To freak out- my 9 yr old ds describes youtube videos his school friends have watched at home and told him about- what he is describing is porn.

[Evelight]

It's the second time he's come home from school, describing what his friends have (different each time) told him that they watched at home- these are 8-9 yr olds! what is wrong with people- parental controls much!? Should I tell the teacher? I have told him this is completely inappropriate and he should walk away from people who are talking about this stuff, and that he will get in trouble if the teachers hear them. He tells me that "Jack" / "Mohammad" were telling this stuff while they were in line-up, or in art class, so he couldn't move away.

I would most certainly tell the teacher.

and my DS is 10 & I would also freak out.

How is the teacher going to stop them watching You Tube videos?

Yes, tell the teacher.

that's what I thought (what could the teacher do?) But I think- perhaps she could alert the parents this has happened- is happening? the problem is I am not sure which boys they are - they have very common names, and I don't want to keep probing ds.

Tell the teacher. Who is showing pornography to these children? Very worrying indeed.

also- art class! the irony!

Its a safeguarding issue. If 8 year olds are bring exposed to this then the school should potentially involve social services.

*being

I don't think they were "shown"- I think some kids have unfettered internet access - they know how to search, and they probably searched "sex" etc (they all know about birds and bees by now, obvs).
We have parent-teacher interviews coming up, I think I will mention it to the teacher.

I see it as a safeguarding concern too. At the very least the teacher can talk to them about staying safe online.

Does YouTube have porn on it?? Don't think it does....

I've a feeling this possibly isn't that unusual. My (female) friends and I were quite curious about sex at that age, but had only the vaguest notion how it all worked. Our curiosity mostly came from TV soaps and magazines our mothers left lying around . I'm sure our parents would've been shocked if they'd heard some of our conversations. If the internet had existed back then we would've googled behind our parents' backs and come up with all sorts. I'm not being dismissive of your concerns, just saying that it might be a combination of typical nine year old curiosity and unsupervised internet access.

it's a criminal offence to 'Compel or causing a child to witness a sexual offence, a sexual act or self-masturbation '

its highly likely the parents aren't aware - it could be an older sibling or one child (possibly at risk of abuse or being abused) involving others in watching it

it is worth reporting to the school - please do

I don't know that they boys watched the videos on Youtube or not- but I know ds considers all internet videos as "youtube", so that may have got lost in translation. I don't know whether youtube shows porn or not, but the scenes ds described were porn (blowjobs etc).

I was curious too- my mom had a 'seventies Everywoman and I remember pouring over those line sketches with horrid fascination.

I'm afraid if the school reacts too heavy-handed, and if ds finds out I've "told", and won't trust me. I also feel the parents are not aware, but I think they should be made aware.

-so i'm conflicted. But the collective wisdom seems to be to tell.

Could have been youporn? :( I would tell school. Also make sure your internet is very well protected, and have a chat with ds about what he saw.

I'm a teacher. You need to report this to the school. It is a child protection issue at worst and at best, a case of boys stumbling across something that they shouldn't and the school will inform parents.

I agree with TooManyMochas

And think you need to tell the school as well.

Another vote for reporting. It's a safeguarding issue.

It's worth mentioning so the school can do an Internet safety type thing for parents. Lots of people aren't as clued up as their kids on the Internet

The problem is that the kids watch all sorts on YouTube from mine craft to how to do magic tricks. But. YouTube has this thing that then suggests more stuff to watch.

It's not long before something unsuitable comes up. You can put parental controls on YouTube and on the router

I'm pretty IT savvy but my kids have inadvertently got to the suggestions that aren't suitable.

I agree, mention it to the teacher, it is a safeguarding issue. You'd hope the school will deal with this sensitively and speak to the parents of the boys involved - even just to make them aware that their children are accessing this kind of material. This happened in a school I worked at and the parent had no idea their child was watching this stuff - they were shown how to put parental controls on their mobile!!

Thanks everybody! I'll let the teacher know on Monday. Lovely way to start the week eh.

All you have to go on is what some boys said to your son what they saw. My initial reaction I must admit was that the informants were bragging to try and look "big". If they really are looking at porn on-line at that age then I agree something must be done but I'd mention it to the parents. Why involve the school? It's not being done on school premises. on a school PC or in school time. What's it got to do with the school?