PM’s porn vow is ‘bizarre’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told a committee of MPs he supports stricter curbs on extreme porn, two years after dropping legislation that would have introduced significant restrictions.

The Commons Liaison Committee put to him that the ease of access to extreme, violent and degrading pornography underpins male violence against women. He conceded that ‘people are coarsened and degraded by this stuff ’. Johnson acknowledged that this included the need to protect children from online extreme violent pornography.

The PM previously dropped Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act which would have cracked down on extreme online porn and protected children. This legislation was passed in 2017 and is already on the statute book.

James Mildred of CARE called the Prime Minister’s statements ‘bizarre’. He added: ‘The government has said that its Online Safety Bill is an improvement on Part 3, but this claim does not stand up to scrutiny: there is no requirement to block sites that host extreme pornographic content and it is not clear if sites will be subject to age verification.’

He urged government instead to implement Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act.