Two Indian ‘porn addicts’ aged 11 years old were arrested after allegedly murdering a six-year old girl for refusing to perform sex acts that they had seen on their parents’ phones.
The juveniles allegedly became addicted to porn while they attended school online via their parents’ smartphones. They were able access adult content and became obsessed.
A six-year-old girl was attacked by her neighbours and found unconscious near her home in Kaliabor, India, on October 18. She was rushed to hospital but later declared dead.
Authorities arrested the juveniles and another eight-year old on Wednesday last week. They are believed to have helped the children to murder the girl.
All three juveniles have been sent by the Jorhat juvenile correctional institution in readiness for trial. In India, children are considered to have criminal responsibility as early as seven years old.
This comes after the Indo-Asian News Service’s (IANS) report that India was the largest consumer of porn via smartphone in 2019.
According to the IANS report, India was the largest consumer of porn via smartphones worldwide in 2019. India also has the largest youth population in any country (file photo)
Pornhub.com reported India was the third largest porn consumer in the world in 2017-2018
Kaliabor officer MrinmoyDas gave a statement just after the arrests.
Two of the boys tried to imitate the porn they had seen and then tried to molest the neighbor’s girl.
“When she refused to comply, they hit her head with stones and carried her to the toilet where they hit her with another stone on her chest. The third child stood guard at the toilet.
Pornhub.com reported India was the third-largest porn consumer in the world in 2017-2018. This was prior to the Indian government’s blanket ban on the website in late 2018 and 800 other adult content platforms.
Despite this, IANS’ report revealed that India was the largest consumer worldwide of porn via smartphone in 2019, while Pornhub data from last year showed that traffic to the site from India increased by 95 per cent during the coronavirus lockdown of March.
Even though the government has banned the website, users can still access content by using virtual private networks (VPN) to hide their location.
According to a report by Top10VPN in November 2019, the number of downloads of VPNs in India increased by 405 percent in a year since October 2018.
Dr Samir Parikh (director of mental health and behavioral sciences at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi) stated that children must learn to critically assess messages they receive, understand their motives, as well as distinguish the real from the fake. (file image).
These statistics show that there are growing concerns about India’s porn addiction, according to experts. They are calling for a more advanced sex education program in the country with its largest youth population.
Dr Samir Parikh, director of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, said: ‘Children need to learn to critically evaluate whatever messages they receive, understand the motives and, most importantly, distinguish what is real from fiction.’
Meanwhile, Dr Sameer Malhotra, director of the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Max Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, believes that young people are particularly prone to developing porn addiction as their behaviour during their developmental years is often more compulsive.
“Excessive porn viewing” could indicate compulsive behaviors and traits.
Dr Malhotra stated that sex education should be handled with care and appropriate age.