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Canada: Evangelicals Call on Parliament to Protect Children From Exploitation by Pornography Platforms

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – With pornography increasingly and freely available to minors on the internet, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has called on the Canadian parliament to support a bill that would hold pornography platforms accountable to “ensure child sexual abuse materials and intimate images shared without consent are not uploaded to their sites,” Christian Daily International (CDI) reports.

Concerned about an apparent lack of age and consent verification by pornography platforms, EFC submitted a statement to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights at the House of Commons, meeting Oct. 31 at the Canadian Parliament, in support of Bill c-270, “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (pornographic material),” CDI reports. The bill had been sponsored by Conservative MP Arnold Viersen, a known human rights activist for trafficking victims and children.

“We believe it’s crucial for Parliament to require pornography platforms ensure child sexual abuse materials and intimate images shared without consent are not uploaded to their sites,” the EFC said in its statement. “It is evident many of these platforms will not take such measures unless required to and held accountable for doing so.”

“The onus must not be on children and youth to monitor commercial pornography sites to ensure that depictions of their abuse and exploitation are not posted or, if discovered, to ensure they are swiftly removed,” the EFC added. “The onus must not be on victims of non-consensual uploads to watch for the content and ensure it is removed.

“Companies must be responsible for ensuring that the content they host and profit from is not child sexual abuse material, that the people depicted in images or videos are not minors, and that they consent to their image being posted,” the EFC attested.
“We urge the committee to support Bill C-270’s measures to ensure illegal content is not uploaded in the first place,” the EFC emphasized.