Across the country a massive apparatus is dedicated to ensuring Canadian children can't see sexually explicit movies in theatres. Provinces license cinemas, operate film review boards and assign film classification categories to keep violent and pornographic scenes away from young eyes. The same is true for DVDs. Compliance is ensured through large fines and the potential loss of licence. In Ontario, for example, fines can run to a maximum $250,000 per offence. For television broadcasters, a code of conduct states that sexually explicit content must not be shown before 9 p.m. — by which time it is assumed young viewers will be in bed. Advisory messages are required after 9 p.m. And for pornography over the Internet? Nothing.

As our cover story explains, children in Canada currently have almost limitless access to porn via their home computer. But it makes no sense to set community standards and enforce regulations on some forms of pornography, while ignoring its most easily accessed format.

The fluid and international nature of the Internet creates obvious problems for regulation, but the situation is not as hopeless as is frequently declared. When Internet access to child pornography appeared as a public issue, industry and government were quick to take action. What's missing is the same degree of urgency regarding Internet access of children to pornography.

To be clear, this is not an issue of censorship. The goal should be to prevent children from viewing what may be legally viewed by others. And parents must take responsibility for monitoring their own child's computer usage. But there is likely a legitimate role for government and industry in tackling this problem, and with luck it won't require the brigades of bureaucrats that are somehow necessary to managing movies and TV.

In Australia, the federal government distributes free family-friendly Web filters and coordinates this effort with a movie-style form of website classification, giving parents an easy means to block inappropriate content. Australia is also testing ISP-level filtering that promises to be more comprehensive and reliable than current computer-based filters. In March, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown received a report on the impact of Internet pornography by a child psychologist who urged better information campaigns. And the U.S. Congress has tried several times to make online access to pornography by children illegal.

Considering the lengths to which governments in Canada have gone lately to protect children from such real and perceived threats as chemicals in plastic water bottles, pesticides on lawns and second-hand smoke in cars, it's a puzzle that they've entirely ignored the issue of children and Internet pornography. If governments have a responsibility to protect children from harm, this responsibility must surely also cover a flood of obscene words and images delivered free of charge to machines on which millions of normal youths play, learn and communicate. Other countries are actively trying different approaches and we can learn from their experiences. But we cannot continue to disregard it. Internet porn is a public policy issue that demands discussion.

Print Article    Send to a Friend    Write a letter to the editor

Digg this Stumble It!   Post to del.icio.us Seed Newsvine   Share on Facebook Technorati links