A majority of UK adults fear that online porn is driving sexual violence against women and girls.

In a Savanta Comres poll commissioned by CARE, 6 in 10 UK adults said they were "concerned that pornography is inspiring sexual violence against women and girls."

Only 1 in 10 disagreed with the statement. 

Women were more likely to be concerned about a link between porn and sexual violence (7 in 10) than men (5 in 10).

But there was broad support among both male and female respondents for tougher curbs on vile content. 

Overall, 7 in 10 said they wanted to see the government take action to stop websites from publishing extreme forms of pornography that portray violent or non-consensual sex. 

The research comes just weeks after Wayne Couzens was jailed for life for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard. During sentencing, the Old Bailey heard how the former police officer was "attracted to violent sexual pornography". 

CARE CEO Nola Leach is calling for tougher regulation of pornography sites in light of the "strength of public feeling" and evidence of harm.

"The links between extreme pornography and sexual violence are becoming clearer and clearer," she said.

"Pornography has been implicated in a host of tragic cases involving the rape and murder of women in recent years. It is described as a contributing factor by those working with victims of sexual violence across the UK. And it has been named as a motivator of sexual harassment in schools.

"On top of this evidence, our polling shows that the public at large is concerned about the impact extreme pornography is having and supports action to curb porn providers. The strength of public feeling on this, coupled with evidence of porn's harms, must lead to concrete action by parliamentarians."

She called on the government to reconsider age verification on porn sites after it scrapped plans to introduce the safeguard in 2019.

Ms Leach said that decision had left "children and women unprotected during the pandemic when online usage has increased".

"The UK Government has since brought forward new online safety proposals. However, these plans are nowhere near as robust as the previous measures, in Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act," she said.

"It is not at all clear which websites would be covered by the legislation. There is no requirement to block sites that host extreme pornographic content. And it is not clear if porn sites will be subject to age verification safeguards.

"Then there's the fact that it will take years before the new Bill is passed, possibly not until 2024 which means women and children will continue to miss out on this protection for some time.

"To provide this protection as soon as possible, Minsters can implement Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act. We urge them to do this now while Parliament debates the new legislation."