My Lords, in returning to an issue that I raised at Second Reading, it is a particular pleasure to support Amendment 177A in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin. I support what she said about the protection of children and young people and the harmful effects on their formative influences to which they are exposed. She said it so eloquently and powerfully; I think the whole House will be deeply appreciative of that.
In 1994, while a Member of another place, I tabled an amendment to the then criminal justice Bill. It set out to make it an offence to show gratuitously violent videos to children. At the time, against the opposition of the Home Office, it was supported by 80 Conservative Members of Parliament—including Sir Ivan Lawrence, then chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs—along with colleagues from all sides of the House and the Labour Front Bench; the shadow Home Secretary at the time was Tony Blair MP. After facing the prospect of defeat, the Government agreed to introduce an amendment in your Lordships’ House and the law was changed.
One of the things that united left, right and centre was the publication of a report by a group of 25 leading child psychologists who said that they had been, in their words, “naive” in denying a link between violent videos and violence by youngsters. The report was led by Professor Elizabeth Newson, an eminent psychologist and head of Nottingham University’s child development research unit, and was drawn up in the aftermath of James Bulger’s murder by two 10 year-old boys. At the boys’ trial, the judge said that their actions might have been encouraged by scenes in the horror film “Child’s Play 3”.
In two days’ time, on 12 February, it will be 28 years since the tragic death of James Bulger. Although I had raised the issue of the link between gratuitously violent material and behaviour prior to James’s death, what
happened there in Liverpool, the city which included my parliamentary constituency when I served in another place, no doubt caused a proper, detailed examination of the factors which led to his appalling murder.
I last referred to those events in your Lordships’ House four years ago next month, on 20 March 2017, when I spoke in the debate on age verification of pornographic websites. It is with some sadness that, in intervening to support the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, I still feel it necessary to argue the case for mitigating the effects and impact of graphic imagery on children and young people. I said:
“The evidence of the damage being done to children and young people through easy access to pornography is deeply disturbing and should give us all pause.”—[Official Report, 20/3/17; col. 21.]
More importantly, I quoted the then Justice Minister, who said that the internet was,
“driving greater access to more worrying imagery online. In the extreme, the sexualisation of youth is manifesting itself in younger conviction ages for rape”.
Given that statement, and the comments of the Joint Select Committee which considered the draft Domestic Abuse Bill about the distortion of relationships engendered by violent imagery—to which I referred at Second Reading —the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, should be accepted by the Government and the House. It is long overdue.
The Government argue for an evidence-based approach to making policy. Four years ago, the Government and Parliament were of the view that children and young people needed to be protected from graphic and distorting images. The links between such imagery and domestic violence were raised in the debate on 20 March 2017 by my noble and learned friend Lady Butler-Sloss, my noble friend Lord Listowel and the noble Lords, Lord Morrow and Lord Paddick. Yet the seminal legislation that we debated and passed then has not been implemented. As we have heard, during the past four years, notwithstanding the will of Parliament expressed in the Digital Economy Act 2017, a whole cohort of teenagers has been growing up without any requirement for the relevant websites to reduce access to those under 18.
In an article published online on 21 January 2021, the magazine Teen Vogue implied that:
“Porn that portrays nonconsensual sex, for instance, isn’t necessarily misogynist if it centers all characters’ pleasure and agency.”
I hope your Lordships will allow what is being said there to sink in. There was an outcry and the article now refers instead to:
“Porn that portrays fantasies about nonconsensual sex”.
We are having this debate just a few days after last week’s UK Sexual Abuse & Sexual Violence Awareness Week. I am not convinced that women who have suffered rape or other sexual violence will agree that changing the wording to refer to fantasies is sufficient to reduce the harm that those messages give.
Noble Lords will remember that at Second Reading, as the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, said, I asked the Government about research that they had commissioned on
“exploring legal pornography use and its influence on harmful behaviours and attitudes towards women and girls”.
It was due to have been published in autumn 2019, but was actually published on 15 January—last month. Of course I welcome this, but find myself extremely disappointed in three ways. First, when Mrs Fiona Bruce, the MP for Congleton, raised the publication of this research last summer, the Minister in the other place reassured her that the publication would be “soon”. In reality, it took another six months. Secondly, the published reports make it plain that the research was concluded in February 2020. It should have shed light on the Bill before us today, both when it was being debated in another place and during our own Second Reading. Thirdly, although I asked the Government Front Bench specifically about this research on Second Reading, the subsequent letter to Peers, dated 11 days after the publication of the research, did not mention it.
The truth is that the reports were published very quietly. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, I know of them only by chance; in my case, a friend accidentally stumbled on them and sent them to me. Perhaps I can be forgiven for thinking that the Government, while recognising that they had to publish these taxpayer-funded reports, rather hoped that no one would notice them. There has certainly been zero media pick-up, although I hope that will change thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin.
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The findings of this research are hugely relevant to Amendment 177A. The literature review concludes that
“there is substantial evidence of an association between the use of pornography and harmful sexual attitudes and behaviours towards women.”
While the report recognises that pornography is one among potential factors, it says that
“it is clear that a relationship does exist and this is especially true for the use of violent pornography.”
The report sets out details of the experiences and views of professionals working with individuals who have either exhibited harmful sexual behaviour towards women or are at risk of doing so. I remind the Minister of what we were told by the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, a few minutes ago—how one person working with young people said that 80% or 90% of cases were influenced by what they had seen.
Anyone who is concerned about this component of domestic violence must be interested in asking not only what can be done to deal with the consequences of such violence, as with Clause 65, but what can be done to prevent it. The truth is that, had the Government implemented Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017—and I do not hold that against the noble Baroness; it is clearly the responsibility of others—those aged under 18 would now be protected from exposure to such websites. Part 3 provides a critical means of investing in preventing an important aspect of domestic abuse by ensuring that children are far less likely to be exposed to video content that normalises such violence. It is the very least we can do.
The Minister, for whom the whole House has very high regard and who is being worked off her feet, should review the letter to Peers of 26 January. In it
she stated that the Government’s intention was only to protect children from commercial pornographic sites showing “user generated content” and not non-user generated content. Taken with the delay in providing protection for children when Part 3 was passed in 2017 and the failure to publish the online harms Bill, this narrowing of the protection of children from commercial sites is frustrating and disappointing.
In 1994, as the father of then young children, I said that we needed to fill our children’s minds with beauty and with innocence. Instead, we have created an ugly and rancid culture in which too many of our children are being brought up. They wanted bread and instead we fed them broken glass. Nearly 30 years later and now with young grandchildren, my view has not changed. The noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, who is synonymous with children’s programmes such as “Play School”, “Play Away” and “Fast Forward”, has throughout her life been an antidote to the brutish culture which robs children of innocence. It is a violent culture which forms them in attitudes and behaviours which can ruin their lives and the lives of others.
I very much hope that the Government will announce today that they will implement Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act as an interim measure, at least between now and when the online harms Bill is ready. If the Government are not willing to do that, I am sure that the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, will bring her amendment back on Report. I hope it will be possible for the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, to find some accommodation between now and then.