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‘Will watching porn prevent me being a teacher?’

Unless you have broken the law or been investigated, watching porn won’t prevent you being a teacher.

I am under 18 and have watched porn. I watched it last year but have stopped now. I dont know why i watched it but i did and i am really scared as i want to be a teacher and am worried the police will find out when i have my enhanced DBS check. (Dont even know if they can track internet) I am just so worried and it is making me quite upset and i dont know who else to turn to.

Hey there

Thanks for your question. I hope I can set your mind at rest.

Enhanced DBS checks are to ensure that employers have all the information they need to make sure that they are employing someone that they think is safe to work with children and young people. I have them done all the time. They used to just disclose criminal convictions but more recently they disclose other details too, such as whether you have ever had any brushes with the Police and/or the courts – guilty verdicts, allegations, arrests or ‘no further action’ outcome. So you would know if something would appear on your DBS check because you would probably have been aware of a Police investigation. (More info about this here)

Most porn is legal to watch. Although you are not supposed to watch porn under 18 (the ‘leave’ button on the front page of aren’t clicked very much) you probably have not broken the law. If anyone is breaking the law then it would be the provider of the porn (either the porn company or the website). Most porn is legal. Illegal images or videos are those that contain: under 18s, sex with animals, torture, scenes of rape or sexual assault, or violent scenes which are life threatening or likely to cause serious harm.

Porn Laws

It is technically illegal to watch porn with someone else who is under 18, but that is intended to prevent abuse of children and young people – not two people consensually watching porn together so it’s highly unlikely you would be investigated for that.

So you have probably not broken the law and there probably won’t be anything on your DBS.

People are often surprised to learn that porn is so popular and that it’s a professional business. There is a lot of it and a lot of people look at it. 5 of the top 100 popular websites accessed in the UK are porn websites – some of them are more popular than very popular news and film streaming websites. Many people have lots of conflicting feelings about porn and not everyone who watches porn is open about it – however it is (mostly) legal and it shouldn’t affect whether you get a job as a teacher or not.

© Justin Hancock, 2019

2 thoughts on “‘Will watching porn prevent me being a teacher?’

  1. The answer is well described and up to the mark and mate don’t worry about it watching porn is not illegal so don’t worry , some of the sites which are illegal to watch they are banned by goverment .

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