Sam George
The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, has proposed the mandatory requirement of a national identification or a driver’s licence verification before one can access a pornographic website or any X-rated content.
This, according to him, is part of measures to ensure that those visiting such websites are 18 years and above as well as ensure that children are not exposed to pornographic materials online.
Speaking at the Fourth Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Values and Sovereignty, Sam George cited the United Kingdom as an example where the use of a driver’s licence is mandatory to access a pornographic website.
“Today in the United Kingdom, for you to access a pornographic website you need to put your driver’s licence for them to be able to determine that you are 18 years. Ask yourself why they are doing that – because they’ve seen the danger and the damage that pornography and over sexualisation have done to young UK citizens,” he said.
The minister disclosed that the proposal would be presented to cabinet to ensure that the policy is rolled out to safeguard minors from the harmful effect of pornographic content online.
“And that is why for us, we believe that in Ghana here, and we are going to cabinet to make sure that before you access any X-rated site, you must put your driver’s licence or national ID card, so that we know who you are and who is going to that site, to prevent children from being exposed to such content,” he said.
Sam George said over sexualisation of children exposes them to several dangers, including their morality and development, and called for an urgent need to safeguard them.
“This is the real threat because when a child is over sexualised at an early age, it affects their development, it affects their thinking, it affects even their morality and their values and their standards,” he stressed.
The minister further indicated that the fight against Africa is not against its adults, but children who are being targeted.
“And the only way to break a people is to go after the children, because when the children are destroyed and damaged, that culturalisation gets damaged,” he said.
“The fight against Africa is not against those of us sitting in this room. We were a lost case. The fight is against our children…Our children must be protected and safe. We were protected by our parents in an African family setting. We must do the same for our children and grandchildren,” he added.
Age verification laws generally require online services to check, estimate, or verify all users’ ages—often through tools like ID checks, biometric scans, or other age estimation methods before granting them access to certain online content or services.
Governments in the United States, France, the UK and some African countries are increasingly adopting these restrictive measures to protect children online.
However, advocacy groups warn about the invasiveness of these systems as they create dangerous new forms of surveillance.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
