78 per cent of people support a form of age verification on websites to stop children from watching pornography. At least that’s according to a poll conducted by Matthew Goodwin (more on this later). The polling relates to the Online Safety Bill which would require websites such as porn sites and those offering streaming services to have an age verification system in order to protect children from viewing potentially harmful content.
While such a move is no doubt well intended, it is really bad policy. It is not only deeply illiberal, it is also deeply unconservative.
It is well intentioned because it is right to want to protect young people from viewing material which is not suitable for them. Children should not be exposed to pornography, extreme violence, or foul language. Unfortunately, this is not the case in reality. For example, a recent report from the Children’s Commissioner found that children as young as nine were being exposed to pornography. However, age verification is not the way to go.
First, it is deeply illiberal. While many campaigners have good motives for age verification (protecting children), many other campaigners are doing so as part of a wider agenda to clamp down on pornography altogether. Some forms of pornography should obviously be banned, and we can have a reasoned and mature debate about porn in general, but to attempt to use the State to clamp down on it in general where nobody is being harmed is incredibly illiberal. It’s none of the State’s business what adults choose to get up to in the privacy of their own home as long as they are not harming others. Watching porn should be no different.
On a related note, it is important to point out that the largest adult websites are actually in favour of it. This is because they assume that people will feel more comfortable sharing their details with established providers and so will help to shut out the competition while giving them access to valuable personal data. As such, theanti-porn campaigners will in fact be helping to boost the profits of Big Porn while also stifling competition.
Second, it is also deeply unconservative. This is because it is advocating abdicating parental responsibility. Many social conservatives often claim that ‘parents know best’ when it comes to matters about what children are learning at school but are now happy for the State and porn companies to take the lead in protecting children. It should be parents who are responsible for keeping their children safe online by having honest conversations, monitoring their internet access, and blocking certain websites.
Finally, it has a number of other pitfalls. For example, Goodwin’s badly worded and deeply leading poll question would no doubt have got a very different response if he asked: “Should adults be forced to enter their credit card details, exposing themselves to the risk of blackmail and fraud?” This is a real concern, placing your card details means that criminals can defraud people or extort them. This would be particularly bad for the LGBT+ community and who may not currently be out and so who may feel they have no choice but to give in to the demands of criminals just to protect their identity.
We should do everything we can to keep children safe. As mentioned above, that should be the role of parents and other adults such as carers and teachers. Parents should be having honest and open conversations with their children about what is and what is not appropriate for them to be watching online. Moreover, age appropriate sex and relationship education can play a very important role as well.
Let’s keep children safe but we should ignore the dodgy polling and those who wish to trample on the freedom of others.