Absolutely.
I think the U.S. surgeon general just said that people shouldn't be on the platforms at 15 years of age. He has young children and he's very concerned.
I am a prevention educator. That is the big piece that is missing countrywide. As an educator, I've been working in this space for 45 years. In the last 10 years, really, it's almost turned into full time, and I even get flown into indigenous communities to educate and to educate parents on how to keep their children safe, but I try to keep everything very simple.
I say there are five points. Let's raise awareness—that's big—and then there's prevention education, intervention, active collaboration—let's all collaborate together—and reducing the demand.
I am very focused on the demand. I don't want to miss that piece. It is the buyers who are causing this problem and who perpetuate sexual exploitation.
The number one question I ask when I present.... I've been presenting to a lot of high schools lately. The number one question they ask is, “What is a healthy relationship?”
They're hooked on pornography. They hate it and they know it's not what a healthy relationship is, but that's where they're going for their sex education, so I talk about what love looks like, and they have no clue. I will hear boys, in particular, saying, “Ms. Peters, we're hooked on porn. We don't know what a healthy relationship looks like.” That is really a key piece when I'm presenting to high schools.
With the indigenous communities, it's similar. They're just not getting anything to counter the pornography. We have such a hypersexualized, toxic environment online, and we really need education in that space.
I just met with Senator Miville-Dechêne, and she has the age verification in process for access to porn.