Extreme online pornography is ‘radicalising’ young men, Garda Commissioner says
By Jonathan McCambridge and Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
Extreme online pornography is “radicalising” some young men into normalising violence against women, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said.
Mr Harris said in some cases gardaí have had to explain to perpetrators of violent sexual assaults why what they did was wrong.
Mr Harris will step down as Commissioner in September after seven years in the post.
On Thursday, he addressed his final meeting of the Policing Authority.
Speaking to the media afterwards he explained his concerns about the prevalence of online pornography.
He said: “I think the use of the expression hard-core is no longer relevant.
“The pornography which is readily accessible on the internet is extreme in the violence that it perpetrates, mostly against women.
“What happens then is that young men see this and this is a major influence on them in terms of what they think a sexual relationship is.
“We see this manifest in serious sexual assaults where, literally, it has to be explained to them what they did was wrong.
“Because seeing this violent behaviour has become so normalised.”
He added: “There is a trend in the violent behaviour of the offending which you can relate back to the imagery which is in pornography, which is so prevalent on the internet.
“That has been also observed by the various studies, Women’s Aid recently released a report and that was their conclusion as well.
“My analysis of this is probably more anecdotal.
“As I look at the incidents and what is described, but also what the responses of the various assailants, perpetrators are, one can see that they have become normalised to the violence that they are seeing online.”
Mr Harris said some men’s view of a normal sexual relationship had become “completely distorted”.
He added: “You can say almost that they have been radicalised.
“I do think there is an education piece for this. We have heard a lot over the last few weeks about limiting the access of children to all sorts of violent imagery, I think that’s a good thing.
“It has to be faced up as well that there is a multibillion industry behind this that we are not going to defeat by attacking it, what we have to do is make sure people are educated and understand what a proper relationship is.”
The Commissioner said: “What I am saying is one can see the trend, it is backed up by academic research.
“We can see the trend ourselves and it is evident then when we consider some of the crimes that come through our courts in recent years.”