{"id":8145,"date":"2021-06-11T13:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=8145"},"modified":"2021-06-11T13:39:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T12:39:05","slug":"did-unicef-say-blocking-childrens-access-to-pornography-constitute-human-rights-infringement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/did-unicef-say-blocking-childrens-access-to-pornography-constitute-human-rights-infringement\/","title":{"rendered":"Did UNICEF say blocking children\u2019s access to pornography constitute human rights\u2019 infringement?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CLAIM 1: A Twitter user claims UNICEF said any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLAIM 2: \u00a0A website report shared by the Twitter user claims UNICEF said pornography is not always harmful to children.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

UNICEF in its report explained that though there are different kinds of risks and harms that have been linked to children\u2019s exposure to pornography but there is \u2018no consensus\u2019 on the \u2018degree\u2019 to which pornography is harmful to children.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Story<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>A Twitter user, Anitabook.com (@JackPosobiec), on May 31, 2021, tweeted a report from an online medium, C-fam.org<\/a>, which claims that the United Nation\u2019s International Children\u2019s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report says pornography is not always harmful to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His tweet was accompanied by a caption saying: \u201cBREAKING: UNICEF says any efforts to block children from accessing pornography online might infringe on their human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tweet has so far garnered over 3,500 retweets, more than 1,000 comments and over 3,500 likes as of Friday, June 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further checks show that several Twitter users have shared the same post quoting the same medium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Checks by Dubawa show that the report was hinged on an April 2021 report published by UNICEF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report titled \u201cDigital Age Assurance Tools and Children\u2019s Rights Online across the Globe\u201d explores the relationship between children\u2019s rights, business and the Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report also addressed central themes, including children\u2019s rights to privacy, freedom of expression, information, education and non-discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What UNICEF actually\u00a0 said on pornography and children<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

UNICEF in its report<\/a> explained that there are different kinds of risks linked to children\u2019s exposure to pornography but that there is no consensus on the degree to which pornography is harmful to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report reads in part; \u201cAccess to pornography at a young age is linked with poor mental health, sexism and objectification, sexual aggression and other negative outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe evidence suggests that some children appear to be harmed by exposure to some kinds of pornography at least some of the time, but that the nature and extent of that harm vary. There is conflicting evidence regarding how many children worldwide are accessing pornography online, and how often. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome studies have found that boys are more likely to experience greater exposure to pornography at an earlier age, and they are more likely to be exposed to violent or abusive images such as rape, whereas girls are more likely to be subject to involuntary or problematic exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNICEF also notes that its conclusion is based on an online study from 19 European countries which claims that most children who saw saw sexual images online \u201cwere neither upset nor happy, ranging from 27 per cent in Switzerland to 72 per cent in Lithuania; between 10 per cent and 4 per cent were fairly or very upset; and between 3 per cent of children (in Estonia) and 39 per cent (in Spain) reported feeling happy after seeing such images.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNICEF further explained that in Europe, restricting children\u2019s access to certain kinds of pornography online is generally considered a legitimate aim by governments, whereas in the US, this is seen by the courts as an infringement of constitutional rights to freedom of speech, while in many other countries, pornography is entirely illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Checks show that UNICEF has taken down the report from its website and has replaced it with an edited report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Even though UNICEF has deleted its initial report and replaced with an edited report, the claim that the organisation said pornography is not always harmful to children is misleading. Instead, what UNICEF said in its report is that there is no agreement to on the degree to which pornography is harmful to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It, however, didn\u2019t state that any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights, thus making the claim misleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A screenshot of UNICEF\u2019s report<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2021 Kwame KariKari Fellowship partnership with The Nigerian Tribune<\/a> to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLAIM 1: A Twitter user claims UNICEF said any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights. \u00a0 CLAIM 2: \u00a0A website report shared by the Twitter user claims UNICEF said pornography is not always harmful to children. UNICEF in its report explained that though there are different kinds of risks and harms that have been linked to children\u2019s exposure to pornography but there is \u2018no consensus\u2019 on the \u2018degree\u2019 to which pornography is harmful to children. Full Story A Twitter user, Anitabook.com (@JackPosobiec), on May 31, 2021, tweeted a report from an online medium, C-fam.org, which claims that the United Nation\u2019s International Children\u2019s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report says pornography is not always harmful to children. His tweet was accompanied by a caption saying: \u201cBREAKING: UNICEF says any efforts to block children from accessing pornography online might infringe on their human rights.\u201d The tweet has so far garnered over 3,500 retweets, more than 1,000 comments and over 3,500 likes as of Friday, June 4. Further checks show that several Twitter users have shared the same post quoting the same medium.  Verification Checks by Dubawa show that the report was hinged on an April 2021 report published by UNICEF. The report titled \u201cDigital Age Assurance Tools and Children\u2019s Rights Online across the Globe\u201d explores the relationship between children\u2019s rights, business and the Internet. The report also addressed central themes, including children\u2019s rights to privacy, freedom of expression, information, education and non-discrimination. What UNICEF actually\u00a0 said on pornography and children UNICEF in its report explained that there are different kinds of risks linked to children\u2019s exposure to pornography but that there is no consensus on the degree to which pornography is harmful to children. The report reads in part; \u201cAccess to pornography at a young age is linked with poor mental health, sexism and objectification, sexual aggression and other negative outcomes. \u201cThe evidence suggests that some children appear to be harmed by exposure to some kinds of pornography at least some of the time, but that the nature and extent of that harm vary. There is conflicting evidence regarding how many children worldwide are accessing pornography online, and how often.  \u201cSome studies have found that boys are more likely to experience greater exposure to pornography at an earlier age, and they are more likely to be exposed to violent or abusive images such as rape, whereas girls are more likely to be subject to involuntary or problematic exposure.\u201d UNICEF also notes that its conclusion is based on an online study from 19 European countries which claims that most children who saw saw sexual images online \u201cwere neither upset nor happy, ranging from 27 per cent in Switzerland to 72 per cent in Lithuania; between 10 per cent and 4 per cent were fairly or very upset; and between 3 per cent of children (in Estonia) and 39 per cent (in Spain) reported feeling happy after seeing such images.\u201d UNICEF further explained that in Europe, restricting children\u2019s access to certain kinds of pornography online is generally considered a legitimate aim by governments, whereas in the US, this is seen by the courts as an infringement of constitutional rights to freedom of speech, while in many other countries, pornography is entirely illegal. Checks show that UNICEF has taken down the report from its website and has replaced it with an edited report. Conclusion Even though UNICEF has deleted its initial report and replaced with an edited report, the claim that the organisation said pornography is not always harmful to children is misleading. Instead, what UNICEF said in its report is that there is no agreement to on the degree to which pornography is harmful to children. It, however, didn\u2019t state that any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights, thus making the claim misleading. The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2021 Kwame KariKari Fellowship partnership with The Nigerian Tribune to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,4,121],"tags":[1935,1936,1934,305],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[1894],"class_list":["post-8145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-featured","category-health","tag-children","tag-human-rights","tag-pornography","tag-unicef"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-27n","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1894,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"faith-adeoye","display_name":"Faith Adeoye","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e616648a9d7e25f4831b8eed000d28784e26cb3f56ac71172f2b3d79d69862d?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/unicef.jpg?fit=1200%2C700&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8145"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=8145"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=8145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}