At risk: More and more youngsters view online porn...
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One teenager a day is being convicted in British courts of sexual offences against a child, it emerged last night.
Last year a total of 357 youngsters aged 18 and under were found guilty of offences ranging from rape of another child, sexual grooming and the taking or possessing of indecent photographs of minors.
Shockingly, this includes 136 children aged between 10 and 15 who have been convicted of sexual offences against other children and who are, in effect, child paedophiles.
Campaigners seized on the figures, obtained by the Daily Mail, as evidence of the harmful effect of online pornography on young minds.
In June, the deputy children's commissioner Sue Berelowitz warned that easy access to hardcore images and videos on the internet was turning youngsters into sex attackers by warping their view of what was natural.
She said girls as young as 11 'expect' to have to perform sex acts on rows of boys for up to two hours at a time in parts of London. Blaming online porn, she told MPs that there 'isn't a town, village or hamlet in which children are not being sexually exploited'.
Jon Brown, head of the NSPCC's sexual abuse programme, expressed concerns over the conviction figures and warned that exposure to sexual images on the web may be warping children's minds.
'These figures are a warning signal that many children are getting a distorted picture of what sexual relationships should be about,' he said. 'This could well be influencing some young people to commit sexual offences which is obviously a serious concern.'
This is this setting them on a dangerous course as well as leaving their victims often needing therapy to recover. So it's absolutely imperative that children are educated about the dark side of pornography and immediate action taken whenever a youngster shows signs of sexually harmful behaviour.'
The figures were obtained by Andrew Turner, Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, following a parliamentary question.
They revealed that, in 2011, a total of 221 children aged between 16 and 18, and 136 aged between 10 and 15 were convicted of sexual offences.
The offences included sexual assault on a child aged under 13, rape or attempted rape against a child aged under 16, and sexual activity involving a child.
Other crimes included are familial sexual offences (incest), abuse of children through prostitution and pornography, abuse of a position of trust, and sexual grooming.
Others were convicted of taking, making or possessing indecent photographs of children. Many of these are teens who have engaged in so-called sexting.
Some defendants were charged with two or more offences, but only one of them was included in the above figures.
The highest number of offences were in London, where 52 were found guilty of at least one of these offences, including 27 who were aged between 10 and 15.
In Greater Manchester, there were 37 convictions including 15 where the child was aged between 10 and 15. Third was Lancashire, with 21 convictions.
Culled from The Daily Mail UK.
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Simply Cheska...
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