Orders of the Day — Protection of Children Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 February 1978.

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Photo of Bernard Braine Bernard Braine , Essex South East 12:00, 10 February 1978

I would not quarrel with the hon. Gentleman for one moment. He is right. But if the House is concerned with the protection of children, we should not be asked to wait until the Williams Committee has pronounced, because that means that we shall be waiting for three or four years, during a period when the market may have been closed in the United States and the porn merchants are moving in here.

I am merely expressing my disappointment. The Bill is a good step in itself, a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. There is also a growing tendency in adult sex magazines to describe sexual activity with children by means of pictures of young adults dressed up to look like children. Such materials should be dealt with, too. It is part of the same filthy conspiracy against the moral and physical health of our children, because it suggests a permissiveness—an attitude of mind—which is becoming accepted. Yet such material is not covered in the Bill.

We know that this scene is becoming blurred. As the House knows, I, too, have some connection with the police. For well over 12 years I have helped to advise senior police officers—not the Police Federation. I know of their concern. My hon. Friend the Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Griffiths) spoke of the submission that the Sexual Law Reform Society is making to the Williams Committee that the age of consent should be reduced to 14—[Interruption.] I am not making any accusations. I am merely making a statement of fact.