The BBC’s Woman’s Hour programme has seemingly attempted to normalise the question of providing pornography to children, asking the public whether they believe “age-appropriate pornography” should be made for them.
On Monday, the social media account for Woman’s Hour posited the questions: “What’s the best way to inform teenagers about porn? Should there be age-appropriate porn as has been suggested so they can learn about consent and what’s respectful and what’s not? What do you think?”
“Email us your opinions,” the publicly-funded programme went on to urge.
The post was likely a response to the controversy surrounding the daughter of former Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Sunday Times contributing journalist Flora Gill, who drew considerable backlash for a now-deleted tweet in which she called for the production of “porn for children”.
“Someone needs to create porn for children. Hear me out. Young teens are already watching porn but they’re finding hardcore, aggressive videos that give a terrible view of sex,” Gill wrote last week.
“They need entry-level porn! A softcore site where everyone asks for consent and no one gets choked,” she declared.
Noticing a backlash against the perverted post, Gill quickly deleted the tweet and said: “Apropos of nothing, I really think if someone quickly deletes a tweet, it shouldn’t be screenshotted and shared like… just let it die, you know? no? no one else agree?”
The post from Woman’s Hour has also drawn considerable criticism, with many questioning why the public is forced to pay a license fee to subsidise such far-left ideology.
Conservative Home commentator Bella Wallersteiner responded: “Age-appropriate porn is grooming,” adding: “It’s becoming clear there aren’t any adults left at the BBC capable of critical thinking.”
Human trafficking survivor advocate Eliza Bleu commented: “Raising children that understand healthy boundaries and consent is not the responsibility of the porn industry.”
British rapper Zuby also took aim at the post, simply writing: “It’s not too late to delete this.”
It is not the first time that the BBC’s Woman’s Hour has sparked controversy over the issue of showing children pornography.
A former presenter for the programme, Dame Jenni Murray, previously suggested that pornography should be shown in the classroom, saying in 2016: “We might show them a news bulletin that has been on television the night before. Why not show them pornography and teach them how to analyse it?”
“You put boys and girls together in a class and you show them a pornographic film and you analyse it in exactly the same way as you teach them to read all the other cultures around them,” she explained.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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