A major step forward has been taken by the campaign led by Tory MP Claire Perry (Devizes) for online protection against porn and sexual abuse for children using the internet and mobile phones.
More than 60 MPs have now set up a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into online child protection, which will start taking evidence next month and report to government ministers with their recommendations in November.
The inquiry will in particular seek evidence from internet service providers on what they have done to date to protect children online and the extent and possible impact of their future plans to attack the problem.
And it will determine what additional help parents require to protect their children from potential harmful sexual abuse now that eight is the average age a child first uses the internet in the UK.
Mrs Perry, who has three children herself, has already received phone calls and email support from hundreds of parents calling for protection, and also backing from organisations such as the NSPCC and the sexual health charity FPA.
“Parents are understandably worried about the ease with which children can view pornographic content on the internet and this inquiry will provide the ideal platform for all interested parties to discuss how best we can protect our children online,” she told Marlborough News Online.
“This is not just about internet access in a bedroom with a PC. Families from poorer backgrounds are still able to afford mobiles, Wiis, Playstations and all these devices can access the internet via the home network.
“A default clean network level filter would ensure protection for children from all backgrounds. What’s more, of those parents who can afford to buy their children personal computers, 54 per cent use parental controls or others means for blocking or filtering websites.”
She points out that 73 per cent of UK households now have access to the internet while 52 per cent of children say they use the internet alone in their bedrooms, thus making it difficult for parents to monitor effectively their activity.
And she warns: “Eleven per cent of children in the UK have seen sexual content on websites and 24 per cent have seen sexual content online or offline.
“Further small-scale studies have found that almost a third of 14-16 year olds first looked at sexual images online when they were aged 10 or younger while 81 per cent of children in the same age group look at online porn at home.”
The first of the public evidence sessions takes place in Committee Room 7 at the House of Commons on Thursday, September 8 from 2 to 4pm.
Communications minister Ed Vaizey, who will receive the inquiry report, says: “Parents are understandably worried about the ease with which their children can view pornographic content on the internet. This inquiry will provide the ideal platform for all interested parties to discuss how bet we can protect our children online.”
