A 13-year-old schoolboy raped his eight-year-old sister after watching pornography on an X-Box computer console, a court has heard.
The teenager told police he used the games console to view explicit material before he 'decided to try it out'. The boy said he targeted his younger sister because she was small and 'couldn't remember stuff'.
At Blackburn Magistrates Court yesterday the boy admitted rape, indecent assault and inciting his sister to perform a sexual act on him.
The youngster, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has been bailed to live with relatives away from his sister while a pre-sentence report is being prepared. Continue...
Fiona Elvines, from the Rape Crisis Charity, said that children accessing pornography was a ‘growing concern’.
She said: 'This is going to completely destabilise this little girl’s life. It will take her a very long time to try and work through. It will have put her life on a different track and I do not want that to happen to anybody else.'
Ms Elvines told the Lancashire Telegraph 'For a long time, people have been sitting on the fence and saying we do not have the evidence to say porn is harmful, but now we are starting to have some evidence around young people’s exposure.
'How much evidence do you need? It shows that the government’s measures are extremely important and that we need to start acting. When children see porn, they have no context for what it is used for. There is pressure on children to be sexualised, particularly on younger boys, to start having sex.
'It is coming from peers and porn.'
The government has said that by the end of 2014 all devices with access to the internet will be blocked from accessing pornography, with users forced to opt in.
The X-Box customer support website says explicit content and internet access can be restricted using parental controls.
Microsoft, the company which makes the console, said: 'We have the greatest sympathy for all involved in this case. At Microsoft we have some of the most robust systems that allow parents to control what their children play and watch online. For example, access to the internet is switched off automatically for all child accounts on X-box, and we urge parents to review the settings on their children’s consoles.'
In November last year a 12-year-old boy admitted three charges of rape against his sister, aged under 10, after he watched pornography at school and went home to copy what he had seen.
The abuse took place over the course of a year and was only discovered after the girl confided in a family member.
The boy was given a three-year youth rehabilitation order and will continue to live at the family home.
He was ordered to register as a sex offender for two-and-a-half years.
Culled from Daily Mail UK
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