Number of Irish children watching pornography increasing, warns charity

A new report by a children's charity has stated that young people in Ireland are suffering with poor self-image and early sexualisation.

Over 420,000 calls were answered by the support service last year, the majority of calls coming from boys.

CEO of the ISPCC Grainia Long said that there has been a massive in increase in the number of children viewing pornography.

Busy @ISPCCChildline elves in the office this afternoon in advance of our AGM tomorrow-This just dropped on my desk! pic.twitter.com/r5Czcg1Bj6

— Grainia Long (@GrainiaLong) July 20, 2016

She has also repeated her calls for the Government to publish a cyber safety strategy.

"When I ask volunteers in Childline: 'What are the things you are worried about? How has life changed for children?', without question, and without hesitation, they say: 'children viewing pornography' and 'children using highly sexualised language'," she said.

"We called for a cyber safety strategy within the first 100 days of this Government.

"We think this needs to be an urgent priority."