BBC tweet on 'age-appropriate porn' for young people sparks backlash

The BBC has stunned social media users with a tweet asking whether "age-appropriate porn" for teenagers is a good idea.

BBC Woman's Hour asked its Twitter followers to email in their opinions on whether this could help teach youngsters about consent and respect.

"What's the best way to inform teenagers about porn?" the still-live tweet says.

"Should there be age-appropriate porn as has been suggested so they can learn about consent and what's respectful and what's not? What do you think? Email us your opinions." 

The question was posed after a suggestion from Flora Gill, a writer for GQ men's magazine and daughter of former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, that faced a similar backlash.

In a since-deleted tweet, Gill said that "someone needs to create porn for children".

"Hear me out. Young teens are already watching porn but they're finding hard core aggressive videos that give a terrible view of sex. They need entry level porn! A soft core site where everyone asks for consent and no one gets choked etc," she wrote.

Explaining her decision to remove the tweet, Gill said, "Absolutely not getting swept up into another twitter cesspool so deleted tweet before it picks up steam! Obviously not an actual solution, but it is a real problem. Everyone take a deep breath."

Twitter users have since questioned why Woman's Hour is taking the suggestion seriously.

Feminist group For Women Scotland said, "There is no such thing 'age-appropriate' when talking about an industry that demeans and abuses women.

"How can 'informed consent' and 'respect' be taught by recourse to something that is based on exploitation?"

There were calls among Twitter users for Woman's Hour to be cancelled and to "defund the BBC".

Others likened the suggestion to "grooming", with one Twitter user calling it "unlawful, unethical, abusive".