The fact that the government wants to officially restrict young people's access to adult films has been talked about since last year. On Tuesday 13 June, the matter was finally taken up by the Sejm. However, this does not mean that the law on the protection of minors from inappropriate content on the internet will be passed.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea - a motion to reject the bill has been tabled by an MP from the Libertarians' circle (pol. Wolnościowcy). There are also voices of male and female politicians who believe that the bill has got a lot of flaws. Does this mean that young people will still be able to watch adult films?

A draft law on the protection of minors from accessing inappropriate content on the internet was presented by Deputy Minister of Digitalisation Paweł Lewandowski. According to Gazeta Prawna, he stressed the importance of the bill and how it would protect young people from accessing adult films.

The draft assumes that it would be up to companies providing internet services to create mechanisms that would protect young people from adult films and block access to them. Internet providers would also have to inform customers of the fact. More information can be found in the text on the bill.

"Studies show that minors watch pornographic material regularly, while also indicating that access to pornography is too easy in Poland. Twice as often, pornographic content is accessed by children whose parents have not set rules for Internet use", Lewandowski stressed in the Sejm.

If the motion of the MP from the Libertarian Party, which opposed the bill, is rejected, the bill will go to the Sejm committee. The draft assumes that the solutions will come into force on 1 September this year. However, it appears that although the authors of the bill want to do the right thing, it has quite a few flaws.

Although a significant number of politicians believe that young people need to be protected from accessing adult films, they are not enthusiastic about the government's bill. They believe that it does not present itself in the best light, as a large part of it is taken up by issues unrelated to the main problem.

For example and quite unexpectedly, there is a provision in the bill for the introduction of annual PE fitness tests. Admittedly, this in no way addresses the problem of "inappropriate content on the Internet", which is what the bill was intended to address.

One could turn a blind eye if it dealt with all the problems of young people online. However, Civic Coalition (Koalicja Obywatelska, a political alliance) MP Monika Rosa pointed out that the bill does not address issues such as cyberbullying, pathostreaming or internet addiction.

As Gazeta Prawna reports, Deputy Minister Lewandowski assured that the draft was a first step and emphasised how much harmful content was involved in adult films. However, one cannot help but get the impression that politicians seem not to have put much thought into the bill. Such an important document really lacks the key issues and dangers that young people face online and it is hard to understand what, for example, a passage about PE fitness tests is doing there instead.

Source: Gazeta Prawna