Children, Internet & Pornography: ECLJ Contribution to the PACE Committee on Social Affairs

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has been working for several years on the issue of pornography.[1] With these observations, it wishes to contribute to the important and necessary work of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the motion for a recommendation “Preventing addictive behaviours in children” (no. 15269 – 19 April 2021) and the motion for a resolution “Right of the child to protection while using internet” (no. 15383 – 29 September 2021).

Pornography is a topic that must absolutely be addressed in each of these texts. In 2022, PACE declared itself “alarmed by the unprecedented exposure of children to pornographic imagery, which is detrimental to their psychological and physical development.”^[2] Indeed, while pornography is harmful to all people, children are particularly vulnerable to it: they watch it massively (I) and suffer serious consequences (II). It is therefore necessary to encourage States to take measures to protect children from this scourge (III).

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[1] ECLJ, Pornography and human rights, Report: https://eclj.org/pornography-and-human-rights-report?lng=en ; Third party intervention at the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Roman Chocholáč v. Slovakia (nr 81292/17): https://eclj.org/free-speech/echr/roman-chocholac-v-slovakia-no-81292/17?lng=en

[2] PACE, For an assessment of the means and provisions to combat children’s exposure to pornographic content, Resolution 2429 (2022), 25 April 2022, § 2.

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