Claire Perry, a Tory MP, has been campaigning for tougher internet controls on pornography and age verification of internet users. The Prime Minister has agreed to some stricter rules for households with children but stopped short of an automatic ban on pornography unless the user opts in.

It comes after new resesarch from Australia found the average age at which children first watch pornography is just 11

Australian researchers Maree Crabbe and David Corlett said children were turning to adult films because schools were not handling the positive aspects of sex.

The research found 88 per cent of scenes in pornographic films showed an element of physical aggression, with most directed at the female participant.

Pupils also appeared to believe that sexual practices shown in porn were normal features of sexual relationships.

The researchers said pupils should be taught how to evaluate porn in sex education lessons.

Last week, a separate survey found more young people were having sex under the age of consent. Among 16 to 24-year-old women, more than a quarter had lost their virginity under the age of 16.

Speaking at the launch of a new outdoor education centre at Kings Park, Dr Roberts said the way children were being raised had changed more rapidly than any time in human history.

"Physical activity has always been about play outdoors, and this is being lost. There are many causes, but in the past two generations, the principal culprit has been electronic screen exposure," he said.

"The impact upon children of this cultural change is seen in their health and psychological development."

Dr Roberts, a consultant paediatrician and former Australian Medical Association WA branch president, said the trend became evident when he asked children to make three "magic wishes" when taking a medical history.

"With alarming regularity, they devote at least two and often all three wishes to electronic screens," he said.

"Likewise there is a television in every second child's bedroom, and then the ubiquitous hand-held device to help them tolerate the perceived boredom of the still, the quiet times."

He said while children from previous generations discovered the natural world as a virtue of childhood, "that is no longer the case, and for our culture, it probably will never be rediscovered."

"And attempts to simply wind the clock back to the childhood experience so many of us enjoyed is simply unattainable," he said.

Dr Roberts said society must find new ways to enable children to engage with the outdoors, and said the new facilities at Kings Park were a "good start."

The education centre includes 20 "living classrooms", such as tree logs for seating under shady trees, a jetty in the Water Corporation Wetland and a concrete-lined fire pit facility for Aboriginal story telling.

A report from the University of WA, commissioned last year for the state government, found electronic screen use, such as watching television or DVDs, and using computers, video games and portable devices, was the most common leisure activity of youth in Australia.
It found a large majority of children and adolescents in Australia exceed the recommended maximum of two hours a day of screen use for leisure, and the reduction in time spent outdoors was resulting in negative outcomes, such as obesity, poor sleep habits, loneliness and depression.

Isolated families with young children in Queensland are being sought to be part of an 'e-kindy' trial.

The Brisbane School of Distance Education (BSDE) will pilot an e-kindy program from next term for three or four-year-olds who cannot access a kindergarten.

Part of the program will be delivered by a teacher using web-based technology and parents or home tutors will also assist in "hands-on" activities.

BSDE spokeswoman Stacie Hansel says some of the program will be delivered via the web.

"Children will be invited to attend lessons via 'Illuminate', which is a web-based interactive platform," she said.

"The children will do their lessons through a qualified teacher - either that, or through a telephone via a teleconference.

"Technology is something that they are born around and born with using, so it is certainly a skill that they will use as they get older."

Ms Hansel says parents have been asking for this sort of scheme for many years.

"It's an alternative for our rural families who cannot access a centre-based kindergarten - to provide them access to an at-home kindergarten program," she said.

"The pilot will actually commence next semester and lessons will commence.

"We believe initially they'll commence one-on-one, building up certainly by the end of the year into small groups of two to three children."

Ainslee McArthur from St Lawrence, south of Mackay in north Queensland, already home tutors two of her children and says she is enrolled her son in e-kindy.

"Those children are already sitting in a home school room," she said.

"For them to have some interaction with a teacher like their older siblings, I think that's a good thing."