Canada’s Senate on Wednesday passed bill S-209, the “Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act,” which would require commercial adult websites to verify that Canadian users are at least 18 years old.
Philippe Dufresne, privacy commissioner of Canada, has voiced support for a bill that would impose fines of up to $500,000 on adult sites that do not implement age verification for Canadian viewers.
Canada’s privacy commissioner warned a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that the expansive age verification bill promoted by vocal anti-porn and anti-sex-work Senator Julie Miville-Dechênel has broad censorship implications and could end up applying to mainstream services such as Netflix.
