CARE chief executive Nola Leach calls for age-check porn legislation
The UK government is under increasing pressure to improve online safety, with evidence showing that 60 per cent of 11- to 13-year-olds have stumbled across pornographic content. Many social media platforms also host sexually explicit content, viewable by children aged 13 and above.
Harassment is rife
Earlier this year, analysis of a website set up to allow anonymous reporting of abuse revealed numerous allegations of sexual harassment in UK primary and secondary schools. Ask girls what they think the root of the problem is and many will say pornography. As a mother and grandmother, it frightens me to think of the risks girls face at school. And it disturbs me to think how boys’ minds are being warped through the content they are viewing on the internet.
The prevalence of harassment in schools and wider society does not surprise me when you consider how many boys and men watch pornography, which often portrays women as sexual objects. It teaches men and boys that sex is a commodity, to be accessed on screen and off whenever they want it, rather than as a special gift to be enjoyed within a loving and committed marriage relationship.
Brits want tighter controls
The harming effects of pornography, particularly to the youngest and most impressionable members of our society, are what underpin CARE’s campaigning for stricter controls on these websites. Since 2016, we have been lobbying for age verification, which would place a duty on porn sites to block visitors aged under 18. We have also called for sites that host degrading content to be fined and forced to take it down.
The UK public strongly supports this approach. Polling we carried out earlier this year found that 80 per cent of UK adults think age verification should be introduced. The same proportion believes that access to porn sites should be limited to those aged over 18. Yet the government has failed to act on this groundswell of opinion. In fact, it has done just the opposite.
Legislation was agreed by both houses of parliament to do this in 2017. But in 2019, after a series of delays, it was ditched. Ministers bowed to pressure from campaigners who felt that adults who wanted to view porn shouldn’t be required to provide ID to access these sites. The government has since proposed new legislation to tackle ‘harmful content’ on social media sites, but it is not clear whether age checks for pornography will be included in the potential reforms.
Pray for changed hearts
It is deeply sad that the government seems more concerned with adults being able to anonymously view online pornography than it is with protecting children from harm. However, with concern growing about the effects of pornography on children and wider society, and with the continued calls for action from various groups, we are hopeful that ministers will do the right thing and change course. Please join me in praying that the hearts and minds of our politicians will be altered.
Nola Leach is chief executive of Christian charity CARE, which aims to bring a uniquely Christian insight to the policies and laws that affect our lives to create a better society for all.
