Dad takes legal action to protect sons from porn

A father of four is taking legal action against the Government over its failure to implement promised age-verification checks on pornographic websites.

Ioannis Dekas, 52, says the lack of safeguards has impacted his son. He is pursuing a judicial review alongside student Ava Vakil, 20.

Regulations to require pornographers to introduce strict age-verification checks online were approved under the Digital Economy Act 2017, but the plans were first delayed, and then dropped in October 2019.

Frustrating

The Government’s proposals for a replacement age verification system are significantly weaker, and there is currently no date set for the new Online Safety Bill to be brought before Parliament.

Dekas and Vakil argue that children are being harmed by the lack of age-verification – a breach of the Government’s legal duty to protect them. They are seeking crowdfunding to pay for the case.

The pair are being represented by Paul Conrathe of Sinclairslaw. He told The Guardian: “The government have sought to frustrate the clear will of parliament to protect children from online harm.

“In the meantime, the ease with which those under 18 can access extreme pornographic material online is having significant negative impacts on thousands of children every day.”

Harm

Mr Dekas told of how he had noticed a “drastic” change in his son’s behaviour before he and his wife found out that their son had viewed porn due to peer pressure. He stressed that “porn is harming our young people”.

The other claimant, Ava Vakil, campaigns on sexual violence among teenagers.

Ava Vakil, 20

She said that in her experience, “young people’s first experience with sex is increasingly pornography that often glorifies extreme violence against women.

“An 11-year-old can’t go to the cinema and watch an 18 film but with more ease, no ticket, they can see incredibly harmful material on their phone”.

Gross negligence

Ciarán Kelly, The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director for Communications, welcomed the legal action.

He said: “We have seen delay after delay from the Government. Protections were promised years ago, yet young people can still access pornography with incredible ease.

“Studies repeatedly show how harmful pornography is for young people: sullying future relationships, damaging self-esteem, and giving them a completely warped idea of what a sexual relationship should be.

“By failing to implement robust protections, the Government is guilty of gross negligence.”

Common problem

The case comes as a new survey revealed that four in five UK 16-17-year-olds have seen online pornography – commonly saying that they had viewed it that day.

Conducted by City, University of London with 1,001 participants, it found that 63 per cent had seen porn on social media platforms, with 47 per cent viewing it on adult websites.

Lead author of the study, Professor Neil Thurman, said that the figures confirmed that there was still a need to regulate pornographic websites.

Floella Benjamin

In a separate development, a letter calling the Prime Minister to implement age verification for porn sites was sent to Number 10 this week.

The signatories, led by Baroness Floella Benjamin, argue that the use of pornography is linked to a higher incidence of violence against women and girls.