Combating Access to Pornography by Minors
Some thoughts on the topic
Earlier today Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre stated in a press conference “Yes” when asked if his Government would require Porn Sites to verify the age of its users. His office followed up stating that they do not believe in the imposition of digital ID.
This spurred interesting dialogue on the topic across X with many people putting interesting views on the topic. It also created an uproar in two main domains. Leftists who want minors to have access to pornographic materials and the more right leaning libertarian crowd that believes that this is a slippery slope that will lead to digital ID and online monitoring by the Government. Many on the right, recognizing the rampant and out of control access that people have to pornographic material online took the stance that it is just and the potential risks are worth it. I see both sides of this debate in the right sphere as having legitimacy and think that both have the best interests of minors in mind but where the difference lies is the risk tolerance permitted by allowing the Government to impose a ID verification system.
My take on this topic? Limited Government intervention. Parents and private industry are the primary stakeholders here. It really is up to the Parents, you know the ones Conservatives have been championing as having the primary rights over their children, to be the gatekeepers of this.
The porn industry is the other primary stakeholder here. They are a business that relies on views and clicks, there should be an incentivization to police their site from access to minors however this largely has not been the case. One can easily type in plenty of websites right into the search bar and not be met with even a screen that demands the user be 18 to view the site. It’s simply straight to hardcore pornographic material. The loosening of direct access to hardcore pornography online has formalized over the years. It’s become a mainstay on many social media apps as well. Even apps that don’t allow pornography are bombarded with material that comes as close to the limit as permitted. One need only look at Twitch’s recent “artistic nudity” fiasco on a site that is dominated by teenage males and the ongoing controversy about “hot tub streamer” to X to Only Fans pipeline. Sites like Tumblr were so inundated with pornography that they simply banned any pornography on the site at all.
Porn access by minors is a danger to our society and to our culture. It normalizes degeneracy, turns people into objects, sets unrealistic expectations that can lead to mental health issues, it can be addicting and some research has been done into prolonged porn usage causing changes to the brain. The porn industry itself is mired by drug use, human trafficking, rape and child exploitation material. It’s called adult material for a reason, it is meant to be consumed by adults.
These are some potential solutions that I believe could mitigate some risk without direct Government interventions. Recognizing that none of these are perfect and may have to form a more holistic approach:
Private companies creating software to block most porn site access on a computer/mobile device. These are already available and generally work great, however a more tech savvy person may be able to bypass some of the functionality and it doesn’t work on social media.
Telecom providers having an option for buyers to opt into a separate SSID that monitors keyword usage and creates a report for Parents to access and take actions to block materials, sites, etc. The parents are the monitor, not the Government.
Parents have to do their research on the social media sites that they allow their children to visit and what the potential risk is. Even sites that say that they don’t allow porn do have issues with porn. They need to also be aware of the social media icons that their children follow.
Parents need to have conversations with their children about internet usage and the types of materials that children can be exposed to on the internet. It should be part of educating children on healthy internet usage and children should be encouraged to discuss with parents should they come across illicit material. Parents should only allow computer and phone usage in areas where they can screen monitor as required and no minors device should be password locked from parents ability to access.
Children should be given instruction on Social Media usage and not be given social media accounts until they are old enough to understand the implications of the use of these apps. Before they are mature enough, any social media permitted needs to be using the parent functionality features that limit and monitor usage on these sites. People need to realize that these sites are filled with predators who will take advantage of underage users via scams or more insidious behaviors.
Parents need to have conversations with their children’s friends parents about their expectations around internet usage when they are at friends houses. You can take all the precautions in the world but others may and probably will not take the same precautions. Expectations must be laid out and respected by others.
These are a couple of barriers of entry that have been discussed as being useful, however this is up to the benevolence of the company or require some form of Government regulation.
All porn sites should require a credit card verification to permit entry (like it largely used to be). Minors cannot take on credit until they are 18 which is the most common age that pornographic material becomes legal. This doesn’t stop adults from purchasing content for their child or leaving it open for their children to access. One user I was talking to on X stated that the barrier of entry will put companies that follow the rules out of business and only encourage people to go to where it isn’t regulated online requiring additional Government resources to enforce.
An alternative is to have a token purchasable at a retail store where you present your ID similar to alcohol or tobacco. That token will allow access to the website. Again this type of measure will require some type of Government intervention.
The token/credit card system could be applied to social media as well. Yes you can view adult material on X, Reddit, etc. but you will need to verify your card or buy a token to do so. Companies should be incentivized to do this but Government will probably require some form of measure to enforce this.
In Conclusion
I’m sure now that this conversation has been brought up by a Federal party that there will be plenty of media attention and discussion surrounding it, for now these are my thoughts. The primary responsibility should be the parents to set the boundaries and ensure that their children are not viewing pornography online. The porn sites themselves should bear responsibility to put barriers in place but I don’t believe that they are properly incentivized to do so. The State should form a tertiary role at best as intervention implementing some form of Government led identification system could inevitably be a slippery slope. It remains my belief that the stable guiding parent structure remains the primary way to keep children safe online.
What are your thoughts? Should the Government be more involved, are there other measures you think could be implemented?
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This is an interesting and crucial subject. There is no easy answer. Alas I believe there can be no role for government, and that goes double for Canada. It has proven itself fundamentally unsuited to this kind of oversight.
That means parents as the porn sites cannot be trusted. They won't care.
What we actually need to do is change the culture around smartphones and internet use. We talk about it like social media and internet is crucial to children. Yet most of their parents will have grown up without it.
So I think the best long-term strategy is quite literally a culture where phone and internet use by those under 18 is frowned upon, like alcohol consumption.
It’s easy to block porn by setting pointing a device’s DNS to Clean Browsing’s IP addresses. Of course, it’s not as if children need internet access at all.