Most of us know what secondhand smoke is. It’s tobacco smoke that is inhaled involuntarily by someone who is not smoking. We’ve heard about its dangers. It causes close to 50,000 deaths a year. It irritates the eyes, nose and throat. It can lead to coughing, excessive phlegm and chest discomfort. And secondhand smoke especially hurts children. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma. Secondhand porn shares some similar effects. But before we get into those what is secondhand porn exactly?
Secondhand porn is porn that is seen involuntarily by someone who was not intending to view it. Lets look at some examples. I read a story a couple months back of a mother that was on a plane with her children. She was seated next to a man with a laptop who had just put in a cartoon movie. Her four children were drawn to the screen. The cartoon characters soon started to do things to each other that cartoon characters don’t usually do. They started having sex. It was cartoon porn! The mother was shocked. In another story a man in Texas was viewing child porn on his iPod on a public bus. He was arrested. I have heard several stories of people seeing porn when pulling up behind SUV’s or Van’s equipped with DVD players with the video screens that hang down from the ceiling.
With all the technology out there it’s getting easier and easier for your kids to be exposed to secondhand porn. As I mentioned earlier secondhand porn shares some effects similar to secondhand smoke. Secondhand porn can irritate your eyes and it can especially hurt children. How do you explain to your 4 or 5 year old why two cartoon characters were naked and doing sexual things to each other? How do you explain the orgy scene that your 9 or 10 year old just saw on the video screen in the van you were behind at a stoplight? These are things that kids should not be exposed to and that they’re not ready to process.
Just like laws have been passed to protect everyone from the dangers of secondhand smoke, laws should be passed to protect everyone, especially our children, from secondhand porn. Until then we as parents have to be aware that secondhand porn is out there and we have to be ready to steer our kids clear of it.