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The Impact of Pornography on Society HL Debate – 5 November 2015

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The Impact of Pornography on Society HL Debate – 5 November 2015 The Impact of Pornography on Society – CARE Briefing October 2015 HL Debate – 5 November 2015 The Impact of Pornography on Society HL Debate – 5 November 2015 The proliferation of free to view pornography websites has made it easier for individuals of any age to gain access to explicit content. Children increasingly use mobile devices such as smartphones to access the internet away from the scrutiny of parents. CARE is concerned and seeking clarification from the Minister as to whether the family-friendly filters for internet pornography will be challenged by the recent EU ruling. The Relate counselling service has said that difficulties in relationships caused by pornography “is an increasingly common topic in the counselling room”. Pornography can have other negative consequences for individuals, including losing employment. Excessive pornography use has been shown to change brain activity, similar to that for drug addicts. Introduction 1. It is estimated that the porn industry is worth around $97 billion world-wide.1 A recent article in The Economist said the “number of porn pages is estimated at 700-800m; one of the biggest sites claims to get 80 billion views a year.”2 The Authority for Television on Demand’s (ATVOD) 2014 report For Adults Only? showed that many of the pornographic websites viewed by UK users operate as ‘tube sites’ – these are sites which provide free porn videos “on a try before you buy basis”.3 With the free availability of pornography through ‘tube sites’ it is reasonable to assume that individuals, including children could potentially view unrestricted, pornographic content at any time, particularly as non-UK/EU providers of pornographic videos and services are not obliged to verify the age of the user.4 2. Debates about regulation of pornography are controversial because any action is often considered censorship and is rejected in favour of arguments centred on “choice” and “sexual liberty”. However, this briefing shows that pornography is not benign for everyone and that just as the Government regulates other practices that can be problematic for some people, such as gambling, the Government should reconsider current assumptions about adult use of pornography and ensure that the protection of children remains a key priority. The effect of pornography on children 3. ATVOD reported that 200,000 school children between the ages of six and fifteen had visited pornographic websites in December 2013 either through a PC or laptop.5 This is likely to be an underestimate of the amount of pornographic websites that children and young people are accessing as the research did not account for material accessed through mobile phones, yet 59% of twelve to fifteen year olds access the internet through mobile phones, away from the scrutiny of parents.6 1 ‘Porn industry Feeling Upbeat About 2014,’ NBC News, 14 January 2014 http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/porn-industry-feeling-upbeat-about-2014-n9076 2 ‘Generation XXX’, The Economist, 26 September 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21666614-free-pornography-ever-more- plentiful-online-right-response-involves-better-sex 3 For Adults Only?’ATVOD research report, 28 March 2014, page 19 http://www.atvod.co.uk/uploads/files/For_Adults_Only_FINAL.pdf 4 Ibid, page 22 and 23 5 Ibid, page 16 6 ‘Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes report’, OFCOM, October 2014, page 23 http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/media-use-attitudes-14/Childrens_2014_Report.pdf 1 The Impact of Pornography on Society – CARE Briefing October 2015 HL Debate – 5 November 2015 4. The Nextweb.com reveals that Facebook and YouTube supplied the second and third highest amount of traffic to adult sites in February 2015,7 which is particularly concerning because these media platforms are used by all ages on a daily basis. According to OFCOM’s 2014 Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes report, 76% of twelve to fifteen year olds and over half of eight to eleven year olds watch YouTube channels.8 In 2011, The Deputy Children’s Commissioner said, “What is clear…is that children’s access to pornography is fundamentally different from that of previous generations because of the prevalence of these materials on the internet. Explicit sex and violent still and moving images depicting rape, bestiality, the use of pain and humiliation are potentially just a few clicks away.” She also said pornography “was mentioned by boys in witness statements after being apprehended for the rape of a child, one of whom said it was ‘like being in a porn movie’.”9 5. Young people have also acknowledged the easy availability of pornography in the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) research report Young People, Sex and Relationships: The New Norms. The report details the findings taken from a survey of 500 eighteen year olds during 2014 to discover young people’s views on sex and relationships.10 The authors note that: eight out of ten participants believed that it was too easy to accidently view pornography online; 72% believed that pornography led to unrealistic expectations of sex; 70% said pornography can have a damaging effect on how young people view sex and relationships; 77% of young women said pornography has led to pressure to look a certain way. 6. Early exposure to pornographic material can be extremely harmful to children. The Economist reported that given the view that sexual tastes are formed around puberty “ill-timed exposure to unpleasant or bizarre material could cause a lifelong problem.”11 The 2011 Basically...porn is everywhere evidence assessment report commissioned by the Children’s Commissioner concluded that:12 A significant proportion of children and young people are exposed to or access pornography; Access and exposure to pornography affect children and young people’s sexual beliefs. For example, pornography has been linked to unrealistic attitudes about sex, maladaptive attitudes and beliefs that women are sex objects; Access and exposure to pornography are linked to children and young people’s engagement in “risky behaviours, eg. sexting, riskier sexual behaviours.” 7. The negative effects of watching pornography for children are also well-documented in the press. Many judges have identified the role of pornography when criminal cases are brought before the courts – many of these cases involve children both as perpetrators of heinous sexual acts and as victims of such acts. Cases such as the thirteen year old boy who raped a girl, younger than eight, after watching pornography online;13 such stories reveal the disastrous consequences ready access to pornography by children can have. 7 ‘Porn industry Feeling Upbeat About 2014,’ NBC News, 14 January 2014 http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/porn-industry-feeling-upbeat-about-2014-n9076 8 OFCOM, Op Cit, page 6 9 ‘Basically...porn is everywhere,’ A rapid assessment on the fact that access and exposure to pornography has on children and young people, Middlesex University London, Miranda A.H. Horvath, Llian Alys, Kristina Massey, Afroditi Pina, Mia Scally and Joanna R. Adler, 2011, page 4, https://www.safeguardingchildrenbarnsley.com/media/22945/basically_porn_is_everywhere_final_1_.pdf 10 ‘ Young People, Sex and Relationships: The New Norms,’ Institute for Public Policy Research, August 2014 http://www.ippr.org/files/publications/pdf/young-people-sex-relationships_Aug2014.pdf?noredirect=1 11 ‘A User’s Manual, The Economist, 26 September 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/international/21666113-hardcore-abundant-and- free-what-online-pornography-doing-sexual-tastesand 12 ‘Basically...porn is everywhere, Op Cit, pages 7-8 13 ‘Schoolboy, 13, spent years raping little girl aged younger than eight after watching internet pornography,’ Mail Online, 19 Nov 2013 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509889/Internet-porn-addict-13-spent-years-raping-girl-younger-8.html#ixzz3K5NnAV95 2 The Impact of Pornography on Society – CARE Briefing October 2015 HL Debate – 5 November 2015 8. In its 2015 manifesto the Conservative party committed to stopping “children’s exposure to harmful sexualised content online, by requiring age verification for access to all sites containing pornographic material...”14 On 12 October 2015 Baroness Shields, the Minster for Internet Safety and Security, said the Government intends to consult on this manifesto commitment before the end of the year.15 CARE is concerned and seeking clarification as to whether the system family-friendly filters for internet pornography being operated by the big four internet service providers will be challenged by the recent EU ruling.16 On 28 October, the Prime Minister said that the Government had secured an opt-out from this ruling and will introduce legislation to ensure children are protected.17 CARE is concerned that the Government’s consultation proposals should ensure that all ISPs – not just the big four – offer so-called family friendly filtering as currently 10% of the market is not covered by the voluntary agreement. In addition, the proposals should ensure that filter settings can only be changed by parents and that there is regulation of foreign websites which are currently under no obligation to restrict access for under 18s to pornographic material. 9. Key questions to ask the Minister Will the Government’s consultation on age verification for websites containing pornographic material tackle the large number of unregulated foreign websites that are accessed by children and young people? Could the
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