This briefing was prepared ahead of the House of Commons consideration of the Lords amendments to the Online Safety Bill.
We call for support for the Government amendments to the Online Safety Bill which place a duty on pornography sites and social media sites to ensure that children are prevented from encountering pornographic content through the use of highly effective age verification or age estimation (or both) no later than 18 months following Royal Assent.
Many children stumble across and access pornographic content, which can damage their mental health, and distort their understanding of healthy relationships, consent and sex. It can normalise abusive sexual behaviour.
Children access pornographic content on average at 13 years old. 10% of 9- year-olds are viewing pornography. Children are mainly accessing pornography via social media sites such as X (formerly Twitter), as well as dedicated pornography sites.
In these final stages of the Online Safety Bill, we are calling on MPs to ensure the Government holds Ofcom to account by introducing the age verification measures in the Bill as soon as possible and uses the powers it has been given to ensure the pornography industry complies with the new regulations.