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Children have unrestricted access to violent pornography: documentary

Jared and Michelle Brock have made a documentary, Over 18, as a wake up call to parents.
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Joseph is 13. By his own description he is 'a recovered porn addict.'

“My name is Joseph. I’m 13 years old and I’m a recovered porn addict.”

If this clip in the trailer to the film Over 18 doesn’t send a chill through you, then you’re not a parent.

The documentary, made by Ontarians Jared and Michelle Brock, is meant as a wake up call for parents, said its distributor, Dave Knox, in a phone conversation. It will be shown twice in Kelowna this week.

Joseph got his first glimpse of pornography when he was nine years old while playing a game online. “All of a sudden this pop-up comes up in the corner,” the clean-cut boy recalls in his pre-adolescent voice. “It was this porn site and I go ‘Whoa, that’s weird,’ and I click on the X and go on playing my game.”

“For the few seconds that I saw it I couldn’t get it out of my head.”

Over 18And just like that, an inquisitive, clean-cut kid from a good family in Manitoba joins the legion of online porn addicts.

“Joseph didn’t go looking for pornography,” said Knox. “It came to him.”

But once introduced, he started looking for it. “This isn’t the pornography of our parents,” Knox said. “It’s not Playboy. It’s violent, body-punishing sex. It’s promoting violence against women.

“That’s why this conversation needs to happen.”

Joseph’s parents realized something was going on when his attitude toward his younger sister changed. He started playing out the violence he saw on screen against her.

“Kids start to think that violence is normal. Sexting is part of our society which has become more ‘pornified,’” Knox said.

With Over 18, the Brocks want to get the conversation of protecting our children into the mainstream. Now, anyone wanting access to porn sites simply clicks on the ‘over 18’ box that pops up no deterrence to media-savvy children.

The Brocks want to see access restricted “so a 9-, 10-, 12-year-old kid can’t go online to see something his brain can’t comprehend.”

There will be two showings of Over 18 in Kelowna this week:

Thursday, 6 p.m. Nov. 3 at the French Cultural Centre, 702 Bernard Ave., hosted by Metro Community Church.

Friday, 7 p.m. at 1-120 Lougheed Rd., hosted by House Church Kelowna.