Recently, the international child welfare agency UNICEF published a report which caused widespread concern amongst child safety experts and advocates. UNICEF stated, “the evidence is inconsistent, and there is currently no universal agreement on the nature and extent of the harm caused to children by viewing content classified as pornography.”
In response to this troubling report, NCOSE(National Center on Sexual Exploitation)coordinated a joint letter to UNICEF, signed by 487 child safety experts and advocates from 26 countries. We called on UNICEF to review the overwhelming body of research which proves pornography does in fact cause harm to children and update their own report in response.
Since the sending of the joint letter, UNICEF removed the report from their website.
Victory! The harmful messaging UNICEF’s report contains is no longer being publicized. We are hopeful that this means they are editing the report to take into account the research that we brought to their attention.