“I want the House to pass this bill. It requires age checks on porn sites. Watching pornography harms children's brains and leads to addiction and abuse. Stores already ban selling explicit material to kids, and we should do the same thing online.”

“Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the great people of southwest Saskatchewan. I want to thank my colleague from just north of me in the province, the member for Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, for sponsoring this Senate bill to address the issue of kids accessing pornography online. As a father of three, including two teenagers, I appreciate seeing all the good work she has done over the years to support children and families. She lives with the modern reality facing parents because she is a mother of young children herself. Raising children who are minors is something each of us has in common with many others in the House, from all parties. That is the most important thing we should be focusing on here today. As parents, we want the best for our kids. We try to give them everything they need to have their best start in life. Our goal is to help them become adults who can reach their full potential for health, happiness, success and good character. While they are in the process of growing up, we want to keep them away from anything that is harmful to their development. It is an important part of our job to protect them when they are most vulnerable and too young to fully understand how certain things can negatively affect them and sometimes have a permanent impact, for life. As children enter their teen years, parents have to guide them through new challenges, including relationships and sexual development. I’ll quickly quote something from a book called Every Young Man’s Battle, which is written from a faith-based perspective to help teens think about these issues. The authors say to the young reader, “One of the most difficult assignments you’ll ever have is to integrate your sexuality with the emotional, spiritual, social, and relational person you want to be.” They goes on to talk about having a healthy outlook on sexuality, which is integrated and balanced with other parts of our lives, including our emotional, relational and spiritual needs. This is a special part of how we are made. We know it is supposed to be a beautiful expression of love, which should lead us toward personal fulfillment, but instead of following that type of path, pornography easily takes a young person in the opposite direction and quickly creates some distorted impressions. Especially during early puberty, or even before it begins, the damage of exposure to pornography can cause serious problems. One of those problems that can develop at a more formative time is addiction. As time goes on, now with more than one generation growing up with online pornography, we hear from professional and popular discussions about things like porn addiction and sex addiction. Like other forms of addiction, it has negative effects on the person experiencing it, but there are also ways for other people to be harmed, not only relationally but physically as well. That is why Bill S-209 starts off by saying that its purpose is to protect public health and public safety. To do that, it would bring forward a simple solution by requiring age verification. This is really nothing new. The law already has an age limit of 18 years old for selling or distributing sexually explicit material. We do not allow minors to access these things at a physical store in the real world, and having this rule in place has helped to achieve some good in the process. In some ways, it is similar to the idea of setting an age for people to buy alcohol, but everybody knows that in practice, the situation is very different when it comes to the Internet. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has said that children as young as eight and nine years old can easily come across sexually graphic material online. In Alberta, a separate study of adolescents found that one-third had been exposed to pornography by the age of 10. There are people who will simply say that this is just boys being boys, and their curious minds will find this material regardless, but many people’s experience, and a huge amount of research, shows that it is a bigger problem than that, and I am going to explain why. The human brain is growing and not finished developing until the age of 26 or thereabouts. To put it simply, while a person’s brain is being wired and developing until they are 26, everything that happens in those first 26 years of their life goes a long way to determining who they are, because it can make a difference in how they develop at the biological level. Along with the psychological effects on mental health, we are also talking about experiences that can result in physical changes in the brain while it is still in the middle of development. Viewing pornography is obviously very different from having sex with a real person. Besides the direct experience, there is something different happening with the brain. Studies have shown that people who are addicted to pornography have a similar brain pattern to people who are addicted to cocaine. Now, take that brain pattern and place it in a preteen or teenage boy or girl, and we have a recipe for disaster. It creates an addiction and a dependency that they will continue to seek from now on, and this is happening at a crucial stage when they are forming their self-image or dealing with insecurities. At the same time, they are learning new ways to handle relationships with their peers and having their first experiences, which shape how they will handle intimate relationships when they are older. Here are some more stats. When intentionality is questioned, 44% of teens say they looked it up on purpose, but as many as 58% say they encountered porn accidentally. The rates of intentional consumption are actually higher among respondents who identify as LGBT. For that group, some studies show it was 50% higher or could even be 66% higher. We have these youth, who are already vulnerable and seeking affirmation for who they are, exposed to sexually explicit, graphic and violent material while working through deeply personal questions of identity. That higher rate of consumption actually puts them at even more risk than their peers of being victimized. Pornography also creates erratic behaviour and false expectations of what sex is. I am going to give a couple of examples of such behaviour, and what I am about to say is quite disturbing. There was a case of a 12-year-old schoolboy who raped his seven-year-old sister after watching hard-core porn with his buddies on an Xbox. After viewing this content, he wanted to try to do the things in real life that he was watching online. There was another instance in 2019 of a 14-year-old boy sexually assaulting his eight-year-old stepsister after watching pornography on a regular basis. These are both very shocking and disturbing cases, and it is a mistake to dismiss them as a couple of isolated incidents. They are alarm bells for a much larger problem. Stories like this are less surprising if we realize what is happening beneath the surface. When studies on this issue have been done, they have found that 38% of teens reported viewing porn that depicts rape, choking or deliberately causing someone pain; 21% agreed that “most people” like to be spanked, hit or slapped during sex; and the numbers get worse among those who purposely watch violent pornography. Those numbers skyrocket to 80% for teenagers who watch porn at least three times a week, yet only 30% say that some form of consent was given by the people in the videos. Pornography is destroying how healthy relationships are viewed. It is creating massively false expectations for intimate partners about what is deemed to be normal conduct in the bedroom. This is something that is hard to overcome. We could ask any cocaine addict how hard it is to overcome that addiction and then imagine what it is like dealing with this addiction. When we have expectations and ideas being influenced by violent pornography, it is not difficult to imagine how this can contribute to abusive relationships or domestic violence. All of this is why I support Bill S-209 to restrict access to pornography for young people. We can take action and require age verification. We can help to prevent and reduce early exposure among the future generations. We can take a simple step to fight some of the worst impacts of online pornography. It is impossible for government to replace the role of parents, and it should never try to do that, but it is also true that parents are looking for help to protect their kids online, and the government knows that. It says as much when it promotes Bill C-34 to restrict access to social media. I find it interesting that we are debating both of these bills at the same time. Hopefully, it helps my colleagues on the government side understand where this bill is coming from and support this one as well. There are real concerns with young people using social media, which I share as a parent, but it is also likely that the negative effects of online pornography are even substantially worse, yet Bill C-34 would do nothing to address an issue of protecting the innocence of kids and youth from material that they should never see. Parenting has always been a tough job, but it has only gotten more complicated in a digital world. The least we can do for them is to pass Bill S-209.”

“I want the House to pass this bill. Pornography harms the mental health and relationships of young people. The law already restricts porn by age, but nobody enforces it online. This bill forces adult websites to check users' ages, protects user privacy, and fines sites that do not comply. We check ID in stores for alcohol and tobacco, and online porn sites should follow the same rules.”

“Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand today in support of Bill S-209. I certainly want to thank the members of the other chamber, who have worked hard to get the bill this far. I also want to thank the member for Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake for her leadership in keeping this bill going and bringing it to our chamber. It has been discussed for quite some time in Ottawa, and I am pleased to see that it is moving forward. Very simply, Bill S-209 is about protecting Canadian children. I am certainly in no position to speak for all members of the chamber, or even all members of my party, although I am sure all members of this place would agree that children must be protected from harm and that parents should have the tools they need to protect their children online. Bill S-209 would protect children by requiring commercial pornographic websites to implement effective age verification or age estimation measures while including safeguards that protect Canadians’ privacy. I believe this is truly a targeted, common-sense approach requiring websites that host pornographic material to take reasonable steps in verifying or estimating their users’ ages. Before I get further into some of the specifics of what the bill would do and how it aims to achieve its objectives, I want to speak about the “why”: the issue the bill aims to address. We have heard some quite remarkable comments already from members on all sides about some of the challenges we are facing as a country regarding this issue. Research has associated minors’ exposure to pornography with harmful attitudes and beliefs regarding sexual consent, including those of violence and degradation toward women, in particular, as well as coercion and exploitation. We also know that early exposure to pornography has been found to lead to increased rates of peer-to-peer sexual abuse among youth, meaning in part that a lot of the problematic narratives and actions depicted in some of this content are leading to many youth having troubles in their relationships, especially as they begin to grow older and begin dating. There have been many studies about the impact that the exposure of youth to pornography has on their self-esteem. I would like to speak about that for a few moments. Studies note that pornography consumption is associated with a negative body image and self-comparison in both sexes. Research links porn consumption to feelings of anxiety and depression in young girls, which is an alarming statistic to read. When looking at the impact on young boys, a report from Australia notes that viewing pornography can create or exacerbate feelings of loneliness, anxiety and body dissatisfaction in young boys in particular. With all that knowledge being stated, there are also surveys that show that by the age of 16, over 70% of boys view pornography multiple times per week. If we put that into perspective, to step back and look at that alarming stat, we see that 70% of boys up to 16 not only have viewed some of this harmful content, but are regularly viewing content that can cause them to feel lonely, anxious and dissatisfied within their own bodies. This is unquestionably a great concern for the mental health of young girls and boys alike, and something that we should all be concerned about in this place. The concerns that I highlighted and just shared are among the reasons that pornographic material is subject to age restrictions in Canada. However, despite the extensive research proving how harmful the material can be to young people, there is no effective enforcement of these age restrictions. This leads to the reality that many underage children are accessing pornography. In fact, the average age of first exposure to pornographic material is 12 years old, with one-third of children exposed to pornographic material by the age of just 10. Further, for youth aged 14 to 18, there are studies showing that more than 70% report having viewed pornography. The fact that so many young Canadians are viewing content that, as I just highlighted, negatively impacts their mental health, their relationships, the way they view the world and the way they view their relationships should be of great concern to all of us. Again, I do not speak for all members, but I am sure all members would agree with respect to having these age restrictions in place. That is the right thing to do. It only stands to reason that these restrictions should be enforced effectively. Of course, having a law in place but failing to enforce the law makes the law essentially useless. That would apply to any law we have in place in Canada. Bill S-209 seeks to fix that inconsistency. The bill, if passed, would require websites hosting pornographic material to implement effective age verification or age estimation systems. As I mentioned, the bill would also establish financial penalties for non-compliance, of up to $250,000 for a first offence and up to $500,000 for subsequent offences. Further, Bill S-209 would give court authority to order Canadian Internet service providers to block access to non-compliant websites. The rules set out within Bill S-209 would apply equally to all sites accessible in Canada, including those based outside the country. I do understand that throughout discussion and debate on this, there have been some people who raised concerns about privacy and data collection, and I do not disregard those concerns. I would note, however, that Bill S-209 also does not disregard those concerns. Set out in the bill are very specific criteria for age verification. Among others, the bill would require that the age verification method be operated by a third party organization, maintain user privacy, protect personal information and destroy any personal information collected once the age verification is completed. To me, this is a common-sense proposal being brought forward. I think about the consistency of the laws we have in place. When Canadians purchase alcohol, tobacco, cannabis or lottery tickets, they must present valid ID at the discretion of the vendor. If we are to allow, as a Parliament and as a country, an entire industry that offers age-restricted materials to bypass that accountability simply because it exists online rather than in a brick-and-mortar storefront, to me that is nonsensical. Further to that, it is presently an offence for a retailer and also for an individual employee to sell age-restricted products, such as alcohol and tobacco, to minors. This means that in Canada right now, we are essentially holding minimum-wage workers such as those selling tobacco products at a gas station, for example, to a higher standard of accountability than we are holding multi-million-dollar companies providing pornography online. It only stands to reason that all age-restricted products should have more consistent enforcement. Companies that profit from providing pornographic content should be responsible for keeping it out of the reach of children, and the websites that fail to protect children should face serious consequences. That is why I support Bill S-209 and the goals set out within it. I believe this would be an important step in keeping kids safe and in ensuring that our laws are consistently enforced. I hope the House chooses to vote in favour of Bill S-209 and move it forward to the next stage of discussion. As always, Conservatives will stand with parents and families and will continue to fight for an online environment where all children are safe.”

“I want the House to pass this bill. It makes pornography websites check users' ages so children cannot see sexually explicit material online. Parents cannot watch everything their children see on the internet, and other government bills do not cover all porn websites. This bill protects children while still letting adults access adult content and protecting people's privacy.”

“Mr. Speaker, protecting children from harm should always be a priority. As legislators, we have the responsibility to protect the vulnerable and put reasonable safeguards in place. I want to thank members from across party lines who have spoken in support of Bill S-209, which seeks to protect children from online pornography. Many members who have taken part in this debate are parents themselves. They understand the challenges of raising children in a digital age, when so much content is available at the click of a button. Children are being exposed to pornography at very young ages. Sometimes they come across it accidentally. Other times, curiosity leads them to content they are not mature enough to understand. The concern is not just how young children are when they encounter this content, but what they may see. Age checks are often absent or ineffective on websites that host pornography. Children can encounter videos that portray aggression, degradation and sexual violence. Some depict acts that can cause serious physical harm, including choking, while presenting them as healthy or even desirable. Children’s brains are still developing. They are learning to understand relationships, consent and appropriate behaviour. Repeated exposure to this content can shape how they understand sex, consent and expectations in relationships. Parents have a very important role to play. They set boundaries. They have difficult conversations and use parental controls, but in reality, they cannot monitor every search, every link or every video. They should not have to carry this responsibility alone. During this debate, the member for Vancouver Granville raised Bill C-34 as another way to address children’s exposure to online pornography, but that is not correct. Bill C-34 does not have the same explicit reach as Bill S-209. Bill C-34 would require age verification to user-generated pornography on sites like OnlyFans. Just so members know, OnlyFans is a site where users generate pornography and upload it. However, Bill C-34 does not stipulate age verification for pornography websites. The government has provided Bill C-34 to the House, a bill that is supposed to protect children, but it does not cover pornography websites. The Liberal government has not clearly stated that it intends to use the powers in Bill C-34 to ensure that all commercial pornography websites restrict children’s access. If we agree that protecting children from online pornography is important, we cannot just leave it to Bill C-34. We need a direct approach, and that is what Bill S-209 is. It is a targeted approach that would require all commercial pornography websites to use prescribed age verification or age estimation methods to restrict children’s access to it. To be clear, Bill S-209 would not ban pornography for adults. It would establish an additional safeguard to help keep this adult content away from children. It also would not come at the expense of Canadians’ privacy. This bill includes safeguards governing the collection, use and destruction of personal information used for age checks. We can protect children from content they are not ready to see while also protecting Canadians’ personal information. This issue has been before Parliament since 2016, when the House unanimously supported Motion No. 47, which called for a study on the public health effects of easy access to online sexually explicit material. This is the third version of this legislation being considered, yet children still lack these safeguards. Other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany and more than 25 American states, have taken steps to restrict minors’ access to online pornography. We cannot keep debating this issue without taking action. Our children deserve safeguards, and I urge all members in the House to support Bill S-209.”