Since her appointment to the Senate in June 2018, Senator Miville-Dechêne has introduced two Senate public bills :
- Bill S-211, a bill against forced labour and child labour in supply chains; and
- Bill S-210 that would require the implementation of age verification methods online to protect minors from exposure to online pornography. Many groups across Canada including the CWL have worked on this issue for the past number of years and our efforts have paid off! The Senate has passed the Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act.
Bill S-210 is in the House of Commons
Bill S-210: Age Verification, Blocking Orders and Privacy Protection will require all pornographic websites accessible in Canada to implement effective age-verification mechanisms to limit children’s access to their content. Non-complying sites would be subject to significant fines or, especially for websites based abroad, a blocking order in Canada. During the study of Bill S-210 by the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, an amendment was adopted to ensure that any age-verification mechanism prescribed by regulation maintains user privacy and protects user personal information, collects, and uses personal information solely for age-verification purposes, destroys any personal information collected and complies with best practices in the fields of age verification and privacy protection.
As illustrated above, Bill S-210 was adopted In the Senate with broad support from all groups and it passed First reading in the House of Commons within a month of Third reading in the Senate. We pray that it will be adopted and implemented without delay will broad support from all parties.
We can't stop our letter writing now. Yes, this is a win for our youth and families, but there's still work to do. Please share this information with your councils asking them to contact their MP immediately, asking them to support this Bill.
