A report by the Children’s Commissioner published earlier this year found that:
- The average age at which children first see pornography is 13.
- By age nine, 10% had seen pornography, 27% had seen it by age 11 and 50% had seen it by age 13.
- At age 13 there was no difference between the number of boys or girls who had seen it.
The report found that early exposure to pornography impacts upon young people’s self-esteem and can affect their behaviour later in life.
- Young people who had viewed pornography aged 11 or younger were significantly more likely to present lower self-esteem scores than the average young person.
- Children who view online pornography at age 11 or younger are significantly more likely to become frequent users as young adults.
- There is also evidence to show that exposure to violent pornography is negatively impacting the attitudes and sexual behaviour of young people.
All of this tells us that the dangers of pornography cannot be ignored.
What is the role of parents in tackling pornography?
The Church teaches that
This means that parents are not just the most important people in a child’s life. They also shape the future lives of their children by helping them navigate the world around them. They guide them in making good choices and in avoiding the things that threaten their wellbeing. The evidence from countless studies is telling us that pornography is one of those threats.
However, pornography is not an easy subject to discuss with your child. Many parents feel ill-equipped to deal with the subject. This session aims to build parent confidence and give practical guidance for having those conversations.
How can parents and carers support their children?
Parental controls are a helpful tool that can protect children from harmful explicit content. But, teachers, like parents, know that having clear boundaries on its own does not automatically lead to good decision making by children or young people.
The UK Children’s Commissioner report suggests three key pieces of advice for parents and carers
- Have proactive, age-appropriate conversations about pornography, ideally before your child is given their first phone.
- Keep abreast of new technologies and trends and know where to go for external support if you are concerned about your child.
- Ensure that your child knows that they can turn to you for non-judgemental advice and support if they come across something distressing online.
What does the Church teach about pornography?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines pornography as
The Church teaches that this is a serious sin and goes against human dignity.
Many people recognise this. They are rightly concerned with the issues in the pornography industry – issues around sexual exploitation and even human trafficking. They can also see that those involved in this industry whether as models, actors, producers, distributors or consumers are engaged in the business of selling sex. In this way people are objectified and the link between human sexuality and love is destroyed and a commercial relationship put in its place.
This gets to the root of the Church’s opposition to pornography. This is because pornography, like prostitution, undermines the authentic love which sex is meant to express.
So what is authentic love?
The Catholic Church teaches that authentic love is free, full, faithful and fruitful.
These are four elements of how love should be expressed in good and healthy relationships – freely, fully, faithfully and fruitfully. But, pornography fails on all four counts:
Freely
Pornography doesn’t allow a person to live and love freely because it almost always becomes addictive. Plus many of those involved in the pornographic industry are being manipulated and exploited. They are not free agents.
Fully
Pornography doesn’t enable someone to give themselves fully in love, because watching pornography doesn’t enable a reciprocal relationship. It is about taking, not giving.
Faithfully
Pornography doesn’t portray or foster faithfulness in relationships. Our minds can often be drawn to fantasise about and objectify the people we are watching, habits which transfer across to our ‘real-life’ relationships.
Fruitfully
Pornography doesn’t celebrate fertility and the gift of children. It is almost always linked to masturbation which is not a sexual act that is open to life.
Free Live Parents Session
How to talk to your child about pornography
Our free CPD session will give advice and encouragement to parents and carers about how to talk to and protect children from the harms of online pornography.
What will the session cover?
During the session, parents will learn more about why we need to talk to our children about pornography and how it is addressed in Life to the Full. They will also be given some ideas for how to share these insights in an appropriate way with children.
It is a great opportunity for you to engage with parents and carers at your school.
To register for your school to host the session so that you can share it with parents and carers:
Sign up hereRelated content:
Programme Update for Secondary Schools (LTTF)
New Year 10 lessons and videos, and changes to the programme structure
Read More
Human Dignity and the Protected Characteristics
What insights does the recent declaration on human dignity offer for teachers of RSE?
Read More
Year 9 New Content
Over the past term, we have uploaded seven brand new Life to the Full sessions for Year 9.
Read More
The Heart of the Matter
What can Pope Francis’s encyclical Dilexis Nos teach us about Catholic RSE?
Read More
Statement from Ten Ten Resources
A recent negative assessment of our Life to the Full programme by the organisation Voice of the Family has prompted us to reflect again on our vision and mission.
Read More
Let’s Talk About Smartphones
It’s hard to miss the numerous news articles, social media posts, documentaries and books discussing the impact of smartphones on the lives of young people.
Read More
What’s new for 2024-2025 from Ten Ten Resources?
Read about the latest subscription news and updates
Read More
How stories change the world
This month we are exploring one of Ten Ten’s key principles - the belief that stories have the power to change hearts and minds.
Read More
Gender Questioning Children in Schools and RSHE
Exploring the new draft Government guidance
Read More
Where to find resources that support safeguarding…
… in Life to the Full and Life to the Full Plus!
Read More
7 Key Areas For Consideration in Life to the Full Primary
Read more about how we have expanded our Key Decisions across the Life to the Full programme
Read More
What’s new for Life to the Full Primary?
Keep track of the latest changes in Life to the Full/Plus
Read More
What’s new for Life to the Full Secondary?
Useful updates and reminders as you begin the new term
Read More
Subscription Packages and Loyalty Discounts for 2023/4
Discover how bundling your Life to the Full, CPD and Collective Worship subscriptions will give you amazing savings!
Read More
Life to the Full Plus – How it Fits
How our new add-on integrates with Life to the Full Primary?
Read More
An Interview with… Rod Isaacs
How to get the most out of Life to the Full for Post-16 pupils
Read More
Change in age for marriage and civil partnerships
What has changed in the law and how is it reflected in LTTF Secondary?
Read More
New content: ‘FGM’ and ‘Death and Grief’
Find out more about our new resources ‘FGM’ and ‘Death and Grief’ for Life to the Full, along with important guidance for SLT and class teachers…
Read More
“How many times do you need to be reminded?”
What is a spiral curriculum and how can the Life to the Full programme be considered one?
Read More
CPD – Watch again
Did you know that we now have a ‘watch again’ function for our CPD sessions?
Read More
A rubbish dump, a beautiful lady and some old bones…
What do these three things have in common?
Read More
Life to the Full Primary: Is it PSHE?
We are often asked: “Does ‘Life to the Full’ cover the national curriculum for PSHE?” This is a question which doesn’t have a simple yes/no answer!
Read More
Is Your School In Wales?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then you may be interested to learn how we are working with the Catholic Education Service Wales to help you implement the new statutory Guidance and Code for RSE.
Read More
St Bernadette Relics Tour and Ten Ten Resources
We are delighted to be an official partner of the St Bernadette Relics Tour…
Read More
Should Schools Consult With Parents About RSHE Every Year?
Let’s have a look at what the DfE says and how you can fulfil this through your ‘Life to the Full’ subscription…
Read More
The Real Mo Farah…
…and how you can explore the real issues of human trafficking with students.
Read More
CPD Sessions for the Start of the New Academic Year…
Whether you need to familiarise returning staff with programme updates or you need to get new staff up to speed, we’ve got sessions for you starting on 1st September...
Read More
Hub Highlights
Looking back over this academic year, we’ve had so many great articles to share with you through the Teacher Hub that we’ve decided to compile some of the most popular to share with you again in case you missed them the first time round!
Read More
What’s New For 2022-23?
The first thing you will notice at the start of the new academic year is that we will have a new website. We have been working with some wonderful website designers and developers to address some of the key issues that our users have fed back. We hope that our new website will improve your user experience and the way you access the content.
Read More
Have You Seen Our New CPD Package?
Due to the amazing success of our CPD events this year, we are delighted to announce…
Read More
Ideas For Funding Your Ten Ten Resources Subscription
Is renewing your Ten Ten Resources subscription a difficult decision because of financial challenges?
Read More
Now Is The Time To Resubscribe
Find out how to renew your subscription here… Did you know that most Life to the Full subscriptions expire on 31st July 2022? It is the same case with the majority of Combined Collective Worship and Life to the Full subscriptions. To maintain access and to prepare for the new academic year in September, schools need to renew.
Read More
Natural Family Planning: Myths and Misconceptions
What might a Catholic say to the argument that Natural Family Planning (NFP) is still a couple ‘playing God’, albeit in a more natural way than using contraception?
Read More
The Law and DIY Abortions
The phrase ‘DIY abortion’ might conjure up tragic images from times before abortion was legalised; characterised by fear, judgement of ‘unfeeling’ or ‘promiscuous’ women and a lack of understanding or communication about changing attitudes towards sex. A particularly harrowing episode of ‘Call the Midwife’ involving a backstreet abortion springs to mind. Now, more than 50 years on, have things changed?
Read More
‘It is love that has explained everything to me’
‘It is love that has explained everything to me,’ is a quotation from St John Paul II, but what did teachers from around the country think about learning about his Theology of the Body?
Read More
Communicating with Parents About RSHE
What does the Government and the Church say about engaging with parents about RSHE and how does Ten Ten Resources enable schools to support parents?
Read More
Keeping Children Safe in Education – Secondary Schools
In January we shared an article for primary schools on ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’. We’ve since had requests for an article for our secondary school colleagues, so here it is…
Read More
#PrayforUkraine
In response to the ongoing situation in Ukraine, we have created a prayer resource freely available for use in schools across the country.
Read More
Warning Children About Pornography
How young is too young to warn children about pornography?
Read More
Human Trafficking – Sixth Form Resource
It’s hard to believe that slavery exists in our modern world…
Read More
Religion Is Booming On Social Media
Two thousand years before social media was a ‘thing’ Jesus was trend setting and getting people to follow Him!
Read More
Keeping Children Safe in Education
Many of our colleagues in primary schools have been keen to know …
Read More
A Time To Be Born And A Time To Die
To coincide with ‘National Grief Awareness Week’ (2 – 8 December) we are releasing two new bereavement resources for use in primary schools.
Read More
(The Pope’s) Sex Education
No, this isn’t the Pope’s exclusive review of the popular Netflix series ‘Sex Education’.
Read More
Ten Ten’s Guidance on Protected Characteristics
Ten Ten has published guidance which provides a summary of the expectation on schools to teach about the Protected Characteristics and guidance on how we support Catholic primary and secondary schools in this teaching through our programme, Life to the Full.
Read More
Standard vs Super
If you came here expecting an in-depth character analysis of Clark Kent and Superman across the entire franchise, I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed. (Sorry-not-sorry about the deliberately misleading picture and title).
Read More
One Kind Word
Bullying is not funny, I think we’d all agree on that. Therefore, I was quite surprised to find that bullying related humour is a thing!
Read More
My Three Confessions…
My friends and family sometimes say that I share too much too soon, so maybe it’s too soon to share these confessions after only working with Ten Ten Resources for four months.
Read More
Addressing Gender Stereotypes
“Hmmm… it looks like a tampax advert!” This was the response of my male friend (on more than one occasion!) when we were discussing the colours on a poster for events we were organising at university.
Read More
Key Decisions
In creating the Life to the Full programme we have tried to pitch the resources at an age-appropriate level for children within each learning stage.
Read More
New CPD Courses
We are delighted to announce that we have created a number of exciting new CPD opportunities for both subscribers and non-subscribers in the areas of Collective Worship and RSHE.
Read More
New Year 11 Programme
Starting with ‘Self Worth’ on Monday 6th September, our new Year 11 resources are ready for gradual release over the coming weeks.
Read More
Relationship Watch
There’s something in us all that is intrigued by human relationships - how they work, how they don’t, and how they thrive or nose-dive under certain pressures of life.
Read More
Progression of Skills Documents & More
All around the world this week, people have been amazed and inspired by Zheng Tao, arguably one of the most skillful athletes to walk the face of the earth.
Read More
