Over 18' The question is not enough
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Jay and Michelle Brock from Guelph are on a mission.
They believe adult websites should be mandated by the government to install "meaningful age verification systems" so that no one under the age of 18 can access their material.
To help raise awareness about the accessibility of pornography online, the Brocks are currently on a tour of 70 cities and towns screening Over 18 - The Question is Not Enough, a documentary they directed and produced. They will continue screening until Dec. 13, the eve before a scheduled parliamentary vote on Dec. 14 - a motion to study the effect of porn on youth.
"If that passes, they'll do the study and the hope is that once we actually know what's going on with kids and porn, then meaningful age verification is the logical next step," said Jay Brock. "We're not trying to make porn illegal for adults, we're not trying to stomp on censorship or human rights, we just literally want our laws to catch up to the Internet. It is illegal to show porn to kids in the community and we want the Internet to do the same thing."
Over 18 was shown Tuesday night at Westfield Public School in Tillsonburg, raising many questions from the audience of 70-plus people, and that's exactly what the local organizing committee wanted with Jay and Michelle 'in the house' to answer those questions.
"I hadn't watched it before," said Brent Shepherd, lead pastor of Bethel Pentecostal Church in Tillsonburg, and father of three young girls.
"It was informative," said Shepherd. "I was really impressed with their commitment to making sure that this doesn't continue to happen. And that there are some steps we can do to help protect our kids," he added, noting the table full of resources including 'Kids Wifi', which Shepherd already uses at home.
"The goal, for me, is to protect my kids in a practical way... and I can also be a help to other families because I know the steps to take. It starts here. It starts with raising awareness. We want people to be aware that this is an issue, that they might not see it. So we need to investigate, we need to be proactive. You can see by the response tonight... eyes are open. It's a good start."
A question was asked if any other countries - and specifically the USA - are looking at age verification systems.
"Internet pornography is actually a Canadian-made problem," said Jay. "Today, one of the biggest porn companies in the world is... Canadian. There's a massive porn monopoly in Montreal - it's called MindGeek, and I've been to their headquarters.
"To give you an idea of how big porn is," Jay added, "each year porn brings in more money than the Top 4 (North American professional) sports combined - baseball, basketball, hockey and football. It's massive - and it's a Canadian-made problem, so we think it's up to us to bring a Canadian-made solution to the world."
He noted the UK is investigating age verification.
It was also asked what kind of age verification might be implemented. The exact wording of it was intentionally vague, said Jay, with the intention of leaving that up to lawmakers.
"We don't care how they do it, just as long as they do it," said Jay.
Michelle did note, however, one idea was taken from the gambling industry requiring credit cards to gamble.
"The average kid isn't going to be able to just stumble upon pornography if they have to put in that verification," said Michelle. "We believe the gambling industry is the best precedent."
However it might be implemented, she said it needs to take into consideration freedom of speech and the Charter of Rights.
"It's important to note that just over month ago McDonald's announced that it is joining with Starbucks to block porn from all of its restaurant locations in an effort to protect your kids," said Jay. "If a coffee shop and a burger joint can figure out how to protect your kids from porn, hopefully our government can figure it out too."
As they continue to push for an age verification solution, Jay said they will continue screening Over 18 in 2017 both at home and abroad.
"TV wants a 12-month window where we're not selling it, so we're going to do events like these, not only with Michelle and I, but with local leaders."
International requests for screenings are also coming in, he said, including South Africa, Philippines and Portugal.
"They're starting to come in from all over the world."
It won't be a vacation - they will continue to tour as economically as possible.
"Tonight was our 61st screening in 65 days," said Jay. "We mostly stay with friends and family, friends of family, and family of friends. The thing is, when you shoot and tour, we're 250 nights on the road, we only take hotels on average two or three times that whole time. We want to be super efficient stewards of donor money."