Dear Friend,
In Canada, proof of age is required to buy cigarettes, cannabis and alcohol. People under 18 cannot go into casinos, buy lottery tickets, or enter strip clubs. These laws make sense. Minors shouldn’t have access to things that are only meant for adult consumption.
So, it makes absolutely no sense that, even though young people cannot rent or buy pornographic material in the real world, kids in Canada have easy and instant access to explicit pornographic material in the virtual world, with just the tap or swipe of a finger.
One important way to help protect children and teens from seeing inappropriate content on online platforms, such as apps, social media, and websites, is through the use of age-assurance technologies to verify age. “Age assurance” verifies that a person is over a minimum age limit before they can access certain content, like online gambling or explicit sexual images.
Germany, France, and the U.K have already passed laws to impose age assurance to access pornography on the internet. In the U.S., over a third of the States either already require age assurance to access porn sites or are in various stages of passing such laws. Australia is also moving ahead with implementing age assurance legislation.
Sadly, Canada has been slow to act. In a recent conversation with my counterpart in the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom, he expressed his surprise that Canada is “behind” on dealing with this issue. It’s time we get this done!
Bill S-210,
An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material, will make it a criminal offence for any organization to make sexually explicit material available online, for commercial purposes, to minors. This means commercial pornography sites will be required to verify the age of their clients. The EFC supports this important bill.
The internet is an integral part of today’s culture, especially for children and youth, for whom schoolwork, gaming, and online social networking online are common everyday activities. More than one in three kids has a smartphone by the age of 10. Even kids who don’t have their own phones have access to those of their friends, classmates or older siblings. Digital connectivity offers children many ways to learn, have fun and connect, but there are grave concerns over the ease with which harmful content can be accessed.
Their increased presence online means kids are being exposed to pornography at younger and younger ages – whether intentionally or accidentally. Research shows that kids as young as 7 or 8 years old have come across pornography online. More than half of 11 to 13-year-olds and two-thirds of 14 to 15-year-olds have viewed pornography online. For more than 60% of youth aged 11 to 13 years of age, their first viewing of pornography was accidental.
Allowing children and young teens to have unfettered access to online pornography has serious consequences. Studies have found that 87% of the content that is easily available on pornography platforms features violent aggression and degrading behaviour. Pornography, when viewed at a young and immature age, has the potential to do irreparable harm to the mental and spiritual health of viewers and their ability to form healthy relationships.
Pornography has a profound impact on young, impressionable minds, teaching them harmful and dangerous lies about sex. They are learning about sexual relationships from content that portrays sex as being abusive, callous, selfish and physically violent, and where women are treated as objects or tools for men's pleasure. Is this what we want our kids to learn?
Those who oppose the use of age verification on porn sites have argued that it should be left to parents to use internet filters at home. This is certainly something we recommend to parents. However, wi-fi is readily available in many public spaces. And while parental controls can be set on the mobile devices themselves, kids may still see inappropriate content on their friends’ devices. Yes, tech-savvy teens may be able to get around age assurance technologies, but it can still help to prevent accidental or easy exposure to explicit content for many young kids.
Age assurance helps to protect
all children and youth, not just the ones with guardians who have the time, energy, and know-how to put protective measures in place. It offers protection in all the settings where they may encounter harmful content outside the home.
The EFC supports Bill S-210 which will require the use of age assurance technologies to protect minors from the harmful impacts of viewing or being exposed to pornography online. This Bill seeks to do legally what we believe Scripture compels all of us to do: To protect children from being caused great moral and psychological harm (Matt 6:6). This is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed
now!
We encourage you to reach out to your MP and urge them to vote for Bill S-210 as a critical means of protecting kids online. And please pray for our continuing work on this critical issue on the Hill. Lastly, will you make a generous donation today to support and encourage us in this work? Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Dr. David Guretzki
President & CEO