Call for law to protect children from on-line porn

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“Giving porn to a teenage boy is like giving crack to a baby. Addiction is almost guaranteed. No wonder boys aged 12-17 are the porn industry’s core target,” Mark Kastleman, author of The Drug of the New Millennium writes.

Britain’s largest Christian media organisation today launched a campaign urging government to introduce legislation for internet service providers [ISPs] to demand that pornography is filtered at source.

Premier Christian Media Trust, which owns Premier Christian Radio, is calling for the introduction of a network level filter, with an ‘opt-in’ facility for subscribers over the age of 18 - switching the default setting for internet pornography to ‘OFF’. The top six UK-based ISPs account for 90% of internet traffic.

Today’s launch – on Safer Internet Day - marks the start of the Safetynet Campaign, planned in conjunction with Safermedia – an organisation which raises awareness of harmful media content and aims to minimise its availability.

Peter Kerridge, Premier Christian Media Trust’s CEO, said: “our kids are a vital target for those who deal in the world of online pornography."

* 1 in 3 10 year olds have stumbled across and viewed pornography online

* The single largest group of those seeing Internet pornography are children aged 12-17

* 81 per cent of 14-16 year olds are regularly accessing explicit photographs and footage on their home computers and mobile phone

“Pornography poses a real danger to our children, as Mark Kastleman, author of The Drug of the New Millennium, a book about how pornography affects the brain, said: “Giving porn to a teenage boy is like giving crack to a baby. Addiction is almost guaranteed. No wonder boys aged 12-17 are the porn industry’s core target.”

We already recognise the need for measures to protect our children from sex and violence in films, video games and on TV. That same principle should be extended to the internet.

This measure will give adults the choice to access pornography whilst giving children the freedom to surf the internet safely.”

Miranda Suit, Co Chairman of Safermedia said: “Introducing ISP level filters has the potential to offer far better protection to all children, and that’s why we’re advocating that this measure be introduced without delay.”

Source: Premier Christian Media