PRESS RELEASE: Leading Christian charity CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) has lent its unequivocal backing to a new Online Safety Bill.

Tabled by Baroness Howe, wife of former chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe, it is the fifth attempt by the Independent Peer to ensure a change in the law.

Speaking as her new Online Safety Bill received its First Reading in the House of Lords today, Baroness Howe added that her Bill made good the failures of the current system by applying to 100% of the market, and thus to 100% of households with children, and would require all internet service providers to introduce robust age-verification before allowing filters to be lifted.

The proposed law also will also mean any website looking to stream hard-core pornographic material to UK customers from outside Britain will be able to do so only if they have robust age-verification measures in place.

CARE’s Director of Parliamentary Affairs Dr Dan Boucher said:

“CARE wholeheartedly welcomes Baroness Howe’s determination to force a change in the law and we will be backing her Bill every step of the way.

“The fact that our online protection provisions may be better than those of many other countries is no reason to hold back when we have the option of significantly further enhancing child safety online.’

Baroness Howe said:

“I am delighted that my new Online Safety Bill has had its First Reading.

“The so-called ‘default-on’ filtering solution that the Government has championed only applies to 90% of the market leaving many thousands of children beyond its reach.

“Moreover, and of central importance, there is no age-verification process to establish that a person lifting the default filters is 18 years or over before allowing the filters are lifted.

“This is completely unacceptable. Our children deserve better.”

Baroness Howe continued:

“Under my Bill any foreign web site wishing to provide pornographic services to people in the UK will be required to get a license that will depend upon their having robust age verification procedures.

“If they do not fulfil these licensing obligations, their license will be revoked and payments to these websites will be blocked.

“I am very pleased to see that the Conservative manifesto made a clear commitment to introducing a requirement for web sites containing pornographic material to have in place robust age verification procedures.

“It will be important that this seminal commitment is implemented in such a way that it catches sites based in the UK and also sites based outside the UK which are the source of most pornography viewed online in the UK.

“My Bill directly addresses this challenge and I hope the government will therefore find it useful.”

Notes to Editors:

For interview requests please contact CARE’s press office on 0207 227 4731 / james.mildred@care.org.uk

The Bill can be found here.