Pornography
Toughen up online porn safeguards or leave kids exposed - Campaigners
Today CARE joined other campaigners in warning the UK Government that it's Online Safety Bill will not protect children from online pornography unless it's toughened up.
While much of the public debate on the legislation has focused on free speech concerns (which CARE shares), another key part of the Bill is measures to stop children accessing pornography online.
Now, a new coalition led by the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) has issued new survey results which show 80 per cent of the UK public think it's damaging for a child to view online porn.
It also shows that almost three quarters of parents are worried about the easy access kids have to porn.
CARE has campaigned intensively in parliament for age checks to better protect young people from online porn.
In 2018, the Digital Economy Act passed and part of this Bill would've seen age controls on commercial online porn sites. However, in October 2019, the government abandoned the plans.
Following pressure from CARE and others, in February 2022, the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport announced that the Online Safety Bill would include age checks on all porn sites.
This would sit alongside new measures to force social media companies like Twitter and Reddit to crack down on pornographic content as well.
CARE welcomed this positive U-turn by the government and since then, the Bill has been published and received its first reading in the Commons.
However, under current proposals, the legislation would require Ofcom to pursue non-compliant porn sites through the courts. CEASE and others today said that unless the government gave Ofcom proper powers of enforcement, it would lack the teeth it needs to protect children from exposure to porn.
Vanessa Morse, CEO of CEASE, said:
“We have repeatedly raised concerns that porn sites are targeting children with advertising and content designed to keep them on the sites for longer and returning more frequently, resulting in them viewing increasingly violating and harmful material. “The enforcement proposals to hold these hugely wealthy and powerful porn sites to account are impossible to deliver. We need urgent action from the Government to give Ofcom greater power to block porn websites which fail to comply with age verification measures before more children are exposed to irreparable harm. Otherwise, it is toothless.”
Letter to the PM
In a letter sent to the Prime Minister, the coalition make three key demands:
- Ensure that the standalone duty for robust, independent, standards-based Age Verification to protect children from exposure to pornography remains in the Online Safety Bill.
- Include a statutory deadline for these Age Verification measures to commence within 6 months of the Bill receiving Royal Assent.
- Give Ofcom powers to commence business disruption measures after seven days notice in respect of any non-compliant pornographic content.
Anyone can support the campaign by giving to the fundraiser that's been set up.
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