The Age Verification Debate đ
đ Deciphering the Canadian âProtecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Actâ, and whatâs wrong with it?
Foreword
Age verification for accessing porn sites has been a hot topic for many in Canada recently, with Bill S-210, An Act to restrict young personsâ online access to sexually explicit material, currently undergoing consideration in the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) in the House of Commons, and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre affirmed his partyâs support for the bill on February 12, 2024.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Julie Miville-DechĂȘne, an Independent Senators Group member back in 2021, to mandate porn sites implement age verification measures to prevent minors from accessing online pornography. It was adopted in the Senate in April 2023 and has garnered bipartisan support in the House from the NDP, the Conservative Party, the Bloc QuĂ©bĂ©cois, the Green Party, and some Liberal MPs. However, 133 Liberal MPs voted against the bill back in December 2023.
While Miville-DechĂȘne may believe we can "...reproduce in the virtual world what already exists in terms of protecting the children from exposure to porn in real life.â, the intricacies of the Internet and the evolving capacity of children underscore the inadequacy of the âcopy and pasteâ mentality and reveal the flawed rationale in legislation.
As the Conservatives double down on support for age verification and website blocking, regardless of whether you are â18 or olderâ, you should pay attention to the debate of the bill. This S-210 bill pertains to the protection of children and the online freedom of adults, and is now way down the road to becoming law. If enacted, such a law could curtail civil liberties and cast a shadow over democratic principles.
Age verification is not a new concept
Canada certainly isnât the first to propose such age assurance measures for porn sites. For instance, the UK launched an enforcement program into the age assurance measures of UK-based video-sharing platforms specializing in adult content in early 2023. Later in the year, platform providers like Tapnet Ltd. and Kiwi Leisure Limited implemented age verification measures on their services, RevealMe and AdmireMe respectively.
Two other frequently referenced examples by the bill's proposer are France and Germany, with the latter having implemented age verification for visitors to adult websites as early as 2002. According to Miville-DechĂȘneâs recent news release, âGermany has already approved more than 80 methods and France is currently developing a âdouble anonymousâ system.â
However, it's easy to fall into self-deception when one becomes entrenched in their beliefs and remains blind to what may be worth considering. While supporters of the bill may be captivated by the success stories, so to speak, there are solid cases where a regulatory regime like Australia halted the roadmap for age verification that has long been sitting with the government since March 2023. In 2022, Franceâs Commission Nationale de l'informatique et des libertĂ©s (CNIL) also called for more privacy-friendly models for age verification for online pornographic materials, since the current systems are circumventable and intrusive.
Though the source and sample size were not cited, the Senatorâs February 22 news release also stated that âa recent poll indicates that 77% of Canadians support age verification to access online porn, with only 13% opposed.â These numbers showed that age checks may seem to be just a âminor inconvenienceâ to Canadians (at least to the respondents of the poll). Besides, implementing a system for age verification isnât so infeasible from a technological standpoint.
The compliance assurances of UKâs Tapnet Ltd. and Kiwi Leisure Limited have proven it possible, and the countryâs new Internet rulebook outlines what age verification could look like in practice. Some mechanisms include asking users to submit a valid identification and take a picture for facial scanning to a third-party automated age verification tool, making a credit card payment, or signing into a registered account where their age has already been verified upon entering the site.
Resolving privacy issues with ârespectâ
From a child protection perspective, more safeguards are always welcome, particularly by parents (after all, who doesnât want their kids to be safe?). However, online safety itself is far from linear given the versatileness of issues often arising from these protective measures. Among the most prominent concerns lie in privacy and security issues.
Although Miville-DechĂȘne believes that âIt's absolutely possible to respect [the] privacy of consumers of pornography and at the same time protect children," the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canadaâs final report told us a different story. The 2022-2023 survey reveals that 65% of Canadians are not comfortable having their face or photo scanned to verify their age online, and 91% of Canadians are concerned about identity theft. Besides, there is no such thing as a 100% cybersecurity guarantee because of three factors: (1) risk changes constantly, (2) cybercriminals and their tools are growing more sophisticated, and (3) human error remains a factor; The cyber threats we face today cannot simply be resolved through "respect" without a solid technical foundation.
In 2023 alone, 360 million people reported being impacted by corporate and institutional data breaches globally, with consumer data being among the top targets for hackers and ransomware attacks. Whether users are required to upload their personal information to porn sites directly or to verify via third-party tools, such age verification mechanisms open new avenues for identity theft due to incidents like data breaches, and it may render Canadians more vulnerable to such cyber threats.
Identity information is a high-value target for threat actors looking to sell this information or use it for fraud. Once a threat actor has sufficient identity attributes, they can create fraudulent identity credentials, or take control of existing credentials. In 2021, 36.5% of large Canadian companies reported being impacted by cybersecurity incidents with one in ten being targeted in attempts to steal personal or financial data.
Despite criticism towards the bill, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis asserted, âCompanies have an incentive to ensure protection for privacy.â Although Genuis couldnât further elaborate on this âincentiveâ, he reassured the public that they should trust companies not to leak their data because the invisible hand of the free market would prevent such breaches from occurring in the first place.Â
While the optimism in this narrative is strong, the reasoning behind his claim appears somewhat dogmatic. The notion of âtrustâ mentioned here seems unfounded, and the bill raises genuine enforcement issues with porn sites situated outside Canada, where Canadian personal data may be susceptible to lax privacy laws in those jurisdictions.
Protection vs. Freedom
The bill faces mounting criticism not only due to its implications for privacy and security but also because it encroaches upon freedom of expression and civil liberties. In a brief submitted to the SECU, Alexis Hunt, a commentator, pointed out that queer content on the Internet often revolves around sexuality, ranging from lighthearted romances to artful erotica or more explicit forms such as rape porn; and indicated that âsexual content is also a critical gateway for many of us to explore our queer experiences and our identitiesâ. While safeguarding minors from explicit content is crucial, it should not come at the expense of marginalized communities or racial minorities either.
Moreover, such paternalistic policies put the adult industry and workers who rely on it for a living at a large disadvantage and could prompt adult websites to withdraw their service in Canada entirely. Solomon Friedman, a partner and vice-president of compliance at Ethical Capital Partners (the owner of Pornhub), indicated that the company may consider blocking access to Canadians, similar to the companyâs action taken in response to Utah's law requiring age verification for porn sites last year.
Some lawmakers are aware that people can easily bypass the age verification mechanism simply by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and access from a different âlocationâ. With this capability, such age verification measures will work to no avail. Nevertheless, the billâs sponsor, Julie Miville-DechĂȘne, argues that ââŠyounger kids under 11 don't exactly know it [VPN] exists, and we will protect enough children with age verification that it will be useful.âÂ
Described as "fundamentally flawed" by the Canadian Heritage Minister's office in December 2023, the bill not only lacks a practical implementation plan but contemplates âwebsite blockingâ. If the law is passed, it may risk transforming into censorship, because âitâs not focused just on sites that are predominantly for the distribution of pornography, it captures all websites, all social media,â said Emily Laidlaw, a University of Calgary and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law.
Is it a technical issue or an ideological one?
As I channelled my satirical energy to crafting this article and conducting research for my contemplation of this bill, I stumbled upon an intriguing account of conversation during the second reading at the House of Commons on November 23, 2023ââBloc MP Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay raised a pertinent point regarding the borderless nature of the Internet. He highlighted the challenge posed by the fact that the servers of service providers, whether porn sites or third-party age verification tools, can be located anywhere, which makes it more challenging to impose laws confined within national borders on matters related to the Internet.
Initially, Conservative MP Karen Vecchio seemed to overlook the question, but Vecchio managed to respond after the question was repeated, but the comment veered off track. The conversation was completely sidetracked to the use of VPNs to bypass the proposed protective measures and circled back to â... why we need to take this to [the] committee, so we can talk about the technology and all these gaps in our systems.â
Certainly, individuals using technology like VPNs to access porn sites with IP addresses of another country while physically located in Canada represent one aspect of the many issues at hand. However, the crux of the question pertained to servers of service providers (e.g. porn sites in this case) based somewhere outside Canada, and how the law will be enforced to make sure the age verification mechanisms are in place.
While misinterpreting a question may seem like a minor oversight, the incomprehension of technology-related inquiries among lawmakers is alarming, especially considering their role in legislating our cyberspace. Assuming Vecchio's reference to "technology" was VPNs and her mention of "system" alluded to various technologies including the Internet, servers of service providers, and VPNs in this context, there are several approaches to prevent individuals from bypassing age checks using VPNs at the network level:
Geo-blocking: blocking usersâ access to content based on oneâs geographical location by dropping IP packets (at network-level blocking) or enabling applications to reject or ignore access attempts (at system-level blocking)
DNS filtering: blocking usersâ access to a specific website or domain name at the DNS level by categorizing every single domain that hosts pornographic content, where people attempt to access and cross-reference the policies with all domain names intended to be blocked.
Deep packet inspection (DPI): Also known as packet sniffing, can be deployed at network gateways or within internet service provider (ISP) infrastructure to inspect and filter traffic as data packets pass by a checkpoint from one device to another on the network. This method can help identify and block VPN traffic based on characteristics such as packet headers or encryption signatures commonly used by VPN protocols.Â
Given the ambiguity surrounding the definition of technology, I will define it here as any method designed to perform a specific task. These methods are no stranger to us and technically (quite literally) feasible to utilize for blocking users' access to certain websites or stopping specific incoming traffic.
The âGreat Firewall of Chinaâ is one of the well-known examples of such practices. Similarly, Iran has implemented âsmart filteringâ since 2014 to censor content the Islamic Republic deems morally or politically inappropriate and outlawed the use of tools such as VPNs designed to bypass Internet censorship in 2023. Additionally, Saudia Arabia classified as a ânot freeâ country (scored 25 out of 100 in Freedom Houseâs Freedom on the Net 2023 and scored 8 out of 100 in Freedom Houseâs Freedom in the World 2024), extensively employs technologies to block or filter undesired content.
The challenge of implementing age assurances doesnât lie in the technical feasibility of deploying technologies, say AI-powered age checks for pornographic sites, or employing measures like those mentioned above to deter individuals from using VPNs to bypass age checks. Instead, it is fundamentally an ideological issue.
Itâs a different era now
Billâs supporters may inundate the public and alarm the parents with dreadful scientific data on the detrimental effects of pornography on children, such as porn addiction, and that Canadian children are exposed to pornography as young as 10 years old. Sonya Thompson, a researcher and sexual health consultant, conducted a study two decades ago, polling approximately 425 Grade 8 students across Alberta. Her findings revealed that 88% of boys and 72% of girls reported that they had seen sexually explicit content online.Â
While safeguarding children online is paramount and minorsâ exposure to explicit content should not be normalized, it's important to note that the statistic I just cited dates back to the early 2000s. Despite this significant revelation, the topic has largely remained unexplored in academia since then, and more research is needed to study the children of today.
For those who didn't grow up with the Internet and social media, it may be challenging to comprehend the ubiquitous presence of adult content in various degrees of explicitness nowadays. The younger generation, whether Gen Z or Gen Alpha, was born to the ubiquity of Web 2.0, symbolized by user-generated content and the rise of social media. We've reached a point of no return in our relationship with technology; children are already immersed in the digital world from a very young age and they are virtually tethered to the cyber world.Â
Today, the Internet has evolved into its third phase, Web 3.0, as people advocate for an Internet characterized by decentralization and openness. It is actualizing the bottom-up design conceptualized by Tim Bernes-Lee, the Father of World-Wide-Web (WWW), in the 1990s with decentralized technologies like blockchains and peer-to-peer networks, permissionless open source software, and ubiquitous IoTs. Building upon Bernes-Leeâs conceptual Semantic Web coined in 2001 and Natural Language processing (NLP), computers in Web 3.0 are able to use data and algorithms (e.g. machine learning) to mimic humans to learn and âunderstandâ information; Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands out as one of the most disruptive examples in this realm.
In this digital era, protecting children without empowering them is akin to nurturing plants in a greenhouseâthey won't thrive when faced with the challenges of the real world. Some perceive pornography as a public health crisis, and if we were to liken it to a disease, how would we help our children build up their immunity to it?Â
Some alternative solutions?
Online safety for children encompasses more than just shielding them from pornography. We shouldnât have to choose between protecting children and our freedom to access basic adult entertainment or maintaining our privacy. Instead of hoping that a single-dimensional bill can fix all the multi-faceted challenges faced by children today, a national strategy with multidimensional measures and mechanisms should be implemented to provide more effective guardrails.
Regarding preventing minorsâ access to adult content, there are solutions to tackle this issue at the device level already. For example, parental controls can be enabled in many mobile devices, where parents can restrict childrenâs screen time, and block or limit specific apps and features. However, parentsâ literacy and proficiency in utilizing such filtering tools or software vary among demographics. Therefore, support and guidance should be provided to assist them in utilizing available technology to mitigate these problems, along with providing renewed education on sex and sexuality for children.
This approach will naturally place more responsibility on parents and caregivers. Yet, even in the digital age, parents should retain the autonomy to determine whether they raise their children with more conservative or progressive approaches that align with their familyâs ethical principles, based on their ideologies, social norms, cultural norms, or religious beliefs they subscribe to.
On February 26, 2024, the Government of Canada introduced the long-waited Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) and completed the first reading of the bill in the House of Commons. This forthcoming bill presents a more comprehensive framework aimed at addressing a broader scope of issues, including combating hate speech, terrorist content, some violent material, and sexually explicit materials, like child abuse material (CSAM) or nonconsensually shared material (NCSII).
This bill is particularly significant and warrants close attention, because if there isnât enough public scrutiny of the policy formation process and the governmentâs role in whatâs laid out in the bill, such a bill if passed without amendments that align with the values of the majority could lead to disastrous consequences.
It may be convenient to label such a bill âcensorshipâ and lament its adoption when a piece of legislation has reached the advanced stage of a legislative process. However, it's essential to recognize that Bill C-63 is only in the early stages of this process, and there should be a more constructive way to ensure the bill is crafted in a manner that serves the best interest of all stakeholders involved and impacted.
Epilogue
With my rough analysis in the previous sections, I hope you can at least grasp why the bill has been heavily criticized by now. The S-210 bill not only fails to address the practicality of implementation challenged by the borderless nature of the Internet, but it also reveals the incompetence of lawmakers in addressing emerging issues due to the insufficiency of know-how on technology within the policymaking ecosystem.
This places principles valued by a democratic society at risk, especially when lawmakers push for a bill that only addresses a single aspect of a complex issue with a narrow scope of application that is ill-suited for the current digital landscape, where technological development is soaring and the capacity of children themselves constantly evolving.
A piece of legislation should only be deemed effective, or at least helpful, for online child protection if it promotes, respects, protects and fulfills all childrenâs rights in a digital environment. Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) on December 12, 1991. However, the Convention has not been explicitly incorporated into Canadaâs domestic law through a particular statute, as is the usual Canadian approach to implementing internationally ratified human rights treaties. Instead, Canada relies on a wide range of existing measures at the federal, provincial and territorial levels.Â
Despite Canada's adoption of a dualist approach (meaning it may not necessarily result in the incorporation of the Convention in domestic legislation), we are obligated to realize the principles outlined in this legally binding Convention to combat emerging issues for children. Articles 19, 34, and 36 of the Convention demand the protection of children from violence, sexual abuse and exploitation. However, these rights necessitate a different interpretation and approach in the digital age, especially for regulatory purposes, with lawmakers playing a particularly critical role in this maneuver.