Girls as young as 9 asking for labiaplasty because of porn ☹️

[Labiarynth]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/03/vagina-surgery-sought-girls-young-nine-pornography-doctors-reveal/

Aibu that this is all sorts of wrong?! There are girls in the world being forced into FGM. There are causes around the world to stop this from happening yet "In 2015-16, more than 200 girls under 18 had labiaplasty on the NHS, and over 150 of the girls were under 15."

The doctors who carried out these "operations" are just as bad as the people who cut off girl's clitorises or sew them up illegally. 😡😡

Then you are definitely naive. Porn being shown on mobile phones in school has been massively on the increase in recent years.

I believe the damage porn does to women and to society but I don't think that porn could explain this. I don't know how a 9 year old would even give their own labia a thought.

We don't have mobile phones in schools. Not for 9 year olds.

It's not naive, its the norm. Don't try and make it a usual thing because you let your kids be exposed to it.

9 year olds are not somehow exempt from assimilating cultural norms

About the precise shape of their vaginas? They are exempt from that, actually!

Or does your child not go to school. While you're watching them 24/7.

My child went to a friend's house to play. I had no reason not to trust that friends parents to do a good job, they haven't given any clues that would suggest I shouldnt.

I "let my kids" play with their friends. When I spoke to the school about it, they said what I have told you here (phones aren't allowed here in school either. Children like to flaunt school rules though)

Where I am, there are no mobile phones in school. None of the people I know with 9 year olds have given them phones anyway.
Again, you need to feel its the norm because you know how bad it was that your very young child was exposed to such things, and it makes you feel slightly less bad to think it happens to everyone.
It doesn't.

I'm telling you about my child being exposed outside of my home to try to help you understand. I sincerely hope you are right and your child has no idea what porn is, that would be so much better than what I have had to deal with. I'm not promoting this as some sort of ideal ffs.

Then why keep calling people naive when they tell you its not something their children know about?

Because I am telling you what the experts I spoke to told me, and the advice I received from elsewhere - that the exposure of younger people to Internet porn is massively on the increase.

It took me 2 years to get my GP to refer me for an MRI on my totally fucked up knee. Can anyone point me in the direction of those GPS who refer and pay for frivolous teen plastic surgery. Thanks.

On the increase doesn't mean all nine year olds have seen porn! You are being ridiculous.
It is NOT naive to say that one's 9 year old knows nothing of porn. It's the actual norm.

Please point to where I said all nine year olds have seen porn? I said your child is probably aware of its existence.

You may think I'm being ridiculous, but I think you are being deliberately goady and offensive. You think I don't know that it's shit that my child has been exposed to something that I don't think should even exist?

Cheeses my 8 year old son and his friends were told in detail about the porn another friend had watched at home. Apparently the friend's older brother (around 12/13,) had shown the boy for a laugh while their parents weren't present.
I'm not sure how the parents of the boys could have prevented that, seeing as they likely trusted their older son not to do such a thing - and probably had no idea that he was watching porn. Maybe they're negligent in general, I don't know, but the point remains that it's possible for children to be exposed to porn without parents being negligent. Babysitters, older siblings leaving tabs open, mobile phones at school, laptops at school (my son's year and up are required to have personal chromebooks,) and probably more.
And as for my son and I... Well, the other boy was very detailed, so I found myself having to give the "porn talk" far, far earlier than I ever thought I would have to

I very much doubt there many are nine year olds who don't at least know what it is, I think you're possibly being naive if you are sure your child doesn't

My 9 year old does not know what porn is. Like your average 9 year old.

Perhaps this is the norm for you in the UK, it is not elsewhere I can assure you.

And it isn't goady and offensive to respond to you calling me naive for no good reason.

I saw this article on BBC this morning and immediately thought clickbait; ridiculous headlines being used by all outlets to make an issue out of something that is affecting a minute portion of children.

I would say that more 9 year olds than are aware of porn on some level than people would be like it think. I remember seeing Page 3 models and FHM magazines in primary school (although I did have older brothers) and was around 8 or 9 when we first got a home computer with the Internet, when pretty awful popups were commonplace!

Cheese I'm not sure why you find it so hard to believe that a 6 year old may have been shown something by an older child without parents knowing. Lots of children have older siblings and cousins that they are probably regularly left alone with even for short periods of time. My 6yo stepdaughter plays in her room alone quite often (although with no technology). I don't feel the need to watch a 6yo playing all the time. Bloody hell, I'd never get anything done if that was the case.

I don't find it hard to believe at all. I find it hard to believe that just because your own 6 year old had seen it you would turn that into it being a fairly normal thing, when it isn't.

You don't need to watch your 6 year old constantly, you do need to make sure they can't access porn when you aren't watching them. Honestly, is this the fucking twilight zone or what? I'm not saying anything contraversial here. What planet are you people on?
Or is the UK an even bigger shithole than MN suggests, with your toddlers watching pornhub?

No, I won't. You are pretending that it is normal for SIX YEAR olds to be shown porn.
IT is not. I am not the one who needs to stop.

We're not suggesting children are sitting down with a dirty magazine every evening, no we are suggesting that children are children, curious and mischievous, and often easily led astray by older children.

Have you ever worked in a school or with children? The stories of things children have said to teachers over the years may shock you if you think they are all clueless. Children know a lot more than we give them credit for. They probably just don't share it with us because why the fuck would your 11 year old come home and tell you they'd found out what a blowjob was? How old were you when you found things out? I remember in my primary school it was fairly common by Year 5/6 to know the basics of most sex-related information. It doesn't mean we were badly parented.

I had this done at age 20. It was first discussed when I was 5 .

I was first refered at 16. The doctor asked me if I watched pornography then. I remember hee saying I only wanted it because I felt ugly. I was a virgin then and had never seen another person naked on tv or otherwise.

I was on steroid creams, antibiotics , shower creams , oliatum, barrier creams all sorts.

I used to cover my bits in cling film and or roll the lips up and tuck them inside me. I had blisters , bruises and cuts all over them. Used to plead with my mum and GP to get rid of them, from age 3 or so.

Age 26 I have PTSD because of it all. I don't think 11 year olds want this because of porn - they probably feel just like me.

And yes - the NHS paid for my surgery . The staff - professor of gynae, surgeons x 2 , GP x 2 , district nhrses , midwife , practice nurse and ward nurses all said they had never seen it done in cases other than cancer. It is exceptionally rare .

shouldn't that sounds awful for you, I hope things are better now

Shouldn't

I can believe young girls are more exposed to porn than previously. I can believe more may ask for labiaplasty, but that is at least partly due to increased awareness about plastic surgery. But in reality the NHS just will not do labiaplasties without sound medical reason. In reality women put up with discomfort and irritation for years, or forever.