Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has suggested there could be a link between online pornography and a rise in domestic violence.
“The normalisation of violence against women through violent pornography, adult porn, is an unregulated space, unpoliced, because it is widely available to anyone with a computer or smartphone, and gardaí focus on child abuse,” Mr Harris said on Thursday.
According to Gardaí, levels of domestic violence and sexual abuse rose to “an all-time” high over Christmas. There were around 1,600 reports over the Christmas period, while the figure is normally 1,200, according to the Policing Authority.
The authority has been told that the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual abuse is also increasing year-on-year, which gardaí have suggested may be due to more people reporting incidents gardaí, and to less tolerance of the crime.
A major report on the issue is in the process of being finalised. Speaking on Thursday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said that a correlation exists between vulnerability and victimisation, and that those suffering from mental health issues, addiction, and isolation were predominantly the victims of domestic violence.
The comments come as Aontú renewed calls for measures to be put in place to prevent children from accessing pornography.
Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín claimed said that children as young as ten are accessing pornography online.
“Children are now consuming content that would have been illegal to an adult just 25 years ago,” he said.
“We’re talking about children as young as 10 years old consuming this.
“I had a parent tell me that they looked over their tablets on the history of the searches and their 10-year-old was using the tablet and in those searches were hardcore pornographic images and websites about Santa Claus,” Mr Tóibín said.
“Ireland is unfortunately becoming a more violent country and we know that domestic abuse cases are at a 50 year high currently,” he added.
“We know that rape has doubled over the last 10 years, sexual abuse has doubled over the last 10 years, and we also know that there’s been an increase on children sexually abusing children in this country.
“For the last five years, I’ve been trying to raise this issue with Ministers and with the Government and it’s a source of deep frustration.
“Really all we’ve had from the Government of the last five years is them shrugging their shoulders on this particular issue.”
Mr Tóibín’s party has previously called for protections to be introduced to stop children accessing pornography. The government needs to find a solution to a problem which is “rewiring” children’s brains, the Meath politician said.
“Internationally, the English Children’s Commissioner has shown that there’s a strong link between hardcore pornography and violence and sexual assault and abuse,” he said.
“Other countries have started on the pathway of banning access by children to pornography.
“Even mainstream pornography has strangulation and degrading acts as part of their visuals and children are now consuming [that].”
71 per cent of Irish people agree that pornography is harming society, a 2022 report commissioned by Women’s Aid found.
The charity previously said that the study found that the majority of Irish people believe that pornography is too accessible to children, and that it is contributing to coercion and sexual violence against women and girls. Women’s Aid also said that there was a “very notable and statistically significant difference between male and female attitudes and levels of concern about pornography.”
The vast majority (81%) of 18-25 year olds believe that pornography is increasing young men’s interest in seeking rough or violent sex.
Meanwhile, 71% told the survey they believe that the Government and Tech Companies can and must do more to protect children and young people from exposure to pornography.
Women’s Aid have also said that its frontline support workers “regularly hear disclosures” where pornography is playing a role in the verbal, sexual and physical abuse women are subjected to by male partners.