It’s a crime to provide alcohol to a minor, yet highly explicit pornography is available 24/7 to any child with a smartphone.

Help Protect our kids from porn

The Online Safety Bill has now become law. It is designed to protect vulnerable people from abuse on social media and the internet.

Last year, Premier’s Safety Net Campaign called for mandatory age checks for commercial pornography websites. Thanks to you and the letters you sent to your MP, we succeeded in securing robust new age verification measures in the Bill.

However, children and vulnerable adults may still be exposed to extreme and damaging pornography – content that would be banned from licensed sex shops, and yet remains freely available on the internet.

The Government is considering how it can update its pornography laws so that what is illegal offline is illegal online.

This is an opportunity for us to protect our kids’ smartphones from images that could do lasting harm.

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PREMIER CHRISTIAN COMMUNICATIONS OPEN LETTER ON ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY

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Please add your name to the Open Letter and we will send it on your behalf to the Minister, the Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation & Technology

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PREMIER CHRISTIAN COMMUNICATIONS OPEN LETTER ON ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY REVIEW

The levels of abuse and sexual violence that we expose our children and young people to in this country is truly shocking:

Four in five 18-21 year olds had seen content involving sexual violence before turning 18. The average age that children first see pornography on their phones is 13 years old. Social media is where they are most likely to find pornography.

Online pornography has harmful effects on loving and meaningful relationships, it can form destructive addictions and it is proven to be a driver for sexual assaults, coercion and abuse.

Recent research from the Children’s Commissioner’s Office found that children access pornography as early as 9 years old.

An astonishing 1.4 million children regularly access pornography every month, according to the Government’s own figures. Because online pornography is so prevalent and easy to access online, the majority of children’s first time watching pornography was unintentional.

Boys and young men are forming destructive addictions to explicit pornography making it difficult to form loving and stable relationships.

We very much welcome the decision by the Government to review the regulatory regime for explicit adult material. UK laws regulating online pornography are outdated and no longer fit for purpose.

Age verification controls in the Online Safety Bill will go some way to protect our kids from porn but the prevalence of sites such as Only Fans which promote themselves through social media means children are still at risk.

We would like to see the same standards used for offline pornography to be applied online. The current legislative framework is piecemeal and does little to prevent and provide for redress for harms perpetuated by the porn trade. There should be strict prohibition on any material online that would be refused classification from the British Board of Film Classification.

Research by the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (or CEASE) has found over 80% of the public would support new laws to limit access to online pornography

Yours sincerely

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62% of 11 to 13 year olds see pornography for the first time unintentionally, thanks to its prevalence online
A child browsing an adult website on an iPad

The levels of abuse and sexual violence that we expose our children and young people to in this country is truly shocking:

  • Four in five 18-21 year olds have seen content involving sexual violence before turning 18.
  • The average age that children first see pornography on their phones is 13 years old.
  • An astonishing 1.4 million children regularly access pornography every month.

Online pornography has harmful effects on loving and meaningful relationships, it can form destructive addictions and it is proven to be a driver for sexual assaults, coercion and abuse.

The laws governing pornography are confusing and ineffective. And given that the last time the law was changed in any meaningful way was 45 years ago, it is outdated.

The law has not kept up with the online world where pornography is now pervasive.

Please support this vital campaign to protect the innocence of our children

Your financial support will enable Premier to amplify the Christian voice in the corridors of power, to ensure that there will be a new regulatory framework on explicit content that is fit for purpose.

Your gift will also help Premier broadcast a strong Christian voice to more than a million listeners around the UK – and now around the world.

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