new challenges” and provide “age-appropriate sexuality education” for all children.

“Because this is a topic that is still taboo for some countries,” he noted.

The CNPDPCJ president said the Council of Europe was trying to reach consensus with its 46 member states by creating “structuring documents that allow children to grow up healthy in any environment.”

“This is one of the biggest problems at the moment,” he noted, emphasizing that this problem is related to the lack of digital skills among parents and, as a result, the lack of control.

At Rosário Farmhouse, this phenomenon can only be combated through “very careful education.”

The official argued that children with digital skills can learn not only about the benefits but also the dangers of the internet, as well as how to be careful when accessing certain content, and the training that should be extended to parents or guardians.

“Only through this education can we protect ourselves, because we are facing a world that has no borders, where there is no longer any way to stop anything. Either we can achieve this through education, or we will all remain defenseless,” he emphasized.

When it comes to sex education in schools, the person in charge understands that “the content must be age-appropriate” and prepared by people who know how to talk about the subject.

Along with sex education, the CNPDPCJ president said it was “absolutely important” to have intercultural education, noting that schools are becoming increasingly pluralistic and diverse and that this was a “tremendous opportunity.”

“We have to teach them to live together. Respect for others, not generalising, not judging before we know, accepting differences is fundamental and schools that manage to embrace diversity are schools where everyone wins,” said the man in charge.