Federal Government response to 2020 age verification inquiry report overdue
Collective Shout has joined forces with 104 sexual exploitation survivors and 525 NGOs from 65 countries calling on the Canadian Government to launch a criminal investigation into Pornhub-parent company MindGeek.
The open letter was submitted as part of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics inquiry into MindGeek for allegations relating to trafficking, under-age content and image-based abuse (see transcript of evidence here).
The inquiry followed the viral #Traffickinghub petition which attracted more than two million signatures urging MindGeek executives be held accountable for hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM), content using victims of trafficking and image-based abuse. Collective Shout worked with global partners in this campaign. We also made a submission to the Canadian parliamentary ethics committee.
Collective Shout’s own investigations of Pornhub began in 2016, exposing evidence of crimes against women and girls.
We presented our evidence in a written submission and verbal evidence to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into Age Verification for Online Wagering and Online Pornography (see here).
We provided further evidence to the more recent Department of Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts Online Safety Legislative Reform.
We call on the Federal Government to take stronger measures to protect children from exposure to extreme violence, rape and torture of women and girls by acting on the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs recommendaton of an age verification (proof-of-age) protection as part of a broader roadmap to protect children online. Although the Committee reported a year ago this month, the Government has not yet responded.
March 7, 2021
Contact:
Melinda Tankard Reist, Movement Director [email protected]
Lyn Swanson Kennedy, Campaigner [email protected]
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