Action to protect children from online porn long overdue

Many parents believe schools should teach children about the dangers of pornography as soon as they are old enough to use the internet. Credit: PA Wire

Teaching children as young as five about the dangers of pornography is a radical idea.

Some teachers clearly see it as their moral duty in the light of the risk of early exposure to a deluge of online adult porn.

But to others, it's proof - if any were needed - that the age of innocence is getting younger and younger and that childhood is getting shorter and shorter.

The question they are asking is does teaching children who should be climbing trees and finger painting about the dangers of porn protect their innocence or damage it?

That question I can't answer - but I do believe that the fact that we are asking it at all is definitely proof of a collective failure to protect our young children from adult material.

Internet Service Providers and the Government have done much talking on the subject - but not before every responsible parent in the country has begged them to do so - and some progress has been made.

Mobile phones now come with default protective settings; but as every parent who has tried to censor their child's online consumption understands, it only takes another child's unprotected computer or handset to beat their best efforts. As one despairing mother told me: "Its like holding up an umbrella in a hurricane."

There's some good news though, to parents holding onto their umbrellas in the gale. Sources at the UK Council for Internet Safety tell me that they are expecting movement from David Cameron on this issue.

In particular, he has signalled his determination to provide "good, clean Wi-Fi" in public spaces.

A start - but it may not be enough to offer ring-fenced protection.

Last year a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into how safe children are online concluded the government and internet service providers needed to do more to protect children from online pornography.

That teachers and parents have made teaching five-year-olds about porn part of our national conversation, is a sign that action is already long overdue.