20-05-2025
Children as young as six are finding porn online as teachers report surge in 'sexual innuendos' in classrooms
An inquiry has found kids as young as six are finding pornography online while female teachers are becoming the subject of inappropriate sexual innuendos.
Teachers speaking on behalf of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia (NSW), made the shocking disclosures during a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into the 'impacts of harmful pornography on mental, emotional, and physical health'.
The findings were based on the school work kids were producing in the classroom and speculated that students were accidently accessing pornography online by clicking on ads, sometimes on gaming websites.
The inquiry also heard that specialised government supports for children who engaged in harmful sexual behaviours were being delayed due to high demand.
Principal at Montgrove College in Sydney 's west, Lourdes Mejia, said the impacts of the exposure to pornography played out in the classroom.
'You can see that they have had some access to pornography, from perhaps the stories that they tell or even sometimes the drawings or things that they write, the little notes that they pass to each other, that I have seen recently, that's quite surprised me,' Mejia told the inquiry, as reported by The Australian.
Hunter Valley Grammar School Principal Rebecca Butterworth said primary school students sharing sexualised images with each other was concerning.
'I'm quite surprised by the age sometimes. It's started in our school, sometimes around Year Six, and then accelerated in Year 7,' she told the inquiry.
Nowra Anglican College principle Lorrae Sampson said she had seen an increase in the 'objectification of girls' by boys, as well as an surge in boys making 'inappropriate sexual innuendos or noises' towards teachers.
Violence prevention organisation Our Watch has shared a guide for teaching Respectful Relationships Education (RRE) in Australian schools.
The RRE would give students the skills to reject destructive behaviours and harassment and challenge stereotypes like gendered-violence in schools, including towards female teachers, and sexualised bullying.
The behaviour towards female teachers was localised to certain groups of students and clusters of boys.
The inquiry also found that early exposure to pornography and prolonged exposure to damaging pornography was putting local health services under the pump.
Professor Dale Tolliday told the inquiry that pornography contributed to a high demand for health services across the state, including services for children who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours.
He said there was a 'significant delay' in services to ensure adequate government responses to students and their families in New South Wales.
