Willie Hay says ‘extreme pornography’ is ‘destroying young people, poisoning their minds’

The cross-bench peer pointed to research from the British Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) which found 80 per cent of children aged six to 12 have viewed something harmful online and 50 per cent of teenagers think that they have accessed illegal content.

The former Derry mayor was speaking in support of the United Kingdom Government’s Online Safety Bill.

He said: “I know very little about the internet. I certainly know less about the sites we are talking about tonight, but I know that some of those sites are destroying our young people and poisoning their minds.”

The DUP grandee pointed out that age verification was first debated in 2016, observing: “It is remarkable that a child who was eight years old when this proposal was first put forward will be an adult when the protections that they deserve will finally be in place.”

The erstwhile Stormont speaker said robust protections must be built into the legislation to protect both children and women.

“First, we need to ensure that age verification on pornography sites will be brought in on this occasion. The Government cannot be allowed to sidestep this issue. A clear commencement clause needs to be placed into the Bill.

“Secondly, we need to ensure that age verification is in place, not just for children accessing pornography; the age of those acting in content must also be verified.

"User-to-user pornography websites are simply a hotbed of illegal material and children surviving sexual abuse that need to be stopped by the Bill. If it includes clear age verification for those involved in the content, it will be a valuable tool in ensuring that children are not exploited online.

“Thirdly, we need to move to protect women and girls from the effects of online pornography. Harmful pornography content promotes violence against women and girls.

"Evidence shows that excessive consumption of some legal pornography material can result in offenders viewing illegal child sexual abuse material. As increasingly extreme pornography becomes available on mainstream sites, the threshold of what is acceptable is very much lowered,” said the senior DUP figure.

NSPCC urges parents to get 'clued into' online world of their children