Baroness Benjamin
Main Page: Baroness Benjamin (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Benjamin (LD)
My Lords, I, too, would like first to pay tribute to the iconic Nelson Mandela, who loved children and understood the value of childhood. Had he been a Member of this House, I believe that he would have supported this Bill.
I strongly support the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, who is another icon, and I congratulate her on her hard work, commitment and persistence with this Bill —which, as she indicated, is about protecting children not just from online pornography but from all inappropriate online material, including that relating to bullying, anorexia and self-harm. The Bill is not about censorship or stopping adults from accessing legal material; nor is it about child pornography, which is illegal and punishable by law. It is about making sure that the Government do everything possible to support parents and guardians in ensuring that we protect our children online. At this point I should congratulate the Government on taking such a robust stance in working with the online industry to find solutions to this plague which is spreading across the nation’s children.
I come to this issue after a lifetime of working with children, and I have seen the damage that has been done to their mental and physical well-being. I want them to be given the chance to grow up and explore their own sexuality without the global porn industry poisoning and taking over their minds. Report after report suggests a worrying and disturbing trend. This is graphically demonstrated in the documentary film “In Real Life”, made by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron. A study by HealthyMind.com found that the average age of first exposure to online porn is six and that the largest group of child consumers are aged from 12 to 17.
The NSPCC’s ChildLine reports increased calls from extremely distressed children affected by the accidental or coerced viewing of pornography, sexual harassment and bullying. Interestingly, many are terrified that the police will come to their homes and arrest them for viewing porn.
Experts are reporting that more and more young boys are becoming addicted to porn, like 17 year-old Tom, who started watching hardcore at nine. His mind was so full of violent scenarios that he attempted to rape his first girlfriend. That could be our children or grandchildren. Then there was the 16 year-old so fascinated with porn that it led him to assault a five year -old because he wanted to know what it would feel like.
Equally disturbing was the report commissioned by Bedfordshire University that highlights the serious exploitation and rape of girls in gangs. It states that rape is part of daily life for hundreds, if not thousands, of girls associated with gangs. The boys carrying out these horrific assaults have grown up watching porn online and have a totally distorted and warped attitude to women and sexual relationships. Young boys are watching porn and then trying to find girls to match their fantasies. If the girls do not match then they move on to the next girl, leaving a trail of anguish, despair, self-loathing and even attempted suicide.
Schoolchildren are being affected by viewing porn and their sexual behaviour towards one another is cause for concern. Recently a mother contacted me after her five year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy in her class. A report by councils last week said that the age at which children are experiencing sexual misconduct is getting younger.
Research has shown that young girls watch porn to see how they should behave sexually, believing they have to do it “porn-style” or boys will not like them. Only recently I read a report on how young girls are electing to undergo risky genital cosmetic surgery because they are concerned that they do not match up to the image that boys see on porn sites. A porn producer reported that 16 year-old girls are turning up for auditions “porn-ready”. This is all part of the increasingly dangerous culture of sexual exploitation and sexualisation of children and young people, fuelled by increasingly violent and explicit pornography that is freely available and accessible on the internet.
A child cannot legally buy alcohol, or enter a casino or a pole dancing club. To gamble online, buy national lottery products or even purchase certain goods and services via the internet, you have to register and supply personal details and age verification. No one complains about that, so why not do the same for access to online porn? There are no simple solutions or silver bullet answers to this complex and multifaceted global problem, but necessity is the mother of invention and we all need to work together to find solutions, such as filters. There is much talk about the ineffectiveness of filters, but to use that as an excuse to do nothing is wrong. Speed bumps do not stop speeding but they do slow people down. We need filters to act as online speed bumps.
In 2010, ISPs said that providing a clean feed without porn to a home network was impossible, but now they are doing just that. It is great that major ISPs are now all committed to delivering robust filters that will be pre-ticked, meaning that new customers will have to actively decide to turn them off, and I welcome this move. However, I hope that all data on the filtering activities of their customers will be treated as confidential information and stored in so far as it is needed to administer a filtering system, which I believe will go some way towards allaying the concerns of those who feel that their freedom is being infringed.
Many schools now have enhanced cyber protection systems in place that use forensic technology to scan their networks and protect against grooming, inappropriate material, bullying, and self-harm and suicide websites. Local authorities must ensure that all schools invest in this type of technology so that children cannot get around filters, which some are doing at present.
Part of the solution is also for parents to take an active interest in what their child is being exposed to online. Some children have parents who show no interest in their well-being, while some do not have parents. Unfortunately, many parents have no idea what their children are viewing online and never explain to them that healthy sexual relationships should be about love, trust and respect. This is why sex and relationship education in schools is also important. As part of personal, social and health education, it can play a major role in a child’s development, ensuring that all children get the guidance and information that they need to progress long-term into adulthood. This does not mean showing children porn films. It means having a comprehensive age-appropriate conversation about sex and relationships.
The Sex Education Forum said that children it surveyed wanted sex and relationship education in schools. According to Mumsnet, 98% of parents want it to become statutory in schools. It is good to know that there will be a Safer Internet Day in February 2014 to educate parents about online safety for their children and for ISPs to demonstrate that they are responsible for creating a better, safer internet. That is all good news.
As I have said many times before, arguments about opt-in, censorship or freedom of expression simply are not applicable here. This pandemic crosses a sacred line. Although the internet is a wonderful and enlightening resource, it also has a dark and dangerous side. The global porn industry is grooming our children because it makes around £2,000 per second from adults, many addicted to porn since childhood. The Pandora’s box is open. We can never turn back the clock for the generation whose minds have been tainted, but we can and must put measures in place to stop this epidemic continuing. The sexualisation of children, especially by the internet, music videos and other media, is frightening, and inaction will damage society and humanity.
I am grateful to all the ISPs that are taking this problem seriously; that is very encouraging. However, it is scandalous to hear the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, say that some mobile phone networks are hiding behind a veil of silence and the facade of self-regulation, sidestepping their responsibilities to safeguard and protect our children. They are allowing adult material to be shown by mobile phones when the Government said last year that all mobile phone operators have agreed to put adult content filters in place. Shame on those who have avoided this pledge—they know who they are. I hope that they will honour that pledge and agreement immediately. That is why I believe that we need legislation that is future-proof and fool-proof, so that all service providers old or new will know that they have a statutory duty to protect our children and they will not be given the soft option of self-regulation but must stand up to their responsibility and duties.
We all need to send out a clear message that we care about our children, their mental and spiritual happiness and their future well-being, and that we will do whatever it takes. That means that we need wholeheartedly to support this Bill, which is an important part of the solution as we move forward in trying to protect and safeguard our children. Let us press that reset button for their sake. We owe it to our children.