March 31st 2014
New research published by The Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD) has highlighted the scale of underage access to adult websites. The body has called for further Government action to protect children from exposure to hardcore content on the internet.
According to the study, at least 44,000 UK primary school children accessed an adult website in one month alone – equating to one in 35 of connected 6 – 11 year-olds. In the same month, 200,000 under-16s accessed an adult website from a computer: one in 16 children in that age group who went online.
The research tracked the actions of children and teenagers using the internet from a desktop or laptop in December 2013, so does not take into account surfing activity on mobile devices, suggesting that actual figures of children accessing inappropriate content are far higher. Technical limitations prevent the inclusion of internet usage using a smartphone, tablet or other handheld device. But these devices are often the access route of choice for young people – Ofcom research last year showed that almost a third of children under 16 mainly went on-line using a device other than a laptop, netbook or PC. Among 8 to 11 year-olds 18% owned a smartphone: the figure rose to 62% among 12-15 year-olds. The adult website with the largest proportion of teenage boy visitors from the UK reports that 58% of its total UK traffic last year was from smartphones or tablets. The figures relating to 12 – 17 year-olds are therefore very likely to under-estimate seriously, rather than over-estimate, the total of underage UK visitors.
The findings are likely to be disturbing even for the 43% of parents who have parental controls installed on the PC, laptop or netbook their child uses at home. Separate EU research last year tested 13 popular parental control packages for PCs and Macs and found under-blocking rates of between 9 and 47% in accessing adult content.
Clearest picture yet of problem
ATVOD says that the new study provides the most authoritative picture yet established of the exposure of children and young people to “R18” material (the classification of the strongest video pornography permitted in Britain and covers content which, on a DVD, can be found only in a licensed sex shop or cinema and is restricted to buyers 18 or over). It portrays a range of real, rather than simulated, sex acts.
Sample sizes for the youngest children (6 – 11) are relatively small and figures for this age group should be treated with caution as they may exhibit large changes month to month, says ATVOD. However, at least 473,000 children between the ages of 6 and 17 accessed an adult internet service, mostly offshore – one in ten of young people that age who went online.
Most of the major offshore adult services are unregulated and allow free, unrestricted access to hardcore porn to visitors of any age – this includes 23 of the 25 adult websites most commonly accessed from the UK. In contrast, UK services are required by ATVOD to put the videos and stills beyond the reach of children, behind access controls and age verification systems. The regulator follows a precautionary policy, accepting that R18 content “might seriously impair” the young – the test for statutory protection under a European Directive.
Coming the week after an influential parliamentary committee urged Government to combat under-age exposure to online porn, the findings will add urgency to calls for changes in the law, some already promised by government, and other measures to enhance protection of children. Critically, they will also raise the impetus among the big players of the payments industry – the credit card providers and electronic payment processors – who have signalled that they would be willing to prevent cash-flow to pornography sites which do not bar access to children if legislation supporting the action were introduced.
“We do not advocate censorship,” said ATVOD chair Ruth Evans. “There is nothing in the ATVOD rules which interferes with the right to provide sexually explicit material to an adult online. But pornography is a product which is produced and designed for use by adults, not children. That is why the industry that makes and sells it calls itself ‘the adult industry’. There cannot be any justification for UK providers of sexually explicit pornographic material to make such images available to under 18s. The law requires that UK on demand services keep such material out of reach of minors and we are committed to ensuring that UK providers of video on demand services comply with the statutory rules. But we have no control over services that come from outside the UK."
Ms Evans continues: “These findings expose the scale of the problem of child access to pornography on adult websites operated from outside the UK. The Government needs to act urgently with a range of measures to protect children from this content. Key among them is legislation to make it possible for the UK payments industry to prevent funds flowing from this country to websites which allow children to access hardcore pornography.”
