Click here to find your candidate
The Federal election has now been announced - we will go to the polls in less than six weeks.
Candidates will be vying for your vote. But do they deserve it? This is the time to let them know what you care about.
The evidence is solid. Pornography is destroying our children’s lives at a rapid pace. More young people are having their developing sexual templates warped by exposure to hardcore, violent sexually explicit content. More kids are acting out sexually on other kids. And our governments and regulatory bodies have failed to protect them.
After much pressure, we succeeded in getting the current government to agree to come up with a plan to implement proof-of-age protections to help prevent children entering porn sites. eSafety is due to deliver its findings on the best way forward by the end of the year.
But a lot could happen between now and then.
We can’t allow the vested interests of the porn industry to derail this process. That’s why we need to know if your local candidate will support age verification and take a stand for young people, regardless of which party ends up in government.
Our youth advocate and educator Daniel Principe raised this issue in a recent interview with Sky News, calling on candidates to put the rights and well-being of children ahead of the profits of the global porn industry.
We need your help to take this demand up to all candidates in every electorate.
To equip our supporters, we have provided talking points to use in an email, phone call or meeting with your candidate:
- Our kids are preyed on by the porn industry and can currently stumble onto hardcore websites with a few errant clicks with no protections.
- Online age verification will force pornographic websites to establish users are over 18 before they can view the site, just the same as the age restrictions that currently exist in the real world.
- Research shows that if a child accesses pornography it can have extensive negative impacts on the child including poor mental health, increased levels of sexual aggression and violence, a heightened risk of sexual abuse; and a greater chance of engaging in risky behaviours.
- The report from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs Protecting the age of innocence recommends the Government legislate online age verification on pornographic and gambling websites.
- While the Government supports this recommendation, we need to implement age verification urgently to provide children with a barrier to being exposed to harmful adult content.
Take action
Contact your candidates to ask what they are doing to ensure the Government implements digital Age Verification which has already been agreed to as recommended in the Protecting the Age of Innocence report. You can find your Member here.
Let us know if you receive a response.
See also
MTR opinion piece on ABC: Why “consent” doesn’t stand a chance against porn culture
'I’ve heard it first-hand': Kambala petition just the tip of the iceberg
Parents Vs The Porn Industry Isn't A Fair Fight
Submission to Inquiry into Age Verification for Online Wagering and Online Pornography
Add your comment