We, the undersigned, represent numerous leading Canadian organizations concerned with the well-being of our children. We are united in calling on the Government of Canada to support Bill S-210 and to swiftly move to implement age verification measures to protect children from exposure to pornography online.

In the offline world, barriers exist to prevent children from consuming or accessing alcohol, tobacco products, gambling, and pornographic content. To protect minors, merchants are required to check for age-appropriate identification when selling pornographic magazines, showing R-rated movies, or allowing patrons to enter a strip club or sex shop. It’s time to put similar measures in place in the online world.

Industry Research

A UK study* by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) revealed that 60% of all children’s first exposure to pornography was unintentional and that the average age of first exposure to adult content is between the ages of 9 and 11 years of age -- with some children as young as 7 years old*. 

A UK Children’s Commissioner study found an association between exposure to pornography below the age of 12 and negative health outcomes. Children who reported having seen pornography aged 11 or under were also significantly more likely to present lower self-esteem scores than average. Frequent users of porn were more likely to have real life experience of a degrading sex act.

‘How Does Porn Affect Teenagers’ : A review of 19 studies conducted in New Zealand found that adolescents who view online pornography are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviours and to have anxiety or depression.

Impact On Children and Youth

The situation in Canada is critical with an estimated  2.7 million Canadian children under the age of 11 accessing and active on the internet. It’s simple math to conclude that hundreds of thousands of our kids are accessing pornography online, whether they want to or not. 

The recently released 2023 Children First Canada report confirms the following findings which must be considered when examining solutions to protect Canadian children and youth. 

• Sexual internet luring of Canadian children has increased 815% over the past five years.

• 51% have indicated feelings of depression.

• 39% of which also experienced anxiety.

• Self-harm increased by 7.4% in one year alone, a rate that continues to increase.

Existing Canadian Protection Laws

Canada’s 1991 ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty, underscores our commitment as a nation to protecting and supporting our children. Article 19 of the Convention states that: 

“All States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.” 

In February of 2021, Comment 25 was incorporated into the Convention, explicitly calling for robust age verification measures: 

COMMENT 25: Protection from Economic, Sexual, and other forms of Exploitation   Point #114: “parties should ensure that appropriate enforcement mechanisms are in place and support children, parents, and caregivers in gaining access to the protections that apply. They should legislate to ensure that children are protected from harmful goods, such as weapons or drugs, or services, such as gambling. Robust AGE VERIFICATION SYSTEMS should be used to prevent children from acquiring access to products and services that are illegal for them to own or use. Such systems should be consistent with data protection and safeguarding requirements.”                              

International Mandates

• UK - Online Safety Bill Will Mandate Dangerous Age Verification for Much of the Web

• UK Digital Economy Bill Endorses Age Verification For Online Pornography

• France - No porn, no Instagram for kids: France doubles down on age verification

• US - Porn Site Age Checks Required by Growing Number of States

• NZ - 79% of New Zealanders Support Age-Verification For Porn Sites 

By mandating and effectively enforcing age verification processes as part of a robust digital framework, Canada will help to mitigate serious threats to the health and well-being of our children and youth. In addition, we believe these measures will contribute towards mitigating multiple other harms encountered online, including limiting potential engagement with online predators, sexual abuse, and cyberbullying. 

Aligned with all our signatories, the National Council of Women of Canada calls on every member of the House of Commons to support Bill S-210 and commit to implementing age verification using certified third-party providers. We remain open to efforts and initiatives that support the lowering of the risk of online harm to the health and well-being of our children and youth.