Madam Speaker, I thank the House for the opportunity to speak to Motion No. 47, which calls on the Standing Committee on Health to study the public health effects of accessing and viewing online violent and degrading sexually explicit material on children, women, and men.
Introduced by our colleague the hon. member for Peace River—Westlock, Motion No. 47 calls on the Standing Committee on Health to conduct a study on an issue that is growing in prevalence and something we do not yet understand enough, the public health implications.
I would like to take a moment to share with the House the reasons why I believe it is extremely important to support the motion.
The availability and accessibility of violent and sexually degrading material online is increasing, as are the number of reports of child sexual abuse images in Canada. For example, in 2015, Cybertip.ca, Canada's national tip line established to report suspected cases of child sexual exploitation on the Internet, received 38,000 reports of child sexual abuses online. This was a dramatic increase of 342% over the numbers reported in 2011, just four years earlier.
Online sexual violence against children and women, or cyberviolence, is becoming more prevalent. New technologies enable offenders to create and share child sexual abuse and sexual violence in an anonymous way, thereby creating challenging conditions for investigation and victim identification.
Those victimized as subjects of these images are largely women and children. In Canada, nearly 81% of child sexual abuse images on the Internet in 2013-14 were of girls, 79% of whom were under the age of 12.
High-profile public cases such as those of Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons have raised public awareness of online sexual violence and degrading sexually explicit material and their health repercussions.
Despite the growing prevalence of this material and the ease with which it can be distributed and accessed, we do not have a good understanding of its public health implications. Studies suggest that there are long-term health consequences for victims and survivors of sexual abuse whose abuse was recorded and distributed. Studies also suggest health consequences for people who access and view this material online. Emerging studies show that the mental health of youth and children is especially affected by viewing such material. In Canada, for example, a 2016 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health study draws a correlation between the rise and use of social media and the decline of youth mental health, with girls being twice as likely as boys to experience psychological distress.
Recent studies conducted in the United States of adolescent girls and boys suggest that viewing violent and sexually explicit online images, especially pornography, influences gender norms and attitudes, which can lead to violent sexual behaviour. This emerging field of study suggests that accessing and viewing this material affects adolescents' social development, attachment, and interpersonal relationships. More study is needed to understand the impact on the adolescent brain. Adolescents may be disproportionately vulnerable to negative consequences of viewing sexually explicit material.
Internet pornography addiction is emerging as an issue. Research suggests that accessing and viewing this material is linked to deficits in cognitive control and delayed maturation, including impulsivity and affective challenges during teenage years.
The last major public study on sexually explicit material in Canada, as stated by members previously, was conducted more than 30 years ago in 1985 by the Fraser committee. That committee reported to Parliament that sexually explicit material had negative impacts on women's equality. Today the landscape has changed dramatically. Through the availability of technology, the Internet, and social media, more extreme materials have become available to more people, causing even more harm.
Addressing violence in any form requires the involvement of many sectors, and the health system has an important role to play in preventing and addressing violence.
In his annual report on the state of public health in Canada in 2016, “A Focus on Family Violence in Canada”, Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Gregory Taylor, recognizes violence as a serious health issue that affects the physical and mental health of many Canadians. In his report, Dr. Taylor points out that the impacts of violence on health can be widespread and long-lasting. These impacts go way beyond physical injury to include a higher risk for mental health issues, premature death, and chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
In 2014, girls and women accounted for seven of every 10 reported cases of family violence. Violence against women is an extremely important public health issue in Canada and globally, and there is growing international consensus on the important role of the health system in addressing this violence.
Just this past spring, in May 2016, Canada supported the World Health Organization's global plan of action to strengthen the role of the health system in addressing interpersonal violence. The global plan of action sets out roles for the health system in programming, leadership, service delivery, and providing information and evidence. Adoption of this plan by member states around the world demonstrates the shared understanding that violence against women and children, in all of its forms, needs to be understood as a public health issue.
While the provinces and territories are generally responsible for delivery of care in Canada, the Government of Canada has a leading role to play in addressing public health issues by developing and disseminating evidence and knowledge, providing national leadership, and promoting intergovernmental collaboration on health issues. For example, while the federal health portfolio does not have programs that address online violence, Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research focus on violence prevention through research, surveillance, and health promotion programs for survivors of family violence.
Beyond the health portfolio, the committee's study could inform the government's agenda to develop and implement a federal strategy against gender-based violence, the government's commitment to undertake an independent national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and several ministers' mandate letter commitments to address gender-based violence. Our government is committed to evidence-based policy-making, which means that policies and programming on public health issues should continually be informed by a clear understanding of research and evidence.
A study by the Standing Committee on Health would provide an opportunity to hear from experts, researchers, and advocates for those affected by online violence and degrading sexually explicit material. Understanding the health effects of accessing and viewing violent and degrading sexually explicit online material and physical and sexual violence in Canada would help to inform future government policy development in this area. The study would also present to parliamentarians and Canadians the opportunity to learn more about a topic that is growing in prevalence, but for which the health implications remain unclear.
I am convinced that to support Motion No. 47 is to move in the right direction. I am inspired by the work done on gender-based violence, not only by federal departments and organizations, such as the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, but all of the advocacy groups across the country, especially those in support of Motion No. 47.
I would like to note that I very much appreciate the opportunity to speak to this important issue and I encourage all of my hon. colleagues to support Motion No. 47 as it aligns with the current federal direction on gender-based violence. It is an opportunity to shed light on an extremely important topic and its health implications.