Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: ...basis, which is why no limitations are set for these measures in the Bill. As my noble friend knows, in the Bill there are clear duties on providers to ensure that children are not able to access pornography, which Ofcom will have a robust set of powers to enforce. It is important, however, that Ofcom’s powers and its approach to enforcement apply equally and consistently across the...
Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make an assessment of the potential effectiveness of the Online Safety Bill in tackling online access to pornography by children.
Miriam Cates: ...smartphones and social media and deteriorating mental health in young people. The extent of online harms cannot be overstated. My right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford) mentioned pornography. Violent pornography is now routinely encountered by children on the internet, with 1.3 million visits a month by UK children to adult sites. There is also eating disorder and...
Viscount Camrose: ...that the Bill will already tackle some of the worst examples of animal cruelty online. This includes, for example, where the content amounts to an existing priority offence, such as extreme pornography, which platforms must prevent users encountering. Equally, where content could cause psychological harm to children, it must be tackled. Where the largest services prohibit types of animal...
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: ...already listed several priority offences in Schedule 7 that we know disproportionately affect women and girls. These include sexual exploitation, intimate image abuse— including so-called revenge pornography—and extreme pornography. In addition, I want to be clear that the Bill will also cover content which intentionally encourages priority offences, an issue that was raised as a...
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: ...additional offences as priority offences via statutory instrument, subject to parliamentary scrutiny. It should be noted that Schedule 7 already contains several sexual offences, including extreme pornography, so-called revenge pornography and sexual exploitation, while Schedule 6 is focused solely on child sexual abuse and exploitation offences. Fraud and financial offences are also...
Baroness Kidron: ...up on a couple of questions and, as has been said by a number of noble Lords, concentrate on outcomes rather than contributions. On a couple of issues that came up, I feel that the principle of pornography being treated in the same way in Parts 3 and 5 is absolute. We believe we have done it. After Committee we will discuss that with noble Lords who feel that is not clear in the amendment...
Suella Braverman: My hon. Friend speaks with expertise, and she raises a very important point with which I agree: the ubiquity, as she puts it, of online pornography and its accessibility by children is a major factor in the incidence of criminal behaviour of this type. The Online Safety Bill will mark a game changer in the protection of children online, and will take us forward in preventing children from...
Online Pornography (Education on Dangers)
Darren Millar: ...) Act, back in 2021, when you were planning to introduce an extension to the franchise, so that rapists, sexual offenders, people who were—[Interruption.]—people who were convicted of child pornography offences, and others—[Interruption.] It's not nonsense. This was—[Interruption.] This was—[Interruption.] These are statements of fact.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: ...world where we see some of this serious activity happening, we should do more to support young men and boys to understand the proper expectations of them. When we get to the groups of amendments on pornography and what more we can do to prevent children’s access to it, I will be much more sympathetic. Forgive me if this sounds like motherhood and apple pie, but I want us to try to...
Lord Allan of Hallam: ...literally millions of reports about Turkish politicians. These will come from the supporters of either side, reporting people on the other side—claiming that they are engaged in hate speech or pornography or whatever. They will use whatever tool they can. That is what we used to see day in, day out: football teams or political groups that report each other. The challenge is to separate...
Baroness Kidron: ...as to what the Bill says about misinformation and disinformation in relation to children. My understanding of primary priority and priority harms is that they concern issues such as self-harm and pornography, but do they say anything specific about misinformation of the kind we have been discussing and whether children will be protected from it?
Viscount Colville of Culross: ..., sex, gender reassignment or sexual orientation. However, this list is not exhaustive. There will inevitably be areas of content for which users have not been given blocking tools, including pornography, violent material and other material that is subject to control in the offline world. Not only will the present list for such tools need to be assessed for its thoroughness in allowing...
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: ...Clause 11(3) and duties for pornographic content under Clause 72. This focuses the new offence on harms that are central to child safety, including self-harm content, eating disorder content and pornography. This offence fulfils the Government’s commitment in another place to bring forward an amendment in your Lordships’ House strengthening the Bill’s protections for children. I am...
Lord Knight of Weymouth: ...freshers’ week offences, and the sense that people were both offenders and victims, underscored that. In my Second Reading speech I alluded to the problem of the volume of young people accessing pornography on Twitter, and we see the same on Reddit, Discord and a number of other platforms. As the noble Baroness said, it is changing what so many young people perceive to be normal about...
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: ...are the same, and therefore cannot be treated in the same way. Put simply, not all content online should be legislated for in the same way. That is why the amendments in this group are needed. Pornography is a type of content that cannot be regulated in general terms; it needs specific provisions. I realise that some of these issues were raised in the debate last Tuesday on amendments in...
Lord Russell of Liverpool: ...25 as it goes, in great detail, right to the heart of the issues we are talking about. For example —this is very pertinent to the next group of amendments—it explicitly protects children from pornography, so I absolutely recommend that it be mentioned in the next group of amendments. As I expected, the Minister said, “We are very sympathetic but this is not really necessary”. He...
Lord Clement-Jones: ...but that is clearly not the case. It is very interesting that the use of avatars is becoming quite common in the advertising industry to track where advertisements are ending up—sometimes, on pornography sites. It is really heartening that an organisation such as 5Rights has been doing that and coming up with its conclusions. It is extremely useful for us as policymakers to see the kinds...
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: ...would undermine the effectiveness of the child safety duties as currently drafted. That includes the duty for user-to-user providers to prevent children encountering primary priority harms, such as pornography and content that promotes self-harm or suicide, as well as the duty to put in place age-appropriate measures to protect children from other harmful content and activity. As a result,...
