Pornography: Internet

(asked on 10th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their forthcoming internet safety strategy will address the harms of pornography to adults, including to their interpersonal relationships; whether any measures to mitigate such harms were included in the Internet Safety Strategy green paper published in October 2017; and, if not, why not.


Answered by
Lord Ashton of Hyde Portrait
Lord Ashton of Hyde
This question was answered on 19th January 2018

Evidence has shown that the easy availability and nature of online pornography is changing the way children understand healthy relationships, sex and consent. The Digital Economy Act 2017 will require commercial providers of online pornography to have robust age verification controls in place to prevent children from accessing pornographic material online, as is already the case offline. We do not have plans to restrict adults' access to this content and this issue was not specifically highlighted in the Internet Safety Strategy.

The Strategy does look more widely at how we can build users' digital literacy skills and includes initiatives which will help users access the benefits of the Internet, while managing potential risks.

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