Inquiry calls for online filters to protect children from pornography

The independent review, chaired by Devizes MP Claire Perry, warns that internet service providers and the government need to do more to keep children safe online.

It calls on government to consider introducing an “opt-in filter” so that anyone wanting to view adult material on the internet would need to actively request access to such content.

The MPs also want internet service providers to make it simpler for parents to control what their children view online, as well as a new single regulator to take responsibility for internet safety and revised government guidelines on the issue.

Perry said that too many children are accessing extremely violent and disturbing content online.

"This is hugely worrying,” she said. “While parents should be responsible for their children's online safety, in practice people find it difficult to put content filters on the plethora of internet-enabled devices in their homes, plus families lack the right information and education on internet safety.

“It's time that Britain's internet service providers, who make more than £3bn a year from selling internet access services, took on more of the responsibility to keep children safe, and the government needs to send a strong message that this is what we all expect.”

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns and policy at Young Minds, gave verbal evidence to the inquiry.

“We are witnessing a generation of children and young people who are having mostly unfettered access to a wide variety of pornography – the average age of viewing is 11 and it only takes 15 seconds on a computer, smartphone or iPod to access a range of hardcore pornography,” she said.

“This is a new and unchartered phenomenon and we are yet to see the effect it is having on boys and girls who are growing up with completely skewed images of sexual relationships and the normalising of sexual violence by men towards women."

She added: “What is also compounding this is how difficult it is for parents to put parental controls on phones and other devices such as iPods, making it much harder to protect our children from the millions of graphic images they are likely to be exposed to twenty four hours a day.”