David Norris (Independent)

I support my colleagues in their request for a debate on the issue of child pornography on the Internet. It is a natural human instinct to protect children but there has been a significant change. Children used as child soldiers are being killed on a wide scale throughout the world and children are also being exploited for the purposes of pornography. There has been a sexualisation of children by the pop and fashion industries and there is much confusion in this area. Before we try to organise a witch hunt against people, we should examine the causes of such activity which seems to be very widespread. People who are otherwise very respectable seem to be caught up in an Internet generation. I do not know what is going on and the House should examine the matter not by calling for the brutalisation of these people, but by trying to understand a phenomenon that is taking place all over the world.