Internet safety law would seek to protect children from inappropriate content like pornography. The police recently released data showing that over half of child sexual abuse offences in 2022 were committed by other children. They state that this rise is “fuelled by access to violent pornography and smart phones”.
The national policing lead for child abuse protection, Ian Critchley, said the predominantly “gender-based crime of boys committing offences against girls has been exacerbated by accessibility to violent pornography”. Another report showed that “male adolescents’ pornography use predicted their perpetration of sexual harassment two years later”.
Offline, it is illegal to allow under-18s to view pornography, yet websites are as yet uncontrolled. Research in 2020 found that more than half of 11–13 year old children had seen pornographic scenes online, often by accident. Children reported being upset or disturbed by violent or aggressive images that were degrading to women.
Why don’t we have a law yet?
The story of online safety legislation started in 2017, under Prime Minister Theresa May. Sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), the Digital Economy Act (DEA) was enacted in 2017 and Part 3 included steps to protect children from pornography. Mandated was a “requirement to prevent access by persons under 18”, including by using age-verification.
But in May 2021 under Boris Johnson, new legislation – the Draft Online Safety Bill – actually repealed Part 3 of the 2017 DEA. Child protection measures transferred into the new Online Safety Act, which finally received Royal Assent in October 2023.
From 2017 to now there have been no fewer than eight DCMS Secretaries of State. On average they served barely a year.
Although it’s now law, it’s not yet fully enforceable. Ofcom is consulting on stringent age verification systems, e.g. digital identity wallets. An Ofcom chart shows that final guidance will not be issued to pornography providers until 2025.
Child safety should be paramount
Pornography has very real consequences. In February 2023, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation published its Pornography Inquiry. This concluded that “the epidemic of male violence against women and girls cannot be ended unless the Government confronts the role pornography plays in fuelling sexual violence”. It recommended that it be considered as commercial sexual exploitation.
Last month the government started a review on the impact on sexual relationships and violence against women. People can submit their views to help shape industry rules. (Deadline 7 March.)
With the best intentions, parents cannot completely control children’s internet use. We need laws which stop children seeing violent, often criminal acts. Ian Critchley welcomes the Online Safety Act as a very important way to improve young people’s safety.
This law’s passage has proved slow and laborious. Delays have likely led to hundreds of thousands children witnessing degrading, sexualised imagery, or falling victim to others who did. During the pandemic lockdowns, many young people had increased internet access and will have seen sexual violence on their screens.
Taking so long to address this will have tragic consequences.
