The Church of England's governing body has called on the UK Government to introduce laws requiring pornographic sites to use age verification systems preventing access by under 18s.
A motion was passed at General Synod on Monday encouraging quicker progress to be made in tightening up laws after previous attempts have stalled.
It comes after a document published by Ofcom on 6th June claimed age verification measures to prevent underage access to pornography won't be enforceable until the end of 2024.
Introducing the motion, Rev Jo Winn-Smith (Guildford) said that age verification "ought to be a no-brainer."
"This is an issue about which parents and children themselves are highly concerned," she continued.
"Exposure to sexualised material is more likely to lead to young people engaging in more sexualised behaviour and to feel social pressure to have sex, and to think that they can and should have sex in these unhealthy ways and relationships."
"Friends, there is a time for reasonable patience, and then there is principled frustration. The need to safeguard children and young people is something to unite around.
"Additionally, as parents, as communities, as churches and schools, we all have a part to play in seeking to support young people in their developing sexuality and as they start to experience romantic relationships.
"By engaging with them and teaching them and modelling to them healthy adult relationships, backed up by social structures like age-appropriate safeguards including this essential measure of age verification, we can help young people to develop and grow and flourish as they mature."
Research commissioned by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) in 2019 revealed that majority of young people's first time watching pornography was accidental, with over 60 per cent of children 11-13 who had seen pornography saying their viewing of pornography is unintentional.
The survey comprised of 2,344 parents and young people. It also found that 51 per cent of 11 to 13 year olds reported that they had seen pornography at some point, rising to 66 per cent of 14-15 year olds.
The motion, from the Guildford Diocesan Synod, also urged more social and educational programmes to increase awareness of the harms, including self-generated sexually explicit images.
A large number of synod members spoke to support the motion.
Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York supported the motion and said that the Lords Spiritual were "taking great interest" in the issue of internet safety in the House of Lords, and that conversations with tech firms suggested that age verification systems were a workable possibility.
"The Internet is not a platform, it is a public space, where all the rights and norms you would expect in public should apply," he said.
"It's about making the internet safe by design. This can be done, but we need regulation, a code of practice and a code of conduct to make it happen.
"In the 1970s we quite famously put fluoride in the water supply because we knew it would be great for dental health. What we the Church need to be in the forefront of campaigning about is putting some fluoride in the internet!"
In a counted vote of the whole synod, there were 263 voting in favour, 2 against, and with 3 abstentions.
