Two 11-year-old ‘porn addicts’ have been arrested in India after they allegedly stoned a six-year-old girl to death for refusing to perform sex acts they had watched on their parents’ phones.
The juveniles allegedly became porn addicts while attending school classes online via their parents’ phones, as they were able to access adult content and became obsessed with what they saw.
The six-year-old girl, a neighbour of her attackers, was found unconscious close to her house in Kaliabor, in the Indian state of Assam on October 18 and was rushed to hospital, but was later pronounced dead.
Authorities arrested the two juveniles on Wednesday last week, along with another eight-year-old who is thought to have helped the children murder the young girl.
All three juveniles have been sent to the Jorhat juvenile correctional facility awaiting trial, as children are seen as having criminal responsibility from the age of seven in India.
It comes after a report by the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) found that India was the world’s largest consumer of porn via smartphones in 2019.
This pic shows the children accused of the crime being quizzed by a police officer after the six-year-old girl was found beaten to death with a rock
The six-year-old girl, a neighbour of her attackers, was found unconscious close to her house in Kaliabor, in the Indian state of Assam on October 18 and was rushed to hospital, but was later pronounced dead (pictured: police examining the area around the crime scene)
The IANS report found that India was the world’s largest consumer of porn via smartphones in 2019. India also has the world’s largest youth population of any country (file image)
The horrific incident took place in Koliabor in state of Assam in north India (pictured: fields in Kaziranga, Assam)
Kaliabor police officer Mrinmoy Das provided a statement shortly after the arrests.
Two of the boys first tried to replicate the pornographic acts they had been watching and tried to molest the neighbour’s girl.
‘When she resisted they hit her head with a stone and carried her to a toilet where they hit her again with a stone on her chest. The third child stood guard outside the toilet.’
Porn website Pornhub.com reported that India was the third-largest consumer of porn in the world in 2017-2018, before the Indian government introduced a blanket ban on the website and 800 other adult content platforms in late 2018.
Despite this, the IANS report found that India was the world’s largest consumer of porn via smartphones in 2019, while data released by Pornhub last year showed that traffic to the website from India jumped by 95 percent during the first three weeks of coronavirus lockdown in March.
Though the government’s ban on the website still exists, users are still able to access content using virtual private network (VPN) services to hide their browsing location.
According to a report by Top10VPN in November 2019, the number of downloads of VPNs in India increased by 405 percent in a year since October 2018.
Police are led to the scene of the crime by members of the community in Kaliabor, where the young girl was found in critical condition on October 18
Porn website Pornhub.com reported that India was the third-largest consumer of porn in the world in 2017-2018
Dr Samir Parikh, director of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, said: ‘Children need to learn to critically evaluate whatever messages they receive, understand the motives and, most importantly, distinguish what is real from fiction.’ (file image)
The statistics are emblematic of growing concerns around porn addiction in India according to several experts, who are calling for a more developed sex education programme in the country with the world’s largest youth population.
Dr Samir Parikh, director of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, said: ‘Children need to learn to critically evaluate whatever messages they receive, understand the motives and, most importantly, distinguish what is real from fiction.’
Meanwhile, Dr Sameer Malhotra, director of the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Max Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, believes that young people are particularly prone to developing porn addiction as their behaviour during their developmental years is often more compulsive.
‘Excessive porn viewing could be reflective of compulsive traits and behaviours in an individual.
‘Age appropriate and sensitively handled sex education can help in preventing risky behaviour, addressing myths associated with sexual issues,’ Dr Malhotra said.