If only we could ensure that this bill gets back to the House, we could ensure that this does in fact happen. My encouragement is that by ensuring this is accomplished as soon as possible, we can demonstrate to the world that our justice system is able to be responsive.
I have a further quote from the EFC, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, which said:
By requiring that the age and consent of every person depicted in sexually explicit material be verified before it is posted online, the Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act puts the responsibility where it belongs. We support this bill’s measures to ensure illegal content is not uploaded in the first place.
I would highlight that this is key. If you can stop this process early and send that chill through the actors who are perpetrating these crimes to begin with, you can effectively ensure that you stop the victimization at the earliest opportunity.
The ability to do just that, I would suggest, is a key part of why this needs to get accomplished within the timeline to ensure the greatest chance possible. I had the opportunity to very briefly discuss why the timeline for that is so important.
The idea of ensuring that there is that consent is key because it places the responsibility with those who have the best opportunity to ensure that it is effectively managed. You have the individuals who are creating the content; obviously, that's a big part of it. The non-consensual side is another element to this. To ensure that those who are creating the content and those who are distributing the content, those two key actors here.... I can't emphasize that enough, because that is where the responsibility can and, I would suggest, should be, because, as it's outlined in this bill, those are the individuals who are not just creating the victimization in the first circumstance but, then, by their actions, are also creating that cycle of victimization, which can have such devastating consequences in the lives of the individuals who are affected. In particular, there is, of course, the impact it has on minors, but also the impact that it disproportionately has on women, as well as on all those who are affected and the many who, as we referenced earlier, do suffer in silence.
I would like to further read a quote from the Justice Defense Fund. This is what they said:
There is not a more important piece of legislation to protect victims from criminal sexual exploitation online than mandatory age and consent verification for pornography production and distribution online. This is a long overdue, commonsense, and urgently needed regulation that has the potential to protect thousands, if not millions of individuals, including children, from facing life altering, traumatic, sexual abuse.
What's interesting, in particular, is that these folks highlight something I would suggest is worth noting. I'll spend just a very brief moment talking about this. That is the idea of sexual abuse in terms of the subject matter. There is the abuse in terms of the instance and the horrific nature of that and the impact it can have, but whenever you add the content side of that—somebody being the subject of exploitation and the fact that it is recorded, whatever the case is—it creates a revictimization every time. That is not just viewed by that individual. There is the trauma associated with that for the individual who is the victim. The fact is that there is a weight and a heaviness associated with that, which that person then has to live with for the rest of their life.
I shared a couple of examples and stories of where there's been such a—