Church of England backs online porn curbs

Senior clergy in the Church of England have called for action from the UK Government to prevent children accessing pornographic websites.

A motion submitted to the General Synod, the ruling body of the Church of England, backs a move towards age verification, where sites are required to verify the age of visitors.

The motion states: "Access to pornography means that a distorted and harmful view of what constitutes normal sexual relations is being absorbed by each new generation of children and young people.

“This is placing pressure on young boys and girls to conform to stereotypes of domination on the one hand and submission and degradation on the other, and is creating a wider culture of abusive attitudes towards girls.

“A law requiring age verification for access to commercial porn sites was meant to come into effect in 2018, but it never did for reasons having to do with bureaucratic delay and then a changed approach by the Government.”

Care has campaigned for age checks for a number of years and welcomed news earlier this year that they would feature in the government's Online Safety Bill.

This legislation, which has achieved mixed support from parliamentarians thus far, would introduce a range of measures to curb "harmful" content online.

We are currently working with politicians to ensure the final age verification proposals are suitably robust to protect children and punish sites that fail to comply with the new law.

Learn more about our work by visiting our dedicated online safety page: CARE for Online Safety | CARE