HONG KONG — A new survey has fueled the flames of censorship as Hong Kong mulls tightening controls on sexually explicit internet content. Published Sunday, the study’s results indicated 80-percent of the island’s schoolchildren, some as young as age 10, have accessed pornography online.Based on interviews with what they consider a representative sample of 1,500 students, researchers at Polytechnic University determined children encounter X-rated material on the Web at the average age of 11. Most kids access the material at home.
Although some of the subjects stumbled across porn accidentally, more than 40 percent followed pop-up advertisements to sexually explicit content. Once they discovered the material, nearly 20-percent said they continued to seek out porn for entertainment. Another 14-percent said they learned about sex from watching online porn.
Social worker Tammy Sin, who assisted in interviewing the children, said tighter Web controls would keep children from adult materials, but the more important issue is refining sex education in the schools.
“’Sex education should embrace moral education, through which adolescents can learn how to respect each other,” she told the South China Morning Post.
