Children are being exposed to online pornography from as young as nine, according to a study for the children's commissioner for England.
A quarter of 16-21-year-olds first saw pornography on the internet while still at primary school, it suggests. By the age of 13, 50% had been exposed to it.
The findings have been linked to low self-esteem among young people and harmful views of sex and relationships. Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said it was "deeply concerning".
In a nationally representative survey of more than 1,000 16-21-year-olds, 38% had found pornographic content accidentally.
Joanne Schneider's son stumbled across a pornography website, aged eight, after typing swear words he had heard at school into a search engine.
"We'd put all the normal safety features in place and had removed apps such as YouTube but didn't for one second think that my son could find himself on adult-entertainment sites within a few seconds," Ms Schneider, from London, said.
"As soon as I saw what was happening, I closed the site - but both him and I were left in shock at what he had seen. I felt so terrible about the whole thing.
"All of a sudden I was having to explain it all, including the fact that what he saw was artificial and far from what real people look like." READ MORE...
