Pornography can be effectively fought. These are circumstantial ways to defend children from pornography

Stop drug pornography – this is an action that can lead to restrictions on access to pornography by minors in Poland. It's an crucial step on a long way to combat this pathology. Olivier Bault writes about details.

The subject was neglected for many years. It was believed that access to pornographic content on the net could not be blocked, without compromising the privacy of users. However, thanks to technological development, this is possible today. You can already see how it works in 15 U.S. states, where laws imposing on services with specified content came into force in 2023 or 2024.

In 4 another states, the applicable laws were besides adopted and are to enter into force next year, and even more states agree to what gives emergence to a discussion to include specified a request in national law. Louisiana paved the way for specified action through the Act adopted in 2022, which entered into force on 1 January 2023.

For comparison, in Europe, the same law has been adopted only in France (see: France starts blocking pornographic services without age verification, Poland has a collection of signatures), Italy and large Britain. This besides happened on our side of the Atlantic in 2023 and 2024.

In Poland, by mid-December, there will be a collection of signatures under the civilian bill, which, if it hits and is adopted by the Sejm and the Senate, will introduce an work to effectively verify the age. So there is simply a chance that Poland will be joining the European lead next year.

It is worth noting that national or state blockages can be bypassed utilizing the VPN server, although specified services with the option of choosing circumstantial countries through which we can browse the net are usually paid. For this reason, the more countries adopt specified a law, the more hard it will be to circumvent verification mechanisms. This is besides the reason why there is simply a debate in America about whether akin restrictions should be introduced at national level. likewise in Europe, where specified discussions take place at European Union level. However, it is not known whether there is simply a chance for a adequate majority to be found in the Union present to introduce truly effective age verification mechanisms. Therefore, as in the United States, so far there is an chance to improve the situation at national level.

In spite of the anticipation of circumventing national websites that make pornographic content available to children and young people, specified restrictions are worth introducing, as the main threat to young net users is the unfettered access to specified content. And these days they are exposed to very harsh pornography, depicting highly perverse sexual behavior, full of force and humiliation of another man.

As far as the United States is concerned, the Common Sense survey published in 2022 under the title "Teens and Pornography" showed that erstwhile online pornography is widely available, the average age of children who first encounter pornography is 12 years (in Poland it is little than 11 years according to a NASK survey published the same year). This is of course an average and as the American survey shows, until 15% of American children encounter pornography on the net before they turn 10. Moreover, the Common Sense survey shows that among teenagers identified with the LGBTQ+ community, the percent of those who admit to viewing pornography reaches 66%, compared with 39% of those declaring heterosexual tendencies. In addition, 44% of teenagers admit to deliberately viewing pornography, while 58% say they happened to accidentally encounter specified content on the Internet. Among those 44% of teenagers who admitted to deliberately viewing pornographic content, 71% told pollsters that they had watched pornography at least erstwhile in the last 7 days. In the age scope 12-14, this percent reached up to 75%. Although 59% of those who said that online pornography was deliberately admitted to regular viewing of pornography in this survey. This means that 1 4th of children and teenagers aged 10-17 years in America regularly watch pornography – just like in Poland.

Pornography is harmful, especially for children and adolescents

As you can read on the American College of Pediatricians in the article entitled “The Impact of Pornography on Children”:

"The availability and usage of pornography has become almost ubiquitous among adults and teenagers. Pornography consumption involves many negative, emotional, psychological, sociological and physical wellness effects. These include increased rates of depression, anxiety, aggressive behavior, younger age of sexual debut, sexual promiscuity, increased hazard of teenage pregnancy, kid sexual abuse, sexual trafficking, and a distorted image of the relation between men and women. For adults, pornography results in increased likelihood of divorce, which is besides harmful to children. The American College of Pediatricians calls on wellness professionals to inform patients and their families about the dangers of utilizing pornography and to offer resources both to defend children from viewing pornography and to treat people suffering from its adverse effects."

Therefore, in the United States, the work of actual and effective age verification has already put into effect Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and next year specified a right is to enter into force in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Although the Republican states prevail here, it cannot be said that the desire to defend children from access to pornography is simply a postulate of this right-wing, "Puritan" America. Even in ultraleft California, specified government is being developed. In fact, the right hand can besides hear voices that imposing the work of actual age verification is an effort on freedom of speech and a threat to the private life of citizens.

How does it work in Louisiana?

Since specified a law first entered into force in the state of Louisiana, it is worth considering how it actually works. Firstly, it must be said that, in the case of Louisiana, the work to verify the age of each user at the time he tries to open a website concerns all services containing at least 1 3rd of content harmful to minors. This definition includes, among others, all pornographic content. Another circumstantial feature of this state is that Louisiana law gives all injured individual (e.g. parents of children who would encounter specified content) the right to sue the owner of the service without a actual verification of the age. In American realities, even a tiny number of lawsuits can rapidly bring an entrepreneur to ruin, let alone if all resident Louisiana has the legally sanctioned anticipation to claim compensation from any pornographic website that a individual who is not 18 years old can enter without much difficulty. It is besides the justice who decides whether the service contained 1/3 or more content harmful to children. It is besides worth noting that social media were besides targeted by authors of Act No. 440 of 2022. And so social media must commercially usage "reasonable" age verification methods, utilizing government-issued identity papers or public or private transactional data to verify the age of account holders, and people under 18 must get clear parental consent to make and keep accounts on social media.

The Louisiana Department of Public Protection has exclusive powers of law enforcement and imposing age verification standards. It can impose financial penalties of up to $25,000 for each infringement and launch enforcement proceedings against platforms that will not resolve the violations within 45 days. The courts may, on the another hand, decide additional penalties and request any action from the owners of these services and grant any compensation to the injured (e.g. parents of children who have seen pornography on inappropriately secured pages).

Anonymous age verification by a 3rd party

Verification of the age of users connecting to Louisiana must be based on an identity paper or ‘transaction data’ of persons (e.g. bank card or credit or another transaction past data). For example, 1 of the larger pornographic portals uses the LA Wallets service, which uses electronic driving licenses of the state of Louisiana to guarantee effective but anonymous verification of the age of its users. Anonymity is assured that LA Wallets does not disclose the intent of age verification by sending queries to the electronic driving licence database (the question does not request to be linked to the desire to enter a website containing pornographic content as LA Wallets generates queries for different purposes) and does not hold the data obtained in the age verification procedure. The net user must so go through the same verification all time he wants to usage a website containing pornography.

From neighbouring Texas, the same portal withdrew, blocking access for all users with an IP address in that state, after the lawyer General instituted court proceedings due to a deficiency of effective age verification on its pages. "Instead of following Texas law requiring suppliers of obscene sex materials to introduce age verification systems, this company immediately presents to minors who gain access to its websites, pornographic content" he accused the owners of this well-known Texas lawyer General portal in a press release announcing the lawsuit.

May I? - Yes, you can.

In Poland you can also, but first you gotta collect a minimum of 100 1000 signatures under the citizens' draft Law on the Protection of Minors from Pornographic Content on the net and on the amendment of the Telecommunications Law. The action details, bill drafts and signature collection forms can be found on the StopNarokotyk websitePornography.pl.

Olivier Bault, Ordo Iuris