CARE campaigns for child protection through the law to be upheld online, just as it is offline. Research published in 2016 warned that 53 per cent of 11-16 year olds have seen pornographic content online with 34 per cent viewing it once a week or more. The report also found that this exposure to pornography was severely damaging to how these young people viewed sex and relationships. During the past few years there have been a growing number of cases in the courts of boys sexually assaulting girls by acting out the hard core pornography they have seen online.

During the last parliament there have been some important steps forward in relation to improving online safety. Several reforms CARE called for have been introduced through the Digital Economy Act 2017 which passed just before parliament dissolved for the election.

The Act introduces mandatory age-verification safety procedures for all websites containing pornographic material (as is already the case for online gambling sites). The law gives powers to a new regulator to require Internet Service Providers to block access to websites that do not put the necessary age-verification mechanisms in place. CARE also wants to see all internet connections providing adult content filters which are turned on by default. These filters ensure that young people under 18 years old cannot view adult material, but can be easily switched off by adults following age verification. We welcome the steps the Government has taken to encourage greater use of filtering at present. However, it is still not mandatory for all internet service providers and mobile phone operators.