Catholic campaigners have demanded action to curb growing online pornography and child abuse in the European Union, as the bloc’s Catholic bishops welcomed new legislative proposals but also urged tighter controls.
“Internet access and digitisation have greatly increased during the coronavirus pandemic, and we’re deeply concerned about the effects on children of harassment, abuse and grooming,” said Bénédicte Colin, policy manager with the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe.
“In most EU member-states, it’s illegal for minors to access online pornography, but these regulations aren’t put into practice. However effective your laws, they count for little or nothing if not implemented.”
The French lay Catholic spoke as the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, representing over a thousand bishops, published a statement on current EU efforts to combat online crime.
In a June 20 interview with Catholic News Service, Ms Colin said her federation, grouping 28 Catholic family associations, was the only Brussels-based organisation working against internet pornography in response to demands by parental groups across Europe.
“If it’s possible to detect the relevant links and report illegal and harmful contents, it shouldn’t be that difficult to block and remove them — yet there are still no overall controls,” said Colin.
In December, the European Union’s governing commission approved a Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act for enforcement across the 27 member-states in response to accelerated digitisation during the coronavirus pandemic. The act includes pornography and abuse controls.
In a report, the Catholic family federation welcomed the planned directives, but warned that “oversexualisation of children” in the media also needed to be barred as a root cause of crime and distorted attitudes among children.
It added that parents and family associations should be empowered to prevent sexual images and videos produced by children themselves. It said online access to pornography by minors had fuelled unprecedented sexual violence between children and should be viewed as a form of sexual abuse.