A Senate bill that would require Canadians to verify their age online before accessing porn is moving through the House of Commons without the support of the Liberal government.
A Senate bill that would require Canadians to verify their age online before accessing porn is moving through the House of Commons without the support of the Liberal government.
The letter I’m sending to my MP:
I urge you to fight against this proposal on moral grounds. That might sound like an odd point of view, but hear me out.
One of the greatest challenges facing us with online activities is not what we or our children have access to, but how companies are handling critical permanent identification. Every day there is a new report of some entity that has lost control of information that has a major negative impact on those whose information was exposed.
There are ways to effectively manage such information and there are companies and government departments deploying those systems. However, there is currently no legal or regulatory framework making those systems and methods mandatory. Until that legal and regulatory environment exists, it is not just a bad idea to expand data collection requirements, but immoral.
To be clear, I’m not talking about the possibility that some person is exposed as a consumer of pornography. I’m talking about those whose incompetence and/or low standards of care allow criminals to gain access to the identifying data for use in criminal activity.
I don’t know about you, but the porn industry is the last industry I would ever trust to properly secure and manage identifying information.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
I wrote my MP once in 2021 regarding the reversal of the wholesale broadband rates. Specifically, about how the Vice-Chair of Telecommunications sat down with the President of Bell Media for some beers at a sports game to discuss things after the 2019 court rulings upheld the existing rules set by the Commission.
The result, of course, was a change to the rules.
You’re not going to get a real answer from your MPP, just a staffer tasked with boilerplating out an email that could conceivably be construed as an answer to your question/complaint.
The staffer has two jobs. Their first job is to send a useless mollifying email. Their second job is to make a tally mark next to the words “PORN AGE GATE – OPPOSED”. (Or these days, probably they click a button on a spreadsheet.)
Writing your MP is like voting. It’s useless individually, but in aggregate it will change their behaviour.
Oh I know. I’ve written letters, sent emails, and even showed up on their doorsteps. I’m under no illusions as to effect, but it makes me feel better knowing that I’ve done what I can.