Senator Nakhid: Is porn damaging Trinidad and Tobago minds?

TRINIDAD and Tobago nationals are viewing a lot of pornography which might be damaging their minds and their man-woman relationships, warned Opposition Senator David Nakhid on Tuesday in the Senate. He said while the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 2021 addresses sex offenders after conviction for their illegal acts, more attention should be paid to the factors that shape such personalities, of which he suggested pornography might be one.

He began by warning against any one-size-fits-all penalties for sex offenders, saying one person may be capable of rehabilitation while another person committing exactly the same act might not be. Nakhid called for a consideration of the "developmental experience" of sex-offenders.

He alluded to a link between pornography and the commission of sex offences, based on details from a survey of 100 survivors at a rape crisis centre.

"Twenty-eight per cent of respondents reported that their abuser used pornography. For twelve per cent of the women who survived, pornography was imitated during the abusive incident. That says a lot." Nakhid asked aloud how does a society like Trinidad and Tobago monitor the use (and presumably effect) of pornography.

"All my research shows pornography actually rewires the brain, especially among our young kids. It's actually a re-wiring of how we view relationships, how we see the sexual act, how we see women. So it comes to gender equality, because pornography is such a journey from the realities of relationships and sexual relationships that we find that men, because of their visual instant gratification that pornography provides, tend to end up frustrated in relationships, dissatisfied in relationships."

He said this state of affairs can lead to sexual dysfunction and sometimes violent acts against women.

Nakhid called for solutions to sex offences based on understanding sexual development.

Based on a 2008 study of a mix of 269 rapists and child abusers, he listed typical background traits of sex offenders.

He said child sex abusers had typically experienced child sexual abuse (73 per cent of respondents) and viewed pornography before age ten (65 per cent.)

"His dysfunction was related more to almost a compulsion or a maladaptive character in terms of how he would see that sexual experience."

Nakhid said a rapist's background was typically physical abuse (68 per cent of respondents), parental violence (78 per cent) and emotional abuse (70 per cent.)

Again rejecting any one-size-fits-all stance towards offenders, he said sex offenders can be viewed from different perspectives.

"So my suggestion as we draft legislation is that we have to keep an eye on how do we mould sexual development."

He said it takes a village not just to raise a child but also to mould a child and bring him/her into society in a normal way.

"We need to remove the taboo around the sexual experience in TT.

"We need to speak about it more in the schools, churches and community groups. Only then will we have sane and more focused contributions as it relates to how we speak to our young men and young women."

Regarding the bill, he suggested the sexual offenders website be maintained by an independent board, instead of the bill mandating the Commissioner of Police, who Nakhid thought might be too busy with his other onerous duties.