On Thursday, 6 March, the first reading of the civilian draft Law on the Protection of Minors from Pornography on the net was planned. – The adoption of this task and its transfer to further rights in the committee is simply a concrete chance to increase the protection of children and young people in Poland – emphasises Marcin Perłowski, manager of the Center for Life and household and vice president of the Ordo Iuris Institute.
Parliamentarians will decide whether a citizens' task to defend children from pornography on the Internet, which received the support of 212 000 citizens, will be submitted for further action. The preparation and implementation of appropriate provisions to defend children from contact with pornography online is highly crucial in the context of a reality where the dramatic effects arising from the consumption of pornography by minors are observed. And as investigation suggests, these are younger children. The British and French have seen this problem, which has already prepared specified regulations. Laws to defend children from harmful content on the net besides apply in nearly 20 U.S. states.
What does the draft law on protecting minors from pornographic content on the net and amending the Telecommunications Law include? The legislative initiatives put forward by the Committee include, in particular, the introduction of effective mechanisms to verify the age of users of pornographic services so that the content is not for children. If the owner of the pornographic content platform does not introduce specified restrictions, it will be placed in the central registry and its website will be blocked. The block is besides intended to cover payment services. The decision to registry will have an authoritative character and can be appealed before Polish administrative courts. Ordo Iuris lawyers who have prepared records, protected privacy and the anonymity of users, including by banning retention and processing of data, emphasize that 1 of the basic conditions they will gotta comply with the tools to verify maturity. The project's records, as the Committee's representatives emphasize, were consulted with data protection experts, IT professionals and psychologists who point to the destructive nature of pornography.
Unfortunately, with access to the net and electronic devices, including smartphones that get younger and younger children, pornographic content has besides become easy accessible. This is besides confirmed by children’s studies. As many as 73 percent of them admitted that uncovering content of this nature does not origin much difficulty ( NASK report, Teenagers towards digital pornography, Warsaw, 2022). The age of children who have first contact with pornography is besides reduced. present it has been 11 years, and the situation is even more serious in another EU countries, for example Spain or the UK, where the age of first contact has fallen under the age of 10. As Marcin Perłowski, manager of the Center for Life and household said, during the press conference the day before the first reading, erotica is in 3rd place among the search in the age group 7-14. – I appeal to the Members. You are facing a perspective. It may yet be the first government to take this problem seriously said the manager of the Centre for Life and Family.
"I am addressing Members and Members – you are facing a position erstwhile something can yet be done about it. This could be the first government to seriously address the problem [child access to pornography]. Accepting and voting on this task is simply a concrete chance to... pic.twitter.com/fTw4gsBpcX
— Centre of Life and household (@CentrumZycia) March 5, 2025
The consequences of watching pornography are very serious. The American College of Pediatricians based on a survey conducted in 2016 indicated that children who accidentally watched pornographic material suffered shock. The content they saw caused them a sense of fear, sadness, and anger. Later symptoms of anxiety and depression were observed in children.
What needs to be stressed is that pornography causes addiction, which is much harder to treat than another addictions, and over time the brain of the consumer demands always stronger stimuli. Pornography is so called the drugs of the 21st century for a reason. Pornography has been shown to have a mechanics of dependence on psychoactive substances and to affect the structure of the human brain. Dr. Bogna Białeck, citing the work of neurobiologists and neuropsychologists, points to mechanisms of addiction akin to that of hard drugs, and thus besides permanent harm to brain structures that trigger viewing pornographic content.
Specialists in the field of psychology and upbringing of children and young people point to the broad and destructive impact of pornography on development, health, behaviour and attitudes of minors. Pornographic films show a deformed and distorted image of intimate relationships, subjecting women, children. As a result, this makes it hard to build a relation with another human being, leading to aggression, exploitation, and criminal behavior, including human trafficking and pedophilia.
In fresh days, the Italian metre Association Fr Fortunato di Noto, who has been active in the protection of children for 30 years, monitoring crime against the youngest, has presented in Syracuse an yearly study on the pedopornographic industry.
As reported, around 2 million children's porn videos were recorded online in 2024, which means an increase of 220 percent compared to 2023. They spread mainly through servers located in America and Europe. In this “rethink” artificial intelligence is besides increasingly used, and this brutal image created has as strong an impact on the recipient of pornographic content as human films. In addition, the organization has highlighted the widespread sexual abuse of newborns by 3rd parties and mothers. Cases of frozen blood in the veins have been documented, including: newborns abused in transportation rooms and infirmary rewinders, read the report.
On Thursday, parliamentarians will decide on the further destiny of the bill. It is worth pointing to surveys of the public from 2023, which showed that 88% of Poles support actions aimed at limiting access to pornography for minors. In the same year, the Ministry of Digital Affairs announced work on a law aimed at limiting access to pornography for minors and besides presented a draft law limiting access to pornographic content by children.
AG
