It’s a crime to provide alcohol to a minor, yet highly explicit pornography is available 24/7 to any child with a smartphone or tablet, simply by ticking a box

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.

Demand Your MP Takes Action

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Please sign the petition below: it will be sent directly to your MP in time to expand the scope of the draft bill in the House of Commons.

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URGENT PETITION To prevent harm to children from sexually explicit material online

I am deeply concerned that the Online Safety Bill will not protect children from being harmed by online pornography due to the lack of age verification safeguards which had previously been assured in Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act. The new Bill makes no requirement of commercial pornography websites to verify the user’s age, and many do not even ask the user to tick a box to confirm that they are over 18.

As a result, any child with a smartphone can easily access highly explicit pornography, and research already suggests that 62% of children aged 11 to 13 see pornography for the first time unintentionally.

Thousands more children will be exposed and harmed by easy access to hardcore, violent and abusive images until age verification controls are enforced. Technology already exists that can verify age without violating the privacy of adults, making concerns about restricted freedoms completely unfounded.

I am asking you to vote in favour of extending the scope of the Online Safety Bill to include mandatory age verification for all commercial pornographic websites when the Bill returns to the House of Commons. I strongly urge you to seize this opportunity to make our children’s smartphones safer and to protect innocence online.

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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