Call for tougher age checks on porn sites

Dozens of Tory MPs have urged the Prime Minister to force firms to introduce tough age checks preventing children accessing online porn.

A letter signed by more than 40 MPs including former cabinet ministers urges Rishi Sunak to back certain amendments to the Online Safety Bill.

Proposed changes would see firms forced to introduce age verification measures that ensure "beyond reasonable doubt" that kids aren't exposed to adult content.

Bosses would face up to two years in prison if they are found to have consistently failed to fulfil a duty of care towards children accessing their companies' sites.

The letter, to Michelle Donelan, the Science and Technology Secretary, calls for urgent action, saying: “The evidence is clear that there is real damage being done to young boys and girls by the easy access to pornography, and that this access is by no means limited to dedicated adult sites".

“When girls as young as 12 are being strangled because a boy thought they must like it, and with explicit content available on nearly all social networking platforms, we must take every step possible to stop the continued ‘pornification’ of our society.”

CARE is working with politicians to ensure that the best measures are in place to protect children from sexually explicit content, and force compliance by sites.

The Online Safety Bill is currently at committee stage in the House of Lords.