Providers of online porn should be held to account for causing harm
Iwas appearing on a radio discussion show with David Starkey this week when the conversation turned to online pornography. His response was unequivocal. despite his long-winded sermons on previous topics, on this he offered succinctly that he was a libertarian and didn’t think society should be tailored to the weak, before adding “I should declare an interest
– I quite enjoy pornography.” It was an honest answer, and one no doubt shared by millions of men. But here’s the challenge: it’s not solely the “weak” in our society who are suffering the consequences of the proliferation of online pornography, it’s just that the abuse and objectification of women that feminists have been warning of for decades was not enough to get the attention of those in power. Now, however, it is clear that our culture of deregulated pornography has been a disaster for an enormous number of boys and men as well.
Pornography has become a vast global industry. In 2016, almost 92 billion videos were viewed by 64 million daily visitors on Pornhub, the world’s largest free internet porn site. The online porn sector is estimated to be worth around £11 billion and the UK is its third biggest consumer. Naked pics in lad mags are being replaced with violent porn, including a growth in rape and incest porn. Boys as young as 11 are sharing explicit pornography in the playground and many of them are thinking about re-enacting its horrors in real life.
In response to this, our Government – not a single member of which is showing signs of having had anything resembling a misspent youth, where fake IDS are king – has decided to introduce age checks to stop kids from accessing porn with such ease. This poorly designed policy not only confirms how out of touch the Government is with young people and the internet – echoed in its failure to implement compulsory and inclusive relationships and sex eduction – but also its unwillingness to directly challenge tech companies.
The online porn industry, like most tech-based companies, is well ahead of government in terms of innovation. It can, and does, easily reproduce itself around legislative loopholes. Instead of inventing hopeless verification tools that will easily be circumvented, the Government should be setting out a comprehensive legislative framework that is focused on holding the handful of companies that now dominate this industry to account for the damage they are doing to our society.
At the same time, they should also be making a concerted effort to properly enforce existing laws on violence against women. The onus should be on the companies, not the users, to show they are meeting their obligations.
The utopian vision of the internet proposed by its founding fathers promised new forms of freedom – but that’s no excuse for pandering to an industry that has done enormous damage to millions of people.