Conservative government would require ID to watch porn: Poilievre

A future Conservative government would change the law to require that porn websites verify the age of users to prevent minors from accessing the content, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre signalled on Wednesday.

A future Conservative government would change the law to require that porn websites verify the age of users to prevent minors from accessing the content, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre signalled on Wednesday.

When asked whether his government would require porn websites to verify the age of users, Poilievre gave a one-word answer: “Yes.”

He didn't offer further explanation, and his office quickly followed up with a clarifying statement asserting that the Tories don't believe in the imposition of a digital ID.

The Tories are sponsoring and supporting a Senate private member's bill that promises to require age verification for people to access pornography online.

Bill S-210 passed in the Senate in the spring and New Democrats, Bloc Quebecois and Conservative MPs voted to send it to a House of Commons committee for study. No such meetings have been scheduled yet.

The proposed law would require websites to verify users' ages before they can access sexually explicit content, and it would penalize sites that don't comply.

But it does not specify how that would be done.