Access to hardcore pornography is ‘one of the greatest dangers’ to our children – and parents need to set boundaries and be checking their children's smartphones.
Family psychotherapist and author Dr Richard Hogan was speaking as studies warn that widespread smartphone use is impacting on children’s development – with cyberbullying and access to pornography and disinformation impacting their well-being.
Family psychotherapist and author Dr Richard Hogan told The Pat Kenny Show he is 'flabbergasted' at where society stands on the issue.
"One of the greatest dangers... is the easy access of pornography for our children - to me, that's one of the single most important issues here," he said.
"I can't believe that I'm standing here in 2024, as a parent of three daughters [and] working with adolescents for over 25 years, that a child can access hardcore, extreme material without any gateway to stop them.
"I find myself flabbergasted saying that – there's nothing there; there's no preventative measure".
Dr Hogan said he was told of a case last year where "a senior infant had consumed hardcore extreme material".
Teenagers using smartphonesDr Hogan said no country has managed to tackle the problem successfully.
"I don't know of any [Government] yet who's done this properly," he said.
"That's why I think we as a country should be at the forefront of this.
"We should be able to bring in legislation here to prevent this from happening. We need robust legislation".
Dr Hogan said the material available to children is 'hardcore and extreme'.
"We live in quite a blended society and currently pornography is about step dads, step sisters, step mother, step brothers," he said.
"Imagine if you're eight and living in a blended family and you watch pornography - it's telling you that perhaps your father, your stepmother, should be someone you should be sexually interested in."
'Ripping families apart'
Dr Hogan said the effects can disturb and warp children's perceptions.
"The smartphone is in the schools, it's in the classroom and it's in the toilet," he said.
"This isn't pornography of old - this isn't Playboy, this isn't channel 18 that we grew up with, this isn't Eurotrash.
"This is hardcore, extreme material that disturbs and warps.
"In my experience working with families, no one's talking about this, but it's ripping families apart because people are getting stuck into it.
"It's addictive and it's destroying couples and intimacy."
'We are the parents here'
Dr Hogan said parents need to get more involved.
"My message to parents is we need to get our hands around this, we need to take back our parental authority," he said.
"It is difficult for us because we mightn't be digital natives – but we are the parents here and we set the culture in the family.
"This is massively impacting on adolescents, and it's destroying their social world."
He said phone boundaries should be set by parents.
"You're not your child's best friend - you're the parent," he said.
"You don't want an inverted hierarchy in your family where your child is dictating how they navigate phones.
"[Give children] phone boundaries - no phone in the bedroom, very simple, no phone at the meal.
"Give them little respites during the day and check the phone from time to time – because you will find content on it.
"You have to do this because I can feel people saying, 'That's my child's privacy'.
"Is it? At 14 they should have all this privacy? Absolutely not. You need to be in there and looking at what's going on".
A young girl using her smartphoneDr Hogan said he believes attitudes are starting to change.
"I feel there's a shift coming on," he said.
"I feel there's a real kind of movement to kind of delay [smartphones] to 16.
"I don't think anywhere in primary school there should be a smartphone - I think that should be out of everybody's hand."
Education Minister Norma Foley said she plans to bring in a smartphone ban for secondary schools, citing the harms that social media and cyberbullying can cause for children.
