Research links pornography to violence against women and children, trustee says
By Agnieszka Krawczynski
The B.C. Catholic
The Edmonton Catholic School Board has decided to take a step toward keeping students away from pornography.
In a unanimous vote Oct. 18, the ECSB decided to send a letter to Telus, Shaw, Bell, and other cable companies to ask them to stop selling pay-per-view pornography.
“There is ample research that links pornography viewing to increased violence against women and child sexual abuse,” said Trustee Larry Kowalczyk, who brought forward the motion. “It’s a moral issue.”
Kowalczyk recognizes his motion is only a small step in the direction of keeping children from accessing this content.
“Students are viewing pornography at home when their folks aren’t around,” he said. “If they can’t see it on TV, they can see it on their cellphones and computers. But we think this is a start.”
He wants pornography “completely removed” from TV stations, but he hopes they will at least use better blocks to keep children from accessing it.
Some have questioned the importance of the motion. One opinion writer told the Edmonton Sun the ECSB should “stick to its knitting,” or stick to its main focus of running Catholic schools.
This is the school board whose meetings about accommodating transgender students broke out into fights this year, prompting the province’s education minister David Eggen to contemplate dissolving it.
