Porn + Autism

Two words I never thought I’d have to say in the same sentence.

I knew there was a chance I’d have to worry about this one day, many, many years down the line with my neurotypical son, but definitely not my autistic son and definitely not now! But guess what….life as always has a way to surprise me and throw me for a loop!

I remember when I was growing up and my parents went through this with my older brother and I know how they handled it, but back then it was with magazines, not as accessible as it is nowadays, right in your pocket! I swear it’s everywhere, movies, songs galore, stores, everywhere you look! And to be honest I’m surprised it took this long!

As you know my son is high functioning autistic and he’s very impressionable, he wants everyone to like him. For instance, he has lied to us, his parents, because of one kid telling him something, who was a “friend,” while another “friend” threatened to stab him 17 times with a knife if he didn’t do what he said and give him his chips. He wanted to keep his “friend” so he gave him his chips. And just recently, he has been stealing from us by taking money out of his lunch money for the four month to buy bags of chips snacks every day for himself and another of his “friends” who told him it was okay and convinced him, that that is what we gave him the money for!

So having the topic of porn come up with my “abnormal” autistic child, I’m not shocked! I say “abnormal autistic” child because to be honest, everything I read about autism and the “normal” behaviors of a child on the autism spectrum, T hasn’t exhibited most of the traits. Honestly, that’s why I originally thought he was misdiagnosed so many years ago! And even more so when I met the man who diagnosed him for the first time, the man seemed more autistic than my son if you go off of the “normal” behavior of someone on the spectrum. So, no I wasn’t shocked. His dad on the other hand, that’s a whole other blog!

So how do you discipline an autistic child after they have been caught looking at porn on their phone? The million-dollar question in our household at the moment! I know what we did and let’s just say some parents would not approve. But again it’s because of his “autistic” trait that these parents wouldn’t approve. If it was a non-autistic child, totally different story, we would probably have the support of all parents! But because he’s autistic, even the discipline procedures we took had no effect! He still wants to be a thug and is still thinking he did nothing wrong since it was his phone. Still doesn’t get that it wasn’t technically his phone since he doesn’t pay for anything, but that’s another tangent I won’t go into.

So back to the million dollar question, how do you discipline an autistic child so that it sticks and he never looks at the most disgusting and disrespectful crap out there?