Up-and-coming bloggers in Nigeria may have cultivated the habit of attracting visitors to their sites by uploading sexually explicit materials.
When a three-minute, 20-second sex tape of a popular Nollywood actress said to be preparing for her wedding leaked online, in the first week of December, 2013, several blogs and websites quickly uploaded the video on their platforms.
On one blog, 38,692 people have since visited the site to see the video as of Sunday, January 20, 2014. On another one, the administrator tried to convince visitors that the site was not being used to encourage pornography.
"I do not intend to promote pornography," the blogger says, adding, "but to try my best to keep you guys informed with what is going on around you. And this should serve as a lesson to everyone, especially the female readers."
Besides, when a 13-minute video of a woman suspected to be a housewife in Ajuwon, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, caught having extra-marital sex appeared online, several blogs caught up with the bug as many of them uploaded the video on their sites. In fact, the video later found its way to YouTube before it was flagged down some days ago, after it was discovered that it contravened some policies of YouTube. But in spite of the action taken by YouTube, the video itself has gone viral and reached many audiences, including adults and children.
Experts say the proliferation of sexually-explicit materials online is becoming worrisome as children catching up with the new media trends by going online to find informative and educational content could be affected by an early exposure to such videos.
Experts argue that even if owners of online platforms take delight in uploading pornographic materials without any form of restraints, it is the duty of parents and guardians to ensure that the chances of accessing them by their children or wards are reduced.
A senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Foundations and Counselling, Obafemi Awolowo University, Dr. Bonke Omoteso, warns that early exposure of children to such materials can have a negative and harmful effect on them. She says, "When a child is exposed to large dosage of online pornographic materials, their view about a healthy sexual relationship could be affected at such tender age. The menace of proliferation of online sexually explicit materials tells on the growing number of our young children in primary school who are now exposed to sexual activities at such a young age.
"This is because they practise what they see, which put them at the risk of early premarital sex, teenage pregnancy, aggression, anti-social behaviours, a development that may greatly affect their emotional and academic behaviour while many of them grow up to be loose sexually."
She lists some noticeable signs a child exposed to graphic sexual videos and pictures can exhibit, such as changes in sleeping patterns, disobedience and spending of unusually long hours on the Internet.
"When the child who used to be very obedient becomes disobedient; his or her sleeping behaviour and patterns change and he or she ensures that the parent goes to bed first so that they can begin to operate the computer to see those pornographic materials, then, the affected parents should worry," she adds.
Omoteso, an educational psychologist, adds that parents should endeavour to check and see what their children have downloaded on their PCs, laptops as well as mobile devices and speak to them regularly on the dangers of indulging in watching pornography online.
Manager, Communications and Public Affairs, Google Anglo Phone West Africa, Taiwo Kolade-Ogunlade, says there are a number of tools that parents can use to help keep the content their children see online are healthy.
He says parents can turn on 'Safe Search' on the Google search engine to prevent adult content from appearing in search results. According to him, turning the function on is one easy way whereby images and videos intended for adult consumption can be hidden from children's view.
Kolade-Ogunlade says, "It [the Safe-Search] is particularly helpful if you're concerned about the content that might pop up on your family computer, and it is easy to turn on. Just visit the Google Search Settings page, go to the 'Safe-Search filters' section and check the box to filter mature content from Google Search result pages.
"These preferences will apply for any searches done using that browser on your computer. If you have multiple browsers on your family computer, you might want to turn Safe-Search on for each one."
He adds that "Safe-Search" for Google on mobile devices is also available.
"You can turn on Safe-Search for Google on your mobile device by opening your phone’s browser and visiting google.com/preferences. Scroll to the Safe-Search Filters section to select what level of filtering you would like to enable."
The destiny of your children can be protected by you!
The destiny of your children can be protected by you!
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