I think it's more likely the consequence of unlimited unsupervised internet access vis smart devices.

Furries have an interesting history as a subculture and you can trace their history back as a group pretty far. It's a pre-internet phenomenon actually. And it seems like they've always had a lot of infighting between the more innocent "I like cute animals" wing and the more sexually lurid elements. I don't think these elements are naturally the same either.

I think that probably the rise of film as a medium likely triggered some kind of paraphilic response in some portion of the population that later became furries, this was likely increased in the 80's and 90's due to the prevalence of home video. The development of the internet allowed the more lurid elements space to spread. And I think the problematic issue of having cute animal characters engaged in sexual situations is going to mean that children are going to inevitably stumble across it. I don't think many are getting these ideas directly from the parents.

I think basically anyone born before the 1980's had no clue what the fuck was on the internet and didn't realize this shit was out there until very recently. It will be interesting to see how the people who grew up with this sort of unlimited internet access will raise their own kids. I suspect that they'll be more aware of the kind of content that can exist and be a lot smarter about how they let their kids access the internet.