SEVEN out of ten kids have been exposed to internet porn — most often by accident.
A damning report found computer algorithms regularly direct them to “violent, extreme and degrading” material, much of it illegal.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza warned that her office’s research should be seen as a “snapshot of what rock bottom looks like”.
The report was based on 1,020 people aged 16 to 21 recalling their experiences as children .
On average, they were 13 when they first saw porn — but more than a quarter were 11, and some were “six or younger”.
The 70 per cent who admitted they had viewed it before turning 18 was up from 64 per cent in 2023.
Some 59 per cent said they saw it accidentally, compared with 38 per cent in 2023.
X, formerly Twitter, was the most common source, with 45 per cent of kids saying they saw porn there compared with 35 per cent on dedicated sites.
Almost six in ten said they had seen porn involving strangulation, while four in ten had watched a rape scene.
Dame Rachel said: “This report must act as a line in the sand. The findings set out the extent to which the technology industry will need to change for their platforms to ever keep children safe.
“Take, for example, the vast number of children seeing pornography by accident. This tells us how much of the problem is about the design of platforms, algorithms and recommendation systems that put harmful content in front of children who never sought it out.
