“There is a substantial body of evidence suggesting that exposure to pornography is harmful to children and young people. It is shown to have a damaging impact on young people’s views of sex or relationships.

“The Women and Equalities Committee has also warned of pornography’s impact on women and girls, noting a clear link between the consumption of porn and sexually aggressive behaviours, including violence’.

“It is imperative that pornography be treated as a separate and significant driver of harm by the government.”

“Under part 3 of the Digital Economy Act, Internet Service Providers were placed under a duty to ensure harmful content was blocked. CARE remains concerned that the Online Safety Bill will not be as robust in this regard.

“The Joint Committee recommend that the Bill should require OFCOM to draft a code of conduct for ISPs to ensure that they deal with unlawful content. It is not clear what should be included in that code of conduct.

“CARE recommends that the code of conduct be expanded to include harmful content and ISPs be placed under an obligation to remove or block content that is harmful, including violent or extreme pornography.”

“The Joint Committee has recommended that age verification be in place within 6 months of the Online Safety Bill receiving Royal Assent. If that timeline was to be achieved, age verification for pornographic websites would be finally introduced by government 7-8 years after it was first enacted by Parliament.

“Age verification could and should be in place now because of measures contained in Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act. It is deeply concerning to us and many others that this is not the case.

“It is imperative that the Government immediately sets out its proposals for interim provisions to ensure that children and young people are protected online since the Bill may not be implemented until at least 2024.”