What???

[ummmm]

How can anyone blame the internet??? Loads of people, young and old, watch porn.

http://www.telegraph....orld-and-society.html

[sunny-dave]

Judges/Reality - rarely seen in the same postcode area ...

[humbersloop]

absolutely beggars belief

[ummmm]

Shocking.

[jno]

you can get some unpleasant ideas off the internet, especially 14-year-old boys. And I don't suppose they get much countervailing education ("Don't do something just because you see it on the web.") I'm inclined to feel some sympathy for the boy, considering his age. But I really don't know if this is the correct approach, or what to do about it.

What would you suggest? Is this something a 14-year-old should be locked up for?

[Duncer]

Should ANY rapist EVER be spared jail?

[ummmm]

jno...yes. He needs locking up. He raped a 5 year old.

He's not the only 14 year old that has viewed internet porn.

[NOX]

Outrageously ignorant and foolish judgement.

[Smowball]

Totally beggars belief - the girls parents must be devestated.

[flump1]

society today takes a liberal view of children watching porn,it is widely available in media 24/7. Some responsibility has to be place with who ever had bought this child up. Yes and at 14 when he committed this act of indecency he was and still is a child. Should he be incarcerated ? I don't know....if I were the parents of the victim, I would probably want him castrated. That would be wrong too . So very very sad.

[ummmm]

The parents.....Jaysus, you'd set to kill.

[jno]

he's not; but I'm not sure he's a monster. Kids do silly things at 14 - even deeply unpleasant things, as in this case - but I don't know that they should be blighted for the rest of their lives because of it.

It was oral rape rather than vaginal, which I think colours my view, though you may think this is a meaningless distinction.

[sunny-dave]

At some age we surely must start saying "I don't care about your background/influences/education/intelligence you must have known that this was utterly wrong, you will take responsibilty for your actions, you will be punished accordingly" ....

... 14 seems over that age to me.

[jno]

flump, I also asked myself how I'd feel if I was the girl's parent. I'd never want him within 100 miles of her. But I wouldn't want him castrated.

[ummmm]

Agree Dave....

I look at my sons and it's beyond anything that I, we, can fathom.

[woofgang]

where would he learn decent values from if there is no one to teach him or control what other influences he falls under? I mean you have to ask what the parents were doing? its just not good enough to say "oh the kids know more about computers than I do? I cant stop them."

[Smowball]

God if it was my daughter - well I can't even think about it.

[starone]

Some of the 14 year-old boys in the local school are big enough to be classed as adults. Unfortunately their minds are still immature, so it is very difficult to make any judgement. Poor little sods trying to make sense of what their bodies are telling them while also trying to live in this peculiar world which tells them they can't do it, it is against the law and they are going to get punished for what seems to be natural. I am not excusing anything, just trying to understand it. Although I also think that he should be punished for it because otherwise he is going to think he can get away with it again. And also, if I might go on a bit, is a fourteen year old boy suitable as a baby sitter?

[humbersloop]

^ with dave, plus parental responsibility for this too.

A bit of time in some secure juvenile accommodation (not prison) with proper supervision and interventions might not come amiss either.

Assuming they're reported in context, the judge's remarks are outrageous.