A 2025 survey of young people in the United Kingdom found that 70 per cent had seen pornography online.
The vast majority reported seeing pornography by accident, up 20 per cent from 2023.
Studies also show most young people think that viewing pornography changes their behaviour. One study found pornography consumption is correlated with increased violence against women. It has also been linked to children perpetrating sexual abuse against other children.
As Canada considers new laws to protect children and youth online, the government must prioritize protecting kids from pornography.
Many policymakers are rightly concerned about protecting children online. In Canada and abroad, many new proposals have centred on limiting youth social media access.
The Carney government, for example, is currently considering banning social media for youth.
Doing so would have the support of Liberal Party members, who recently passed two policy resolutions related to internet regulation. One calls on the government to prevent children under 16 from having social media accounts. The other seeks to prohibit them from accessing AI chatbots and from engaging in harmful AI interactions.
Premier Wab Kinew also recently announced that Manitoba would ban social media and AI chatbots for kids.
Internationally, Australia banned social media for children late last year, and numerous other jurisdictions have either implemented similar bans or are considering them.
Limits on youth social media use have broad support in Canada. A recent Angus Reid Institute survey found that 75 per cent of respondents supported banning children under 16 from social media platforms.
But that same survey also showed strong concern with youth pornography exposure. A full 85 per cent of respondents said they were concerned about youth exposure to pornography or explicit content.
This is a concern Canadian governments can and should also take action on.
Other jurisdictions are already doing so, including the U.K., France, Australia, and over two dozen U.S. states. These jurisdictions have typically passed laws requiring age verification to prevent children from viewing online pornography.
This is an important step, but porn sites are not the only areas where youth are being exposed.
In fact, X, formerly Twitter, is the most common source of young people’s exposure to pornography, with 45 per cent of respondents saying they saw pornography on that platform.
What’s more, eight of the top 10 sources where young people see pornography are social media or networking sites. By contrast, about 35 per cent of youth see porn on dedicated pornography sites.
This data highlight the need to combat more than just dedicated pornography sites, and bolsters the case for limiting youth social media access.
Positively, one important step for protecting children from pornography is already in progress.
Canada’s Senate recently completed its study of Bill S-209, which would require pornography companies to verify the age of potential viewers through a third-party organization. That legislation passed third reading in the Senate to a standing ovation and will now be reviewed and debated in the House of Commons.
As Senator Miville-Dechene, the bill’s sponsor, concluded during the third reading debate, “By passing this bill, we’ll be sending a clear signal that Canada is serious about protecting its children in the digital world.”
Certainly, age verification is not perfect. Some children may be able to access pornography through a virtual private network, to hide their location. But using a VPN adds a barrier and would radically reduce incidents of youth accidentally stumbling across porn.
There are also ways for the government to target the use of VPNs to improve the effectiveness of age-verification for pornography.
The government ought to move Bill S-209 through the House of Commons swiftly and prioritize rules to limit youth access to pornography on social media.
Other countries are taking action, but Canada lags behind. The government must make every effort to act quickly to prevent children from accessing pornography online.
