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This article claims that experts told UK MP's that sexual harassment is increasing in schools because of internet pornography. However, I haven't seen any references to studies done on the subject so I'd like to see where the facts stand.

Note that while this question is aimed at the UK, an answer could reasonably be supported by evidence from other countries.

The article says:

Experts told the Women and Equalities Committee that online pornography had led to increased acceptance of sexual violence and harassment towards women. A "normalised culture of sexual harassment" in England's schools meant girls were changing their behaviours, rather than boys being challenged. And change would come only with a shift in attitude among the wider population.

Sklivvz
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PointlessSpike
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    It'd be interesting to see the minutes/transcript to see what the experts actually said to see if their claims had been correctly reported. – Oddthinking Jun 08 '16 at 09:00
  • @Oddthinking- I haven't seen a transcript anywhere, but you can watch the video or just listen [here](http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/d48c3261-d54f-43bc-a52f-940a9f5c818c). – PointlessSpike Jun 08 '16 at 09:04
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    I've just listened to the whole thing and the only statistics they mention is the number of children that have their own devices. Everything else is anecdote, which emphasises the need for quantification. – PointlessSpike Jun 08 '16 at 10:29
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    I doubt we know. Sexual harassment is hard to define in any rigorous way, and allegations are hard to resolve because its generally just one word against another. If you are looking at change over time then you also have the problem of shifting mores. Whistling at pretty girls used to be acceptable behaviour, so nobody would bother complaining, and even if they did nothing would be recorded. These days its considered to be sexual harassment. So how do you compare figures for the past with figures for the present? – Paul Johnson Jun 11 '16 at 08:19
  • @PaulJohnson- You could measure cases of actual rape, to begin with. That's something that probably would be recorded and would be expected to increase if they're right. But I'm not a statistician, nor that engaged with the subject, so I don't really know. – PointlessSpike Jun 13 '16 at 07:33
  • That would be an improvement: it is at least well defined. However changing social attitudes to sex and "date rape", the degree of acceptance of allegations from under-age victims and the shifting standards of evidence required to obtain a conviction are all still confounding factors. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Savile_sexual_abuse_scandal for examples. – Paul Johnson Jun 13 '16 at 16:17
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    Important to keep in mind that an increase in *reports* does not equal an increase in actual *cases* -- it could just be that there is better support infrastructure now so more people are confident enough to speak up, or less people are willing to dismiss the accusations before they get into a police report, etc. – Shadur Nov 02 '17 at 17:26
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    @PointlessSpike rapes usually aren't reported. I have personally spoken to four different rape survivors, of whom only one offically reported the rape (which she later regretted due to her treatment), and I know of two other rape survivors who also did not make an official report. Still, looking at rather there is an increase in rape reports could help. An increase in rape reports would not definitively prove an increase in rapes, but a lack of increase would be a strong indicator that rapes have not increased since rape survivors are more likely to report now then in the past. – dsollen Nov 07 '17 at 16:17
  • I'd say it's false. It would be rather difficult to draw a direct correlation with internet pornography and an increase in sexual violence, as there'd be far too many other variables we'd need to measure in order to make this conclusion. For instance, what is the comparison between how often sexual violence/harassment was reported say, a decade ago, as opposed to now? With mainstream media websites like the BBC I believe it's always very important to check the sources. The source linked directly to the claim in question is simply the video where the claim is (not actually) made, so we have to – Ryan Pants Jan 19 '18 at 09:37
  • Unfortunatley the whole topic is rife with people pushing political agendas and mild hysteria, I'm as yet unable to find any substantive data even relating to reporting of the issue, let alone defining it or it's consequences. My concern is that many of the figures bandied around on some of the websites Eg.: https://ukfeminista.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Report-Its-just-everywhere.pdf (the site of one of the "expert organisations" represented) are unrefferenced and appear to be without strong or perhaps even any foundation.There is much rigorous work to be done to remedy the situation. – Jiminy Cricket. Sep 27 '18 at 09:32

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