The greatest consumers of the $3-billion Internet child pornography industry are children between 12 and 17 years.
These websites are pulling in young people with Internet access to such an extent that 90 percent of children between eight and 16 have been exposed to them while doing homework.
These were some of the statistics presented at the Child Online and Child Pornography Roundtable on Tuesday.
The Roundtable, hosted by computer giant Microsoft, consisted of people involved in technology and those who work with children.
Colin Erasmus, security manager at Microsoft, said the pornography industry was worth $57-billion globally.
Child pornography, he said, generates $3-billion annually.
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There were 4,2-million pornographic websites, said Erasmus. He said the average age of first Internet exposure to porn is 11 and that 80 percent of 15 to 17-year-olds have had "multiple hard-core exposures".
The conference also heard that the average age of a hacker was 17, because it was "seen as cool" to hack information.
Violent gore sites were also popular among youth.
The statistics raised much concern because 10 percent of children under 18 were addicted to the Internet.
Joan van Niekerk, Childline director, said 51 percent of child sexual abuse cases reported to them were child-on-child abuse cases. - Own Correspondent
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This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on April 20, 2005
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