The usage of pornographic content by children and young people is increasingly common and affects younger people. investigation shows that reaching pornographic content is not a problem for about 3/4 minors in Poland. The Ordo Iuris Institute prepared a bill aimed at limiting access to pornography among children. Regulations are intended to oblige pornographic website administrators to introduce effective verification of the user's age. In the absence of specified measures, net providers would be threatened with blocking portals and blocking payment services. The Institute shall launch a collection of signatures to registry the citizens' committee for a legislative initiative on this matter. The bill was presented during a press conference.
MORE ABOUT THE PORNOGRAPHY PROBLEM – LINK
The problem of access for minors to pornographic content and regular usage of pornography concerns an expanding number of young people worldwide. The statistic provided by various investigation centres indicate that in fresh years the number of people utilizing pornography has not only increased systematically, but the age of contact with specified materials has decreased significantly.
In the NASK State investigation Institute study of 2022, 73 percent of children declared that uncovering pornography was not hard for them. The age of people entering pornographic websites has besides been lowered. In Poland, 55 percent of children saw pornography before turning 12. The vast majority of them search through electronic devices.
Specialists in improvement psychology leave no uncertainty that all young man's contact with pornography negatively affects the improvement of his brain, the formation of attitudes, relationships and bonds. As scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences indicate, the mechanics of compulsive usage of pornography is identical to the mechanics of gambling or psychoactive substances. Importantly, since January 1, 2022 the planet wellness Organization has placed a fresh illness unit – compulsive sexual behaviour – in the global Statistical Classification of Diseases and wellness Problems (ICD-11).
In fresh times, seeing the tragic consequences of young people's consumption of pornography, work on effective kid protection has been started in France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Italy, among others, is preparing to introduce protective mechanisms.
The intent of the Ordo Iuris task is to introduce a general ban on the making available of pornographic material online in Poland in a way that allows minors to get acquainted with them. Owners of specified sites are to be required to introduce an effective mechanics to verify the age of the user. The effectiveness of the age verification strategy is to be assessed by the applicable authority. Services that have not implemented verification solutions will be placed in the central register. Penalties for non-compliance will consist of blocking certain websites by net providers and blocking payment services by providers of these services.
This model provides a uniform list of blocked pages, legal certainty and a transparent criterion for net providers blocking circumstantial sites. Furthermore, this regulation solves the problems of enforcement outside the country, as there is no request for enforcement abroad at all. The administrative body ceases to recognise that a website with pornographic content does not fulfil its statutory work and imposes sanctions in the form of placing specified a domain in the registry of websites blocked throughout Poland by net providers.
The draft provides that the Minister liable for information technology will, by means of a regulation, find the circumstantial conditions for effective, and user-friendly, age verification. It is peculiarly crucial that the age verification mechanics does not let the retention of individual data. The implementation of age verification mechanisms would be assessed by the president of the Electronic Communications Office, whose task establishes the competent authority for protecting minors from pornographic content on the Internet. Its tasks include, inter alia, examining the effectiveness of mechanisms verifying the age of the user, their control and assessment in terms of compliance with the criteria laid down in the said Regulation of the Minister for Computerisation.
The Ordo Iuris Institute launches a collection of signatures to registry a legislative initiative in the Sejm of the Citizens' Committee. erstwhile the talker of the Sejm agrees to the committee's registration, the collection of signatures under the bill itself begins. In order to submit the task to the Marshal's staff, 100,000 citizens' signatures are needed.
The task was presented during a press conference. Adw. Rafał Dorosinski of the Management Board of Ordo Iuris pointed out the problem of extended access to pornography by minors.
– 73 percent of children and teenagers declare that access to pornographic content is highly easy for them. The average age in which pornography is exposed is only 11 years. all day, all 4th teenager admits to watching films and pornographic pictures. Not only that, but besides about 1 in 4 teenagers express concern about addiction to pornography,' stressed the lawyer.
Psychologist Bogna Białecka, president of the Foundation for wellness Education and Psychotherapy, explained how destructive the influence pornography has on children's development.
– Early contact with pornography makes it more likely that compulsive sexual behaviour will occur, but besides frequent viewing of pornography will affect the developing brain. As a result, this brain never matures. Children who constantly watch pornography will not have a full mature brain," she noted.
On the another hand, Marcin Perłowski, manager of the Centre for Life and Family, presented planned activities related to the task of a citizens' legislative initiative.
– We will effort to present the bill in the Polish Parliament with a citizens' legislative initiative. We are entering the first stage, which means that we are collecting a 1000 signatures first so that we can present them to the marshal and then give our committee the legislative initiative legal personality. Then we will begin a nationwide collection of signatures – he pointed out.
Source: Ordo Iuris
