Online classes make teens stray into porn websites

Vadodara: A panicking 15-year-old made his parents worried, but their world was left asunder with his shocking revealtions. The boy revealed he was being blackmailed for money by a woman who had his semi-nude photos! And how? He had downloaded a porn site while attending online classes and had got addicted to the adult site.
“The parents brought the boy for counselling as he got addicted to porn while attending online classes over the last few months. Some time ago, he downloaded a site and began to chat with a woman who also got a few indecent photos of his. He even paid her a few thousand rupees online,” said Dr Bakulesh Chauhan, paediatrician and adolescent expert.
It’s just the tip of an iceberg, says Dr Chauhan who has counselled several such adolescents plagued with the same affliction in the past few months. “Students attend online classes behind closed doors for privacy. Parents usually can’t monitor their activities all the time which gives them the chance to surf such websites,” Dr Chauhan told TOI.
Paediatrician Dr Tushar Shah said that what is more alarming is that many parents are blissfully ignorant of their children’s porn addiction. “A mother had brought her child to me a few months ago as she found a lot of porn material in his smartphone. Adolescents tend to explore many things on the internet as they are spending a lot of time online. And parents are mostly helpless,” Dr Shah said.
“Consumption of adult content is on the rise as adolescents are getting lot of access to internet all day,” said Dr Jalnidhi Nanavaty, child and adolescent psychiatrist.
She further said that unmonitored, ignorant children often invite online hazards from such adult websites, get exposed to virtual strangers and often even manipulated which affects their mental health.