Peer calls for age restriction on sex site viewers

ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY normalises sexual behaviour that is not “how to go around wooing a woman”, a peer claimed as Ministers faced calls to introduce age verification checks.

The Earl of Erroll told the House of Lords that freely available adult content “normalises” extreme sex, adding he did not believe this was how someone should start a relationship.

He also said it could result in children believing such sexual behaviour was part of “how you should treat a girl when you first start going out with her”.

Tighter controls designed to protect young people from adult content online were included in legislation approved by Parliament in 2017.

It would have allowed a system, under the watch of the British Board of Film Classification, requiring commercial pornography websites to carry out ageverification checks on users or face having payment services withdrawn or being blocked for UK internet users.

But the plans were hit by a series of delays amid concerns about how checks would work and fears for user privacy. They were later canned by the Government.

Instead, Ministers expect the forthcoming Online Safety Bill to address the issue.

The Earl of Erroll raised questions about why measures in the 2017 Act had not been implemented, before adding: “Starting off children at the age of 10, 11 – goodness knows when they start watching this stuff – that this is how you should treat a girl when you first start going out with her, probably in your early teens, is not a good idea and you could have stopped it.”