Can Age Verification help kids who stumble on porn outside of commercial pornography sites? (podcast)

 

Episode Description

A few weeks ago, I had a dear friend express to me how grateful he was for the Canadian government’s efforts towards Age Verification for online pornography, as he himself had a very traumatic childhood experience of pornography popping up while he was on a gaming platform. With a sinking feeling, I realized that the current approach of barring underage access to commercial pornography sites actually wouldn’t have protected my friend from that traumatic experience, as he was exposed on a gaming platform, not a commercial porn site. I suddenly thought back to the countless other stories I’ve heard of children first being exposed through social media sites, gaming platforms, youtube, etc – rather than porn sites. And I wondered: Can Age Verification be used to help prevent this kind of exposure? So I brought the question to my favourite Age Verification expert, Murray Perkins, and out comes this episode!

If you have not yet listened to my initial episode on Age Verification with Mr. Perkins and Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, I recommend you do so first, as it will give you more context on the issue.

LISTEN HERE