CAC warns that half of pornography websites show videos of sexual acts without the woman's consent

• The videos are tagged or categorised with terms such as 'rape, gang rape, forced gang bang, abused and forced' and include derogatory terms
   
• A CAC report finds that pornography websites have no effective age verification system, despite the provisions of the European Directive
   
• CAC chair, Roger Loppacher, warns that “children have unrestricted access to numerous pornography websites including content that normalises inequality and sexist violence, even though they are fictional depictions. This is particularly serious and may impair their development.”
   
• The report also shows that Twitter includes adult content with no effective blocks on minors. No pornography was found on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok
   
• Loppacher calls for immediate transposition of the European Directive which should set down effective measures to prevent minors from accessing online pornography

The Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC) has warned that 50% of pornography video websites include videos that are categorised, tagged and named with references to sexual acts without the woman's consent.

This is evident in some of the video categories and tags ("forced gang bang, abused, forced, group rape") and the names of videos, such as “She ends up liking rape!!; abuse, violence and broken holes” and "Drunk schoolgirl falls asleep at a party and is sexually abused; Woman is sexually abused in public and seems to like it”. Almost all contain degrading terms for women, such as slut, bitch, dumb, whore and bimbo.

Thousands of videos are available under this type of title: one website we analysed offers some 20,000 videos in the category "forced" and over 15,000 under "abused".

This is one of the main findings of a report that the CAC has published, in collaboration with the College of Psychology of Catalonia. It has also found that pornography video websites have no effective age verification systems. A mere 10% ask if the user is an adult, but there is no real filter:  you simply have to answer "yes" to gain access. A further 32.5% also display caution messages regarding adult content, although most are barely visible on the screen and shown after access.

These sites allow users to view millions of videos with no conditional access system to block minors. For example, in one of the cases analysed, the content search engine states that there are more than 13 million videos available. The number of visits is also extraordinarily high. For example, two of the websites analysed had over three billion visits in the month of August alone.

The analytical tools do not enable age-segmented data. However, various surveys and studies have found that many children and adolescents access online pornography.[1]

In addition to websites specialising in adult content, the CAC analysed pornography on the most popular social networks, finding that only Twitter includes pornographic content. It was not found on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok .

CAC chair, Roger Loppacher, warns that “children have unrestricted access to numerous pornography websites including content that normalises inequality and sexist violence, even though they are fictional depictions.  This is particularly serious and may impair their development.”  “This type of depiction is unacceptable as a model or point of reference for children, who are still developing," he added.

Furthermore, Loppacher has called for "immediate transposition of the European Directive which should set down effective measures to prevent minors from accessing online pornography and regulations to enforce this.”

The chair of the CAC is also in favour of raising awareness about parental control filters among families and providing sex education that tackles stereotypes of gender-based violence and the objectification of women. 

Deputy Secretary of the Governing Board and Coordinator of the Committee for Children and Adolescents of the College of Psychology of Catalonia, Roger Ballescà i Ruiz, said that "the report highlights a serious and absolutely unacceptable situation that breaches children's rights and jeopardises healthy development”.

For Ballescà, “pornography has been normalised among children and young people for years and is now becoming the main pattern of sexual behaviour that many mirror. Unfortunately, this pattern has very worrying features”.

The College's Committee for Children believes there are various consequences of exposure to pornography in children, depending on content type and quantity. These include: sexuality that is inappropriate to age; encouraging early and decontextualised sexual intercourse; contributing to more cases of sexual abuse, and fostering conduct linked to gender stereotypes, aggressive sexual behaviour, and gender-based violence.

Regulating access to online pornography

Pursuant to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (EU) 2018/1808, Member States shall take “appropriate measures” to prevent minors from accessing content offered by audiovisual media service providers which may impair their physical, mental or moral development. It also sets out that for the most harmful content, which includes pornography, the measures must be much stricter. These rules apply to on-demand audiovisual media services.

That is why the CAC report analyses websites which essentially provide pornographic videos and where the audiovisual content is presented in a similar way to on-demand audiovisual media services.

The CAC has submitted the report to the Government and Parliament of Catalonia as well as contacting the owners of the websites and social networks covered in the report to warn them of the lack of appropriate filters to prevent minors from accessing adult content.

Child acces to online pornography