Children’s charity calls for age verification on adult websites
Survey shows 69% of adults think there should be tighter controls on adult content
Children’s charity Barnardo’s has called for adult sites to introduce age verification as soon as possible.
Writing in an open letter, the charity has called for pornographic websites to change their content standards and bring it in line with the British Board of Film Classification’s rating for violent and pornographic content.
Signed by more than a dozen safety organisations, the letter argues that many of the pornographic content online depicts practices that meet the definition of criminal standard for sexual violence and would be illegal to buy on DVD. The letter would like the same standards to apply to online content.
The letter comes ahead of the Online Safety Bill, which will be debated in parliament. The OSB will introduce laws requiring adult sites to implement age verification, however Barnardo’s has warned this could take up to three years to implement.
As such, in the open letter, Barnardo’s and other safety groups are calling for adult sites to introduce age verification as soon as possible ahead of the OSB becoming law.
Harmful content
Barnardo’s commissioned a survey by YouGov, which was published alongside the open letter. The survey showed 69% of UK adults agreed that extreme pornography which would be illegal on DVD should be illegal online.
The chief executive of Barnardo’s, Lynn Perry said; “Every day children are seeing harmful pornography online and we must act now to protect them.
"The Government has rightly committed to passing new laws but they could take up to three years to come into force, and in the meantime millions of children could be seeing harmful content millions of times over, with serious consequences for their mental health, their understanding of consent, and their perception of healthy relationships.
"That's why as a group of organisations supporting children and young people, we are calling on the owners of leading commercial pornography sites to take action by introducing age-verification measures now, before it becomes a legal requirement."