Last month we were contacted by a member who had been on holiday in
the heart of England
and had spent a few nights in different youth hostels. Disturbingly, he reported that pornography
channels were available on the televisions in the bedrooms and public areas.
The Youth Hostel Association is a charity with a clear mission; to
inspire all, especially young people, to broaden their horizons gaining
knowledge and independence through new experiences of adventure and discovery.
Pornography is probably not the kind of knowledge and experience the
YHA intends to provide its young guests.
We wrote to the Chief Executive of the YHA pointing out the growing
body of evidence showing the profoundly harmful effect of porn consumption on
the attitudes, behaviours and relationships of young people. We asked her to take action to ensure that
these potentially harmful channels are removed from public view.
We were delighted to receive a reply
thanking us for bringing the matter to her attention and assuring us that new
guidelines have now been put in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
This is wonderful news and a good
illustration that making our voice heard makes a positive difference.
In this case the easy availability of pornography was just an
unfortunate oversight. However it does
demonstrate the ubiquitous nature of highly sexualised material in our
society. As it was so eloquently
described in the Bailey Review, this is part of ‘the wallpaper’ of children’s
lives today and what the long term consequence of this might be remains to be
seen. We cannot afford to sacrifice the
next generation as guinea pigs in a great social experiment. This is why your support remains so vital.
