Help curb access to porn

Not that long ago, the UK Government committed an unfathomable U-turn by deciding not to implement bold new legislation to prevent children accessing online pornography.

Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act would have required users to provide some form of identification to prove that they are over the age of 18 before accessing explicit content. It would also have ensured an operational regulator with powers to crack down on websites hosting illegal extreme pornography.

Despite widespread support from the House of Lords and the House of Commons, it was ditched without proper explanation. In light of recent evidence coming to light of widespread reports of abuse at schools alongside the incredibly disturbing Sarah Everard case, the government’s abandonment of age controls on online porn is even more short sighted and disturbing.

It is frighteningly easy for children who are digitally literate and have access to a computer or mobile phone to access pornography online. Those who do can quickly become addicted, develop warped ideas about sex and relationships, and be more at risk of abuse as the boundary between childhood and adulthood is blurred and distorted.

A proliferation of online pornography is also feeding a wider trend of ‘sexting’ where children and teenagers send explicit images of themselves to peers. These are shared and may later appear online. The Times newspaper has reported that ‘Britain is suffering from a sexting crisis with tens of thousands of school-children caught sharing sexual imagery online in the past three years’. It adds: ‘Data from 50 of Britain’s biggest secondary schools showed that more than a third of all sexting cases involved children aged 12 and 13.’

The situation is even worse now than it was last year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Young people have been cooped up at home and are spending more time on the Internet, where they are more likely to stumble across harmful content. As if these reasons were not compelling enough, tragic cases like that of Sarah Everard highlight the dangers women in the UK face at the hands of violent men, often with sexual motives. More and more evidence suggests there is a clear link between pornography and violent and coercive sexual behaviour.

Sadly, there are some voices in society, including voices in Parliament, that would oppose any limits on access to pornography. The Adam Smith Institute, a free-market think tank with ties to the Conservative Party, campaigned against age verification claiming that it was an infringement of people’s freedoms. But an individual’s freedom can legitimately be restricted if their access to a certain commodity is causing harm to other members of society. In this case, vulnerable children and young people.

Given the scope and reach of the online pornography industry – an industry that is new and hitherto unregulated – it is also worth asking if other restrictions and curbs are necessary. Disturbing evidence of human trafficking, underage sex, and rape on the world’s biggest pornography site, PornHub, begs deeper questions about the industry as a whole. It is abhorrent that people should be profiting from the exploitation of vulnerable women, men and children with seemingly no accountability or oversight from national governments.

Thankfully, the UK Government has another opportunity to introduce age verification protections in this Parliament. Ministers are currently considering an Online Harms Bill which will address pornography on social media. We will be calling for Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act to be written into it, to make sure all online commercial pornography is covered. We would encourage you to write to your MP in the coming months to encourage them to support a move towards age verification.

Parliament must not pass up on the chance to introduce this vital safeguard. Passing it would also pave the way for a new, deeper conversation about pornography and the effects it is having on our society.