The Sunday Times covers Claire Perry's campaign for an opt-in system to protect children accessing internet pornography

The Sunday Times' front page and magazine cover story featured the issue of children's access to pornography and the debate in the House of Commons led by Claire Perry MP about an opt-in sustem that requires verification that a user is over 18 for access to pornographic material.

For The Sunday Times Magazine article click here.

To read the debate in full including the Minister's response click here.

Claire Perry, MP for the Devizes Constituency led a debate in the House of Commons, on the 23rd November, calling for a change in regulations to require all UK-based Internet Service Providers to restrict universal access to pornographic content by implementing an opt-in system that requires verification that a user is over 18 for access to such material.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Claire said:

"As a mother with three children I know how difficult it is to keep children from seeing inappropriate material on the Internet. We already successfully regulate British TV channels, cinema screens, high street hoardings and newsagent shelves to stop children seeing inappropriate images and mobile phone companies are able to restrict access to adult material so why should the Internet be any different? British Internet Service Providers should share the responsibility to keep our children safe so I am calling for ISP's to offer an "Opt In" system that uses age verification to access pornographic material"

Notes:

A recent study reported that one in three children aged ten have viewed pornography on the internet, while four in every five children aged 14 to 16 admitted to regularly accessing explicit photographs and footage on their home computers[1].According to the Office of National Statistics 73% of British households now have access to the Internet[2] while Ofcom reports that 99 per cent of 12-15 year olds, 93 per cent of 8-11 year olds, and 75 per cent of 5-7 year olds use the Internet regularly. 12 per cent of 8-11 year olds and 31 per cent of 12-15 year olds have internet access in their bedrooms[3].There is a growing body of evidence on the effects of sexually explicit material and attitudes towards sex such as respect for women and understanding of sex as related to love[4].

The top six UK ISP providers (all UK based) account for over 90% of market share[5] and there are already clear guidelines from Ofcom as to what constitutes adult sexual content[6] The mobile phones industry has adopted a self-regulatory model using an "adult bar" to restrict access to inappropriate content[7]

[1] Psychologies Magazine, July 2010

[2] ONS - Internet Access, August 2010

[3] Ofcom, March 2010

[4] Safer Children in a Digital World: The Report of the Byron Review 2008 pg 51

[5] House of Commons Library, September 2010

[6] Ofcom: UK code of practice for the self-regulation of new forms of content on mobiles, August 2008

[7] Ibid

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