CARE is pushing the government to adopt online pornography safeguards. ,,,
Lyndon Bowring, Executive Chairman of CARE, comments on the causes close to the heart of the Christian community.
The remarkable Baroness Elspeth Howe recently died aged 90. Married to the late Sir Geoffrey Howe, she was a ‘Crossbench Peer’, not allied to any political party, who campaigned to protect children from pornography.
CARE was privileged to closely support her with seven Private Member’s Bills in the Lords that paved the way for the Government finally taking action.
Back in 2017 the Government’s Digital Economy Act required porn sites, all too often showing illegal, extreme and violent material, to use age verification checks to protect children under 18. However, to our dismay, two years later these plans were suddenly cancelled! Did adults visiting these sites wanting to remain anonymous apply pressure?
Meanwhile children, some as young as seven, risk being damaged by online porn. A 2019 survey reported that over half of the 11 to 13-year-olds said they’d seen pornography – rising to 66 per cent of 14 to 15-year-olds
Many parents and grandparents may be unaware, but millions of family members routinely view porn and frequently exchange obscene messages and pictures on their phones and tablets.
CONDEMNED
Jesus reserved his strongest condemnation for those who damage children’s lives: “If you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea,” Matthew 18:6 (NLT).
The global online porn industry is staggeringly successful, spawning hundreds of thousands of sites. In 2018, the Quartz news organisation estimated the total annual revenue was £11 billion, while the UK’s most popular site, ‘Porn-hub’, is reckoned to be the tenth most visited website in the world. During lockdown, Ofcom reported that more adults used pornography than before. And the same is true of growing numbers of children.
Meanwhile, although some liberal-minded academics and others are in denial, viewing pornography that depicts violence, coercion and degradation, now routinely included on ‘mainstream’ sites, affects attitudes and behaviour.
Fast forward to last year, when another amazing campaigner, Baroness Floella Benjamin, previously the presenter of TV’s ‘Play School’ watched by the nation’s toddlers, took up the baton. CARE helped her draft an amendment requiring the government to analyse whether age verification would help to break the link between pornography and sexual abuse, and then set a date for implementing age verification.
Elspeth Howe’s and Floella Benjamin’s efforts definitely influenced the content of the Online Safety Bill currently going through Parliament.
The government promises to finally crack down on various ‘harms’ like pornography and put ‘robust checks in place to ensure users are 18 years old or over’. CARE will continue to apply pressure to make sure this actually happens with no further delay!
From Direction Magazine issue 237
