Government must not delay on promised porn protections for children

CARE has warned that children can no longer afford to wait for new protections outlined under the Online Safety Bill, as it emerges a fresh draft of the proposals will be brought forward later this month.

Yesterday, The Sun reported that a new version of the plans will come before the Commons before Christmas, with controversial provisions of the bill targeting “legal but harmful” expression stripped out altogether.

The news has been welcomed by free speech groups, who had warned that vague terminology in the bill would have led to tech companies censoring perfectly lawful expression by citizens that was felt to be politically incorrect.

The government intends to reshape the bill to focus on protecting children’s safety online, after sustained pressure from safeguarding organisations and parent campaigners whose children have been harmed through content they accessed online.

Christian charity CARE has agitated for better online protections from online pornography for many years and campaigned successfully for age verification measures to be included in the government’s plans.

It has also been pushing for pornography itself to be included as an official “harm” on the face of the Online Safety Bill, given strong evidence that it disturbs children, and inspires harmful sexual behaviours.

Polling by CARE shows that a huge majority of people in the UK (8 in 10) support measures to prevent children accessing online pornography. The same proportion also support an age limit of 18 for access to porn.

James Mildred, Head of Communications and Engagement at CARE, commented:

“News that the government has rethought controversial aspects of the bill targeting ‘legal but harmful’ expression is welcome and we will await further detail of this. CARE and many other organisations are concerned central civil liberties are threatened by the bill. The fact that Ministers are aware of the need to protect vulnerable children is also to be welcomed, although they are certainly taking their time about it.

“Brits were promised better protections for children from online pornography in 2016. A law passed by parliament was never actually enacted by Ministers, and later scrapped. Age verification measures then reappeared in the Online Safety Bill but have been kicked down the road time and again. Children can no longer afford to wait for the safeguards they desperately need.

“We have stressed before that age verification measures can be introduced quickly, using provisions already on the statute book. These would reduce the likelihood of younger children accessing disturbing, sexually explicit content. Ministers should usher in these protections whilst the wider online safety regime is being finalised by parliamentarians. We urge them to do so.

“Let’s see the government shift the guiding principles from ‘legal but harmful’ to a new standard. Namely: what’s prohibited offline should be prohibited online. Children need to be afforded the same protections online that they are offline – from pornography, images of self-harm and suicide, violence and other demonstrably harmful content. This shouldn’t be a controversial request."

ENDS

Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) provides analysis of social policy from a Christian perspective. For more information or to request an interview, contact jamie.gillies@care.org.uk