The Fight to Protect Children From Pornography

Helen Taylor (second from left) stands in front of Times Square protesters holding a placard with the campaign slogan #ProtectChildrenNotPorn. Photo by Evan Louey-Dacus.

A group of a dozen people gathered in Times Square to protest for the protection of children from pornography on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. The group assembled themselves between the Thomson Reuters and NASDAQ billboards. A large squad of police officers stood at attention, watching from the NYPD satellite station. Across the street, a woman with blond hair and a British accent organized the group and handed out placards to those who didn’t have a handmade sign of their own.

Emblazoned in black and orange text, messages on posters read “We Demand Age Verification,” “Porn Exposure Harms Children” and “End Child Exxxposure.” Every double-sided placard also had two things written on each face: “#ProtectChildrenNotPorn” and, on the bottom, the name “Exodus Cry.”

The anti-sex trafficking non-profit organization Exodus Cry hosted the demonstration to raise awareness of the dangers of juvenile exposure to digital pornography. The goal of the event was “to promote our campaign Protect Children Not Porn, along with our new documentary Raised on Porn,” according to a blog post on their website.

A placard depicting a Pornhub tweet. Photo taken by Evan Louey-Dacus.

“[We are] demanding age verification, with ID, on all sites hosting porn, so children everywhere can be protected from the life-altering consequences of underage exposure.”

The #ProtectChildrenNotPorn campaign launched in Aug. 2021 with a petition and an opinion piece featured in the New York Post.

 “This campaign focuses on the fact that pornography sites have zero age verification barriers in place, so any five, six or seven-year-old child with access to a smartphone… is able to access this kind of hardcore graphic content,” said Helen Taylor, Vice President of Impact at Exodus Cry. “We’re saying the solution is age verification rules, just like how if you buy tobacco, you have to show a government ID to purchase it.”

A 2019 Australian study reported that 69% of boys and 23% of girls have seen pornography by the time they turned 13. 

“We wouldn’t let a child loose in an alcohol store and knock back vodka, so it shouldn’t be okay for underage kids and teens to have access to this kind of graphic, violent content,” said Taylor. “On the UN’s International Day Against Violence, today, October 2nd, we’re protesting against violence in porn and child exposure to that porn.”

Two days earlier, Sep. 30, Exodus Cry released the documentary “Raised on Porn” to further expose the dangers of child porn exposure and the #ProtectChildrenNotPorn campaign. Magic Lantern Pictures released the film, directed and produced by Benjamin Nolot, on YouTube where the public can watch it for free.

“We decided to organize a Times Square protest in conjunction with the release of the film to demand that age verification laws be put in place to protect children from exposure,” said Nolot, CEO and Founder of Exodus Cry. “The internet is a city without walls, and there are currently no protections in place for children who might be looking for a childhood character like Pokemon, and then pornography comes up…With this documentary and this protest, we are demanding that big tech and big porn be required to put age verification laws in place on all pornographic grounds.”

Founder Benjamin Nolot holds up a promotional poster for the documentary “Raised on Porn.” Photo taken by Evan Louey-Dacus.

Exodus Cry originally acquired advertising space on both the Thomson Reuters and NASDAQ billboards several months in advance. The ad design submitted by Exodus Cry was based on the promotional poster for “Raised on Porn.” The billboard owners unilaterally denied the ads from running two days before the protest.

“Pornhub and other porn sites have advertised on billboards around here,” Taylor said. “We’re now saying, ‘Why is it that Pornhub can advertise on billboards in Times Square, but when we’re saying “Protect Children,” we’re not allowed to advertise that message?’”

Seven months after the protest, Exodus Cry’s petition has gathered over 76,000 signatures and “Raised on Porn” has racked up over 3.57 million views on YouTube. While no pieces of legislation have been officially introduced to the United States government, other countries are increasingly receptive to laws mandating digital age verification for access to adult content. 

“Age verification is very much within reach and about five nations are looking at passing these laws,” Taylor said. “I’m from London, England, and we looked at an online safety bill that didn’t quite pass three years ago but they’re looking at reintroducing it… so we’re out on the streets today protesting for that.” 

The measure Taylor referred to was prompted by the 2019 U.K. Online Harms White Paper, a proposal published by the U.K. government to create an age verification system for online porn websites. However, due to technical troubles and privacy concerns, the U.K. government dropped the initiative within the year.

The reintroduced legislation is the 2021 U.K. Online Safety Bill, and is currently being amended by a joint parliamentary committee. 

“Our intention remains to introduce the Bill as soon as possible, subject to the parliamentary timetable,” a representative of the Secretary of State for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said on the U.K. Parliament website.

As shown by the failed age verification initiative in 2019, few people are in support of mandatory age verification for porn sites. To owners of porn sites, age restrictions mean a loss of business for them. Privacy campaigners also express concerns such as violating a user’s privacy and potential data leaks from collecting sensitive ID information. Some libertarians also argue that limiting access to pornography could restrict the First Amendment free speech rights of adults in the U.S.

“What Exodus Cry needs to emphasize, in my opinion, is the connections between pornography and sexual trafficking,” said Dr. David Tubbs, Associate Professor of Politics at The King’s College. “A lot of people who are interested in freedom of speech and freedom of the press have been very opposed to any regulation on porn as a potential violation of the First Amendment. I don’t see it that way at all because pornography, if it’s commercial, is a business transaction. It’s conduct, not speech.”

Demands for mandatory age verification on porn sites have arisen due to pornography’s ever-increasing online presence. Instead of finding a Playboy magazine in their older brother’s closet, most children find pornography today on their phones or tablets. According to a 2019 U.K. study, 51% of 11 to 13-year-old children and 66% of 14 to 15-year-old children reported that they had seen pornography at some point. Additionally, 62% of the 11 to 13-year-olds who had seen porn said that their first exposure to it was unintentional. Exodus Cry has also collected multiple testimonials from individuals who discovered porn for the first time as young children via an innocent web search or clicking on an advertisement.

A graphic showcasing 2019 study results. Created by British Board of Film Classification.

“We used to be very careful about protecting children from this sort of thing, not just being drawn into it but even being exposed to it,” said Dr. David Talcott, Associate Professor of Philosophy at The King’s College. “We used to be very cautious about it, but now even our advertisements that are out there are very different from what they used to be.”

Pornography is often a taboo subject of conversation. Thus, attempts to regulate it are seldom talked about in public circles. Exodus Cry focuses on education through their campaign as well as policy reform.

“I think that the entire reason or a big part of why these organizations are having these campaigns is because it's not talked about, and it's not something that people are informed on,” said Elinore Straughn, President of the International Justice Mission (IJM) chapter at The King’s College. “The reason that I feel like I began to be informed on both organizations [Exodus Cry and IJM] is from following them on Instagram. It sounds really simple, but it exposed me to the work that they’re doing and the problem of trafficking every time I refresh my feed…this issue is something that is incredibly valuable for our student body to be increasingly invested in.”

“Given the magnitude of the problem that pornography poses, I think what [Exodus Cry] is doing is very praiseworthy and very worthwhile,” said Talcott. “Protecting the vulnerable is part of the biblical worldview, and trying to create some semblance of sexual propriety in a culture is also a part of basic human decency.”

Melinda Huspen is an incoming junior at The King’s College studying Journalism, Culture, and Society..