Access to pornography should be addressed at primary school level according to a High Court judge after sentencing a teenager for the rape of his niece on Monday.
It was discovered he had been acting out pornographic scenes he had been watching since he was nine years old. He was given a five-year suspended sentence.
There is not much point focusing on tackling sexual consent at university level if pornography is being accessed when children are in primary school, Justice Deirdre Murphy said.
Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy said, “This is a 19-year-old young man charged with serious sexual offences including seven Section 4 rapes and ten sexual assault offences and the sending of lewd texts to his niece over the period.”
She said that “this is an alarm call to society in general as to the dangers of a child accessing pornography”.
“Sexual education at primary level should deal with pornography. Maybe that might seem to be a shocking thing to say. But this young man and his friends were accessing pornography,” the judge said.