Corporates must stop aiding and profiting from online child sexual exploitation

Earlier this month Collective Shout made a submission to the United Nations with recommendations related to children's rights in the digital environment. Our submission focussed on the risks of online sexual exploitation and abuse including grooming, exposure to pornography, Live Distant Child Abuse (LDCA), and highlighted the urgent need for governments and corporates to take action to stop it. 

Over the past few months, we’ve been busy preparing submissions into various Government inquiries. Just this month, two of our submissions have been made public- our submission into the Review of Australian classification regulation, and our submission on Online Safety Legislation reform.

Collective Shout welcomes the opportunity to contribute to Online Safety legislative reform. We support intentions to consolidate and harmonise current laws and to ensure streamlining and consistency in a range of digital offences. We are especially pleased to see plans for an expansion of protection against cyberbullying, cyber abuse, image-based abuse and seriously harmful content. As the digital landscape is in a constant state of flux, new opportunities arise – and with them new dangers. This necessitates updated legislation to ensure a safer online environment prioritising human rights and community welfare.

Recommendation 1: In light of data verifying the real-life harms of childhood exposure to pornography the Commonwealth government should recognise the potential benefits of an Age Verification system along with other measures to limit porn exposure to children, including education programs and improved ISP filters.

Recommendation 2: An age verification scheme for access to online pornography, drawing from work done to develop the original United Kingdom model and with added measures that address perceived shortcomings in that model, for example, additions that extend application to social media platforms, should be implemented by the Commonwealth Government.

Recommendation 3: Introduce an age verification system that will restrict children’s access to online pornography (and the global porn industry’s unfettered access to children), acknowledging that our obligation to protect children, and the ensuing protections afforded to children by such a system far outweigh the concerns of those with vested interests in the global porn industry.

Recommendation 4: Introduce an Age Verification system that will restrict children’s access to online pornography (and the global porn industry’s unfettered access to children) and so uphold Australia’s international obligations to protect children from abuse, exploitation and developmental harm, acknowledging that exposure to online pornography amounts to abuse, exploitation and harm.

Click here to read the full submission.

See also:

UK age-verification has kids – and parents - at heart

We have been heard: Parliamentary inquiry into age verification for online pornography

*Update:

We've been heard!

The House of Reps Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs has released its report - 'Protecting the age of innocence' - following its Inquiry into Age Verification for online porn. We welcome the Committee's recommendation of a 'roadmap for the implementation of a regime of mandatory Age Verification for online pornographic material'.

Read the full report - which references Collective Shout's and Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist's submissions and evidence - here.

Find out how to make a submission to the inquiry

UK age-verification has kids – and parents - at heart

In 2016, a UK report was published on the ‘impact of online porn on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people’. The report showed that nearly half of 11-16-year old boys and girls had seen online pornography, and that first exposure to porn was most likely to be accidental, rather than pursued.

From the report came a powerful statement from the Children’s Commissioner for England: there is no room for complacency.

“It cannot be right that so many children may be stumbling across and learning about sex from degrading and violent depictions of it. We need to act to restrict their access to such material and to ensure that they have spaces in which to discuss and learn about safe relationships and sex. It is our duty to protect children from harm and so we must ensure this happens.”

Now, in 2019, age-verification has been introduced to UK law via the Digital Economy Act. From 15 July, all websites hosting porn will be required by law to have an age-verification system. According to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) – the body responsible for regulating the system – age-verification is about keeping kids “as safe as possible whenever they’re on the web”.

Age verification is not just about kids though. It’s also about their parents and carers. Remarkably, 88% of polled parents supported the UK introduction of the age-verification system. This overwhelming favour for age-verification is not surprising, especially considering that the standard defence offered by the porn industry has been that if kids are accessing porn, parents are at fault. But as Caitlin Roper’s March 2018 Huffington Post article highlights, the cards are stacked against parents and carers, in the porn industry’s favour. When simple key-stroke errors and searches based on cartoon characters can give a child direct access to porn-sites, parents haven’t got a hope of protecting their children. It’s simply not a fair fight. The support from UK parents for age verification is an acknowledgment that they are in a no-win situation to protect their kids from porn and that they need help.

Back to the kids. As John Carr, a leading UK authority on children’s and young people’s use of digital technology, puts it, ultimately age-verification is aimed at “helping children grow up to be healthy, well-adjusted adults”.

And so only one question remains: why would anybody in Australia not want that too? With less than a week until the election, there’s still time to ask your candidate that very question.

The UK will become the first country in the world to bring in age-verification for online pornography when the measures come into force on 15 July 2019.

• Porn sites must check age of users or risk facing sanctions
• New approach is the first of its kind in the world, and puts in place the same protections that exist offline
• Stricter measures in place to protect users’ data and privacy 

The UK will become the first country in the world to bring in age-verification for online pornography when the measures come into force on 15 July 2019. 

It means that commercial providers of online pornography will be required by law to carry out robust age-verification checks on users, to ensure that they are 18 or over. The move is backed by 88% of UK parents with children aged 7-17, who agree there should be robust age-verification controls in place to stop children seeing pornography online

Websites that fail to implement age-verification technology face having payment services withdrawn or being blocked for UK users.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the new laws. They have confirmed that they will begin enforcement on 15 July, following an implementation period to allow websites time to comply with the new standards.

Minister for Digital Margot James said:

Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online. The introduction of mandatory age-verification is a world-first, and we’ve taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content. We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this.

Government has listened carefully to privacy concerns and is clear that age-verification arrangements should only be concerned with verifying age, not identity. In addition to the requirement for all age-verification providers to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards, the BBFC have created a voluntary certification scheme, the Age-verification Certificate (AVC), which will assess the data security standards of AV providers. The AVC has been developed in cooperation with industry, with input from government.

Certified age-verification solutions which offer these robust data protection conditions will be certified following an independent assessment and will carry the BBFC’s new green ‘AV’ symbol. Details will also be published on the BBFC’s age-verification website, ageverificationregulator.com so consumers can make an informed choice between age-verification providers.

BBFC Chief Executive David Austin said:

The introduction of age-verification to restrict access to commercial pornographic websites to adults is a ground breaking child protection measure. Age-verification will help prevent children from accessing pornographic content online and means the UK is leading the way in internet safety.

On entry into force, consumers will be able to identify that an age-verification provider has met rigorous security and data checks if they carry the BBFC’s new green ‘AV’ symbol.

The change in law is part of the Government’s commitment to making the UK the safest place in the world to be online, especially for children. It follows last week’s publication of the Online Harms White Paper which set out clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe online, how these responsibilities should be met and what would happen if they are not.

Read the full media release here. 

Collective Shout is calling for implementation of the UK age-verification laws here in Australia.

See also:

Speech: Home Secretary launches Online Harms White Paper

Online Harms White Paper