Entries Tagged 'pornography' ↓

At the centre of popular culture lies popular (pop) music, it has always been the music of the next generation, as young people come into their own they begin to express themselves through their clothes, interests, friends and music.

In modern times, the mass media has become a major instrument for the spread and dissemination of popular-culture to young people.

In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, John Storey equates pop culture with Mass Culture. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass produced for mass consumption. This definition can also be applied to today’s music industry and the phenomenon that encompasses it.

Popular music is present almost everywhere, and it is easily available through the radio, ipods, the Internet, and new technologies, allowing adolescents to hear it in diverse settings and situations, alone or shared with friends. They use music in their process of identity formation, and their music preference gives them a means to achieve group identity and integration into the youth culture.

Much of the music today no longer has sexual innuendos where the imagination joins the dots. Today the lyrics are graphic and vulgar, this is seen in songs by artists like Lady Gaga “I’m educated in sex, yes … I wanna take a ride on your disco stick”, or Katy Perry with “Sex on a beach. We get sand in our stilettos. We freak and we’re cheap”.

The content of pop music is highly sexualised and seems to know no bounds. Music by R ‘n’ B singer Rihanna is considered by some experts in the music industry to be soft porn.

Music producer Mike Stock (part of Stock, Aiken and Waterman) thinks children are at risk from the pop stars who peddle porn. He has condemned raunchy clips as “sexualising” children.

“The music industry has gone too far,” he said, “99% of the charts is R ‘n’ B music and 99% of that is soft pornography.

“Kids are being forced to grow up too young. Look at the videos, I wouldn’t necessarily want my young kids to watch them. It’s not about me being old fashioned. It’s about keeping values that are important in the modern world. These days you can’t watch modern stars like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga with a two-year-old.”

Research has found that nearly 42% of songs contain very explicitly sexual language. Lyrics revolve around topics such as sexual promiscuity, rape, death, homicide, suicide, and substance abuse. Rap music in particular often carries messages of violence, racism, homophobia and hatred towards women as well as drug, tobacco, and alcohol use – all of which are glorified.

Generation Next speaker and adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said the classification system needed to be toughed to stop the “skankification of this generation”.

“Mike Stock is right – it’s amazing that the Senate inquiry a few years ago actually recommended that the TV stations review the classifications, but when they redid their Code they didn’t change a single word,” he said.

Kids Free 2B Kids director Julie Gale said research has found sexualised video clips can impact on children’s self-esteem after just ten minutes exposure.

“The recommendation of the Senate inquiry two years ago should be followed through, they should not be in children’s prime viewing hours,” she said.

The Senate’s report Sexualisation of children in the contemporary media, published in June 2008 recommended that broadcasters review their classification of music videos specifically with regard to sexualising imagery.

Australian recording artist Kate Ceberano has also said artists needed to take more responsibility, “Artists need to be responsible for how they use sex to sell their products. There’s a fine line between beauty and hard core.”

In November 2009 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement on the “Impact of Music, Lyrics, and Music Videos on Children and Youth”

Research by the AAP showed that popular music effects schoolwork, social interactions, mood and affect, and particularly behaviour. Exposure to violence, sexual messages, sexual stereotypes, and use of substances of abuse in music videos might produce significant changes in behaviours and attitudes of young viewers.

It is estimated that over 60% of young people watch music videos on a regular basis, with 7% of these watching them before they go to school.

In studies performed to assess the reactions of adolescent boys exposed to violent rap music videos or sexist videos, participants reported an increased probability that they would engage in violence, a greater acceptance of the use of violence, and a greater acceptance of the use of violence against women than did participants who were not exposed to these videos. Researchers also found an association between music-video–watching and promiscuous sexual behaviours.

The American Academy for Pediatrics recommended that the music-video industry produce videos with more positive themes about relationships, racial harmony, drug avoidance, nonviolent conflict resolution, sexual abstinence, pregnancy prevention, and avoidance of promiscuity.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics. They Sydney Morning Herald

The online classified ads website Craigslist set up by American Mr. Craig Newmark, which has classified advertisements all around the world including Australia has been accused of posting ads that sell sex. The ‘adult services’ section on his website is used by many people who deal in human trafficking and pimps who place ads which sell young people for sex.

One such girl (MC), aged only 17 years of age said ”I was first forced into prostitution when I was 11 years old by a 28-year-old man,” she wrote. ”I am not an exception.”

According to police and anti-trafficking activists the internet has now become the number one way to sell women for sex. It’s fast and easy for pimps and reasonably safe for those who pay for sex; they can now browse online from the comfort of their own home rather than combing the streets.

Of all the online sites that offer “adult services,” Craigslist is one of the most popular. It is regularly used by about 50 million Americans who can buy everything from antiques to toys and ads that provide service, jobs and gigs.

There online adult services ads make it the target of a nationwide campaign against internet prostitution. This campaign is being led by FAIR Fund, a Washington based non profit organisation that works to protect young people who are at high risk or have been exploited via human trafficking and sexual violence.

Andrea Powell, head of FAIR Fund called Craigslist ”the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking’’ and added “most of the young women we’ve worked with who have been exploited online talk about Craigslist.”

The revelations by girls who appear in these ads include the account of AK, who said she had been sold for sex by the hour at truck stops after running away from home.

After pressure and threats of legal action from prosecutors in 43 US states, Mr. Newmark has agreed to monitor the ads, however this is proving both difficult and a conflict of interest for Craigslist as the ‘adults services’ section of the website brings in about $U36million in revenue each year, with each ad costing $U10 to place, that is a lot of ads.

Connecticut’s attorney-general called for Craigslist to shut down its ”adult section” completely.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: The Washington Post, FAIR Fund

headspace is supporting this series of national seminars relating to the health and wellbeing of young people.

The next Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People 2010 Seminar will be held in Sydney on Friday September 10, 2010

WHAT: Topics this year include major and current issues

• Cyber-bullying
• Drugs and Alcohol
• Body Image & Eating Disorders
• Teen Depression
• Resilience
• Sexualisation, Consumerism, the Media and Mental health

Feedback from our previous event:
• ”It was very insightful. I got such a lot out of hearing from the wonderful line up of speakers you organised for us. I congratulate you on putting such a powerful line-up and message together.”
• “Thank you again for organising such a great event- it was a wonderful success and hopefully the start of many more in the future!”
• “Congratulations and thank you on a well informed and planned conference. My colleague and I loved it. I know next year I would like to send my middle years staff.”
• “The day was a very valuable one and I know that there will be more teachers from our school attending the next one.”
• “The conference speakers were engaging and stimulating and to be honest I have thought of little else since…! It was extremely uplifting to listen to people who love what they do, who are passionate about young people, passionate about their area of expertise and who are generous enough to share their knowledge, insights and understanding to improve the lives of others. Congratulations to everyone involved, I for one have been moved into action and inspired to act!”
• “Thanks once again for such a wonderful conference. I got so much out of it. I plan to use much of the info I gained on the day on a whole school basis. It’s great to have practical info that can be adapted to a school setting.”
• “It was a terrific seminar and every speaker was dynamic and to the point, well worth having a second one. I will share the details with colleagues.”
• “It was wonderful to learn in such a funny and stimulating way. The power of humour…! I will tell all colleagues about what a great professional event it was and how they can possibly get to the next one.”
• “Thank you for your vision, passion and dedication for the wellbeing of young people.”
•  “It was a terrific seminar and every speaker was dynamic and to the point, well worth having a second one. I will share the details with colleagues.”
• “Again thank you for a wondrous seminar.”
• “I will promote the next conference for you, as last week was fantastic!”
• “Thanks for putting on a great conference.”
•  “Thank you so much for your part in organising the wonderful event…..It was inspiring to hear such a collection of speakers on the one program, all most informative and entertaining. I …. shall be passing on the information to others.”
•  “The event WAS wonderful and I am happy to see that you are hosting another so soon.”

 
95% of the delegates felt that the seminar was definitely worth attending

Australia’s leading experts in one event:
• Michael Carr-Gregg, Adolescent Psychologist and Beyondblue Ambassador
• Dr Sloane Madden, Expert in Body Image and Eating Disorders, The Children’s Hospital, Westmead
• Paul Dillon, Drug and Alcohol Research and Training
• Susan McLean, Cyber safety Expert
• Lyn Worsely, Psychologist, Developer of The Resilience Doughnut
• Evelyn Field, Psychologist, Author of Bully blocking, National Centre Against Bullying
• Dr Ramesh Manocha, GP, Mental Health Researcher, University of Sydney

For Education, Health and Welfare Professionals:

“The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People 2010″.
Date: Friday, September 10, 2010
Venue: Mathews Lecture Theatre, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Sydney
Time: 9am-5pm

To look at the full programme, download the brochure or register go to Generation Next

Or phone 1300 797 794

Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha

420 million Internet porn pages
4.2 million Porn websites
68 million daily porn search engine requests

Playboy used to be synonymous with all that was porn. Scantily clad women with “come hither” looks. Even Cosmopolitan was considered “risqué” with its sealed sections.

According to Gail Dines, the porn around today has very little to do with sex and everything to do with degrading women, violence and profit. It seems there are no boundaries which cannot be crossed as men become desensitized to even the cruellest, humiliating, sadistic and brutal material.

Gail Dines, regarded as the world’s leading anti-pornography campaigner, has just published a new book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. It exposes why the porn available to our teenagers today is destroying their chances of a healthy long lasting relationship later in live.

“We are now bringing up a generation of boys on cruel, violent porn,” she says, “and given what we know about how images affect people, this is going to have a profound influence on their sexuality, behaviour and attitudes towards women.”

The porn today explores feelings of hate, fear, disgust, anger, loathing and contempt. Every sex act is designed to deliver the maximum amount of humiliation. Whether it is choking her or violent intercourse, the aim of porn sex is to demonstrate how much power he has over her. These images are now common place on the net and are shaping the way men think about sex, relationships and intimacy.

Dines found that many men believed that porn sex was what women wanted, and they became upset and angry when their sex partner refused to look or behave like their favourite porn star.

“I have found that the earlier men use porn,” says Dines, “the more likely they are to have trouble developing close, intimate relationships with real women. Some of these men prefer porn to sex with an actual human being. They are bewildered, even angry, when real women don’t want or enjoy porn sex,” she said.

During her research for the book, one student told her “I love porn and I try out the sex on my girlfriend, but she isn’t interested. I dumped the last girl I was with because she wanted to keep the sex straight. That’s not for me. If women don’t want to try different things, then I am not interested.”

Research statistics on porn access by boys over the internet is staggering:

• 30% of 13 year old boys view porn on a regular basis
• 30% 14- to 16-year-olds saw sexual images online by the age of 10 years old
• 81% of teenage boys polled looked at porn online at home, and
• 63% could easily access it on their mobile phones.

In essence, the today’s teenagers have access to hardcore porn 24 hours a day.

Porn culture doesn’t only affect men. It also changes “the way women and girls think about their bodies, their sexuality and their relationships,” says Dines.

“The more porn images filter into mainstream culture, the more girls and women are stripped of full human status and reduced to sex objects. This has a terrible effect on girls’ sexual identity because it robs them of their own sexual desire.”

Images have now become so extreme that acts that were almost non-existent a decade ago have become commonplace, including oral and anal penetration.

For the producers of porn it is not about sex; it is all about money and the profits. Dines spent 3 days at an Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas during 2008, she interviewed many porn producers and found that their interests lie not in bodily contact but purely in the profits, niche markets, and bulk mailing. Nobody talked about sex, just his or her business plan for increasing revenue. 

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: New York Post

“What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and all things nice” you would certainly think that if you watched California Gurls, the latest video clip from Katy Perry.

“It’s all edible. We named it ‘Candyfornia’ instead of ‘California,’ so it’s a different world,” Perry said. “It’s not just like, ‘Oh, let’s go to the beach and throw a party and then shoot a music video!’ It’s more like, ‘Let’s put us California Gurls in a whole different world!’

The clip is a sugary mixture of pink candy floss, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and a board game. Featuring Snoop Dogg, the clip takes us through Candy Land in which girls (looking so good you could eat them) are held captive by ‘King’ Snoop Dogg. Perry moves around a candy inspired board game to free them.

It culminates in a battle when Perry defeats the’ king’ with her guns made from whipped cream, which are attached to her breasts and she squeezes to make the cream come out. This is so ‘soft porn’ it’s not true and is almost too embarrassing to watch.

Just to clarify, Snoop Dogg, used to be a pimp who seems to have little respect for women. About his time as a pimp he has said “I wasn’t a gorilla pimp where I was beating the girls up” but explains he was simply offering a service “cause I know so many mother f***ers who like buyin’ it” (Rolling Stones November 2006), not a great role model for adolescent boys.

Long gone are the days when a musician or group could simply stand there and deliver their song and it be filmed. Today we are offered a whole fantasy to go with the music, a visual journey for us to get lost in.

But what is it that we are being sold here? The lyrics for many songs are borderline pornographic with little room for words of true love or romance – it all seems to be about superficial physical attraction and instant sexual gratification. When these lyrics are translated onto the screen what we see is a video clip that has become a short ‘soft porn’ movie.

The lyrics in Perry’s song make no secret of the fact that California girls are body conscious, on the look-out and available “Sex on a beach. We get sand in our stilettos. We freak and we’re cheap”.

We, or rather young girls, are being sold the idea that girls/women are here to look good enough to eat, to be delicious and to be enjoyed by men. They are being told that girls should flaunt their sexuality and make it clear that they are ready and available.

Maggie Hamilton, Generation Next speaker and author of “What’s Happening to our Girls? said “much information girls glean about sex is from magazines, TV and the movies… often sex in the media is presented as immediate, exciting, causal and risk free.”

“When girls access the media they learn almost nothing about the subtle difference between sensuality and sexuality, understanding and expressing desire, the importance of intimacy and boundaries, and life beyond instant gratification” she added.

This clip would visually appeal to young girls; it is full of all the food and colours they love at that age; ice cream, gummy bears and candy floss. They are being hooked into a world which then tells them “you are here to look pretty, taste good and give pleasure to men”.

These messages are conveyed by the way all the girls are dressed/wrapped up as ‘sweeties’ that can be eaten and are the property of Snoop Dogg’s own personal candy stash. It is reinforced by the way the women in the clip smile and give the camera the ’I’m here for you’ look.

At one point Katy seductively licks an ice cream while looking wide eyed and innocent. Later she slowly sucks her fingers as she slips some gingerbread man into her mouth.

Then we see Perry lying naked on a cloud singing about how California girls are “fine, fresh and fierce” however all the girls in the clip have a vacant/available expression on their faces like no thoughts have ever passed through their heads.

This clip is insidious because it looks like a superficial sugar candy coated innocent romp through Alice in Wonderland while actually taking a voyeuristic journey that shows women as objects for the pleasure of men . In essence it is soft porn and the worrying thing about this video is that it will be watched by thousands of young girls on a Saturday morning as they get their weekly fix of Video Hits.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

The argument for ‘lads ads’ seems to be much the same as for ‘lads mags’; they aren’t really offensive, just harmless suggestive fun, a bit of titillation with no real damage intended. This of course is from a male perspective. Talk to most women and the response is more like; they are degrading, humiliating and offensive.

There has been a string of such ads lately, they began with a barrage of airline ads including Air New Zealand, the Russian airline Avianova and Spain’s Air Commet.

Then more recently came the Brut campaign, described by Pharmacare “a body spray deodorant range targeted at male deodorant users in their late teens to early 20s. The principle behind the Code element of Brut Code refers to ‘the amusing codes that friends live by’. An example might be ‘No matter what, two guys should never share an umbrella’.”

So what makes these ‘lads ads’ so offensive and degrading to women?

Well let’s start with the airlines, words that come to mind include raunchy, erotic, risqué, sexist, creepy, soft porn and voyeuristic.

In this day and age how on earth can we allow advertising campaigns that depict female flight attendants washing planes while wearing bikinis? It is like watching an old James Bond movie, which we all know depicts the ‘bond girl’ as a trophy to be won by Bond during the movie.

Then there was Aeroflot’s calendar featuring a female flight attendant posing completely nude. This however was surpassed by Air Comet; their calendar showed staff in various flight-related poses including one in which a woman stretched out on a jet engine clad only in an emergency flotation vest.

Ms Jo-Ann Davidson, Secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia pointed out that raunchy advertisements are offensive and place cabin crew at risk.

“Such suggestive advertising portraying cabin crew as part of the product they’re selling sends wrong messages and puts cabin crew at risk of sexual harassment and abuse – all for a $10 air fare,” she said.

“Cabin crew deserve to work in a safe environment and be treated with respect and dignity.”

Ms Davidson made a very shrewd comment when discussing airline executives; “it’s a sad reflection of the attitude of the airline’s executives – dare I say more than likely middle aged males – towards cabin crew, in particular, female cabin crew by portraying them in such a demeaning, distasteful and irrelevant manner.”

You may be feeling comforted that these airlines are all overseas and that in our part of the world the media is more ideologically sound. But oh no, just take a look at last years’ ads by Air New Zealand. They well and truly took their place among the most offensive ads by showing staff carrying out their duties wearing nothing more than body paint.

Now if we turn our attention back to Brut again. The Brut campaign with its tagline “still brutally male” and the series of “spot and share” ads – a set of amusing codes that friends life by – serve as a thin veneer covering the depiction of women as sex objects to be ‘shared around’ by men.

All the ads use a beautiful woman posing in a T-shirt and bikini. In the online video clips she whips off her T-shirt (not much product shot here, remembering this is an ad for male deodorant) to reveal a code. There is an obvious play on the word ‘reveal’. The double entendre about the ‘revealing’ of the codes is clearly intended to refer to women taking off their tops in addition to ‘revealing what the message of the next code is.

This sends a very strong message to teenage boys and adds to their understanding of how a man should treat a woman. In this case men should view women as nothing more than the sum of their body parts to be ‘spotted’ ‘noted’ and ‘shared’ around. Could this description also be applied the appreciation of soft porn or even gang rape? Surely these ads depict inappropriate role models for young men.

This is how The Advertising Standards Bureau dealt with complaints for one of the poster ads.  The poster features a beautiful blonde woman with her back to the viewer in nothing more than a bikini bottom (no surprises there). The words for the ad reads - BRUT Code #85: Always alert your mates to the presence of fine form. 

The complaint addressed the issues of the sexualisation and objectification of women and the affect this might have on both adolescent boys and girls. “No individual within society should be subjected to such over-sexualised and demeaning images that objectify women.”

“The site where this add is situated is a busy thoroughfare for both primary and high school students all of which are influenced by popular culture and the society that surrounds them. Firstly young women see images in which females are being sexualised and objectified for the means of appealing to the male audience – thus creating the view that a woman’s body is her only asset. These ads also affect young boys as they are sent the message that women are simply objects for their own pleasure.”

In their defence Pharmacare said “using attractive people in adverts is very common practice and in no way does this objectify or demean women.” They dispute that the ad is “overtly sexually suggestive” by arguing that the woman in the ad was smiling and looked happy.

The Advertising Standard Bureau (‘the Board’) decided “that the advertisement did treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience and that the advertisement did not breach section 2.3 of the Code.” They went on to determine that “the general community would find the portrayal of the women acceptable in the media utilised” and concluded  “finding that the advertisement did not breach the Code on any grounds the Board dismissed the complaints.”

In an ironic twist, The Board was quick to come down on the ads where health and safety issues were concerned.

“The board considered that as the vehicle is depicted in motion the depiction of the person in the boot and the person sitting on the car rather than in a seat is a depiction of material that does breach community standards on safety in vehicles and safe driving.”

Finally in its deliberation the board wrote: “The board considered that the overall theme of the advertisement is light-hearted and is specifically directed to depicting men who appreciate the beauty of a woman.”

It added: “The board considered that the song ‘spot and share’ does not imply sexual behaviour … and that the song and language are not suggestive of rape.”

It is very neglectful of our society to encourage teenage boys to view girls in this way. It is a view that they will take into adulthood and it will undoubtedly be reflected in the way they treat women in the future.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald.  The Advertising Standards Bureau

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald by columnist Miranda Devine was a hard read; the very subject matter curdled the stomach and made the insides squirm in an effort to escape it.

The subject matter was paedophiles and how easily they gain both the trust of parents and access to the innocent children that become their victims.

The other disturbing aspect of the article lay in the fact that society doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge and address the horrors of child abuse in order to help protect the next generation, the innocent children, who are falling victim to an sexual, physical, mental and emotional abuse.

As Miranda points out, ‘how did we arrive at a circumstance in which a 56-year-old man is convicted in the NSW District Court this week of sexually abusing eight children aged from 12 months to 14 years, videotaping thousands of unspeakable crimes, and barely a comment is made?”

The trial in question was that of David Shane Whitby whose reign of terror lasted more than a decade, in which time he video-taped his despicable acts against innocent children. In one video he allegedly said “I love to molest children …. I am a child molester and transvestite … I have molested so many children”.

The list of charges read like an ‘R’ rated horror story and included 73 counts of sexual intercourse with a child aged between 10 and 14 years old. It is small consolation that he will be sentenced in September.

A police officer who works in child protection said ”they were poor single mothers doing it tough and they were conned by a predator … Whitby will be remembered as the worst paedophile in Australia’s history, in terms of number of victims, number of crimes and the extremely sick nature of the crimes … No one in child protection has ever seen anything like this.”

Traditionally the ‘family’ has formed the threads of our social fabric and yet because of changes in society during the last 40 years the social fabric that holds our community together is being ripped apart by society itself.

Gone are the days when the family was made up of a working father and a stay at home mother. Couples are marrying later and having fewer families. Today the term ‘family’ can be applied to step-parents, single parents, blended families, defacto relationships and same sex parents.

In essence change is good and these new lifestyle choices are merely a response to the world we now live in, but are they also unwittingly undermining the strength of the ‘family’ on which our society is built?

In the UK Sir Paul Coleridge, a Family Court judge, caused controversy last year when he addressed the Family Holiday Association and suggested that the state of marriage should be upheld and that those who destroy family life should be held accountable.

He described what he sees in court as a ”never-ending carnival of human misery … I have witnessed the damage done [to children] by the endless game of ‘musical relationships’, or ‘pass the partner’, in which a significant portion of the population is engaged”.

Sir Coleridge’s views might be considered old fashioned by some, but he had a point when he said “surely the test of any social change is whether it enhances people’s lives or makes them more miserable. And this is where I take issue with the modern view of the family. If it is so successful, why are the statistics for separation so large?”.
 
“More significantly, why are the family courts overwhelmed with cases involving damaged, miserable or disturbed children? How do other children, caught up in less serious separations, really feel? Do they relish the endless changes of partner, or adapting to a new step-parent and step-siblings?” he added.

So the question remains; how can our children be protected in a world where predators can easily enter their lives because of the breakdown in family values? If their parents cannot protect them, then who can?

How, we might ask ourselves, can a man like Whitby get so close to these vulnerable children?  The answer is ‘easily’ when you look at the recent case of a father who was awarded custody of his daughter, despite the fact that he has a known history of heroin addiction and sex offences.

He was given custody simply because the mother was even less able to protect and take care of her daughter than he was, as she had a string of shoplifting, drug and prostitution related convictions to her name.

The magistrate reasoned that “the father provides calmer parenting with more clearly set boundaries than the mother does,” adding that “a history of inadequate supervision combined with heroin and marijuana use create a serious concern that (the girl) may be neglected by her mother”.

Joe Tucci of The Australian childhood Foundation said “children shouldn’t ever be placed in a situation where the rights of the parents . . . override their right to protection,” he said.

“The decision should be about whether a child is safe or not, not which parent is the better to look after them.

As Miranda Devine points out “it is the community’s responsibility to rebuild social norms destroyed through the social revolution of the past 40 years.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald. Speech by Sir Paul Coleridge.

7% of children have had pictures or video of themselves posted online without their permission

The growing trend in sexting among young people is reaching new heights with cases in both SA and WA of children as young as 12 years old producing and distributing graphic images of other children. Yet more teenagers have been caught downloading and passing on hardcore child pornography on the internet.

WA Police Minister Rob Johnson said he was concerned that many school students did not understand they faced child pornography charges over sexting.

“Children don’t see it as a crime and fail to grasp the consequences of their actions,” Mr Johnson said.

“They may think they are only sending an image to their boyfriend or girlfriend, but they could be sending that image to the world, which could have devastating long-term psychological effects.”

SA Police said the sexting trend is becoming worse as more children are given access to technology.

Detective Senior Sergeant Barry Blundell, from the commercial and electronic crime branch, said police were working with schools to educate children on the consequences distributing sexually explicit images.

“One of those behaviours we are becoming aware of now is instances of children either photographing themselves in an intimate manner or taking photos of others – and then sending it to other people. The ramifications of that from a legal perspective are that they are producing and disseminating child pornography.”

Cyber safety expert and Generation Next speaker Susan McLean defined sexting as: the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between mobile phones, but can include internet applications such as MSN, email, or social networking sites.

Once photos are sent, there is no way to get them back, and once in cyberspace, they become a permanent part of a person’s digital footprint. This means that they can forever be linked to that person and without doubt will resurface when least expected such as a job interview.

Ms McLean advised that “parents must learn about the internet with their child” and that schools need to “teach children that information on the web is not always reliable.”

Many teenagers are still under the misconception that if they send an intimate picture of themselves to their partner then it is ‘private’ however once these images hit cyber-space, they are out therefore ever and can be accessed in many ways by many people.

Ms McLean continued “with the explosion of cyber technology, the issues of cyber bullying and ‘sexting’ are emerging as the number one issue confronting the safety and wellbeing of young people and the wider community”.

“Together with associated technology including 3G mobile telephones, Instant Messaging(MSN), online games and the popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook & now Twitter, today’s youth have access to and are accessible by many millions of people worldwide,” she concluded.

For other teenagers sexting is taking on a more sinister form with cases in both WA and SA of young people actively and deliberately producing and distributing explicit images via mobile phones and the internet. They are fully aware of the images they are producing but not of the fact that this is a criminal offence and that someone else’s privacy has been breached.

It is unclear what sort of consent of participation the people who posed for the pictures played in all this. Are they aware of how the images will be used or the vulnerable position they are placing themselves in?

The most disturbing aspect of all this is how some young people have become desensitised to the whole topic, for them it is OK to take graphic intimate and ultimately pornographic images of both themselves and others and circulate those images freely via the ether.

Why is it that teenagers are not aware that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable within our society and that in doing so they are breaking the laws of this country, not to mention the unwritten laws of decency and self worth?

The survey by home computer support service Gizmo questioned 1,025 parents and children around Australia and found that 7% of children had had someone post online a picture or video of them without their permission.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: Perth Now. Susan McLean

By Julie Gale, Kids Free 2B Kids Director.

The premature sexualisation of children and young teens is a global issue which has been increasing over the past decade. Our kids are inundated with confusing messages that serve to minimize what it means to be a whole well rounded human being.

Popular culture encourages girls to focus on their appearance and sex appeal, and while females are offered more opportunities in the work force than ever before, marketing and advertising frequently diminishes girls aspirations to simply being ‘hot’ and ‘sexy’.
Ariel Levy – author of Female Chauvinist Pigs argues that girls and young women are objectified today as never before. Their physical appearances – especially their sexual attributes – are portrayed as their most important assets.

The sexualisation of children can be defined in two ways:
1. Direct sexualisation occurs when children are dressed or posed in ways designed to draw attention to adult sexual features that the children do not yet possess.
2. Indirect sexualisation occurs when a child is involuntarily exposed to sexualised imagery, which is often aimed at adults…for example outdoor billboard advertising.

It is important to note that sexualisation is not the same as sexuality or sex. According to the Report of the APA Taskforce on the Sexualisation of Girls published by the American Psychological Association in 2007, sexualisation has to do with treating other people (and sometimes oneself) as “objects of sexual desire…as things rather than people with legitimate sexual feelings of their own”. When people are sexualised, their value comes primarily from their sex appeal, which is equated with physical attractiveness. This is especially damaging and “problematic to children and adolescents who are developing their sense of themselves as sexual beings.” 

It is normal for a child to go through a gradual process of learning to understand about sex, sexuality and intimacy and what it means to be a caring and respectful human being.

Authors of So Sexy So Soon, Dr Jean Kilbourne and Professor Dianne Levin state: ‘We are not alarmed that today’s children are learning about sex and sexuality. We are alarmed by the particular lessons that children are learning. The sexualisation of childhood is having a profoundly disturbing impact on children’s understanding of gender, sexuality and relationships.”

It is important for parents to realise that concern about the images their children are exposed to is not about being old fashioned or prudish. Child development professionals are also speaking out about this issue and increasing research supports this concern.

Amanda Gordon, President of the APS says: “The Australian Psychological Society is very concerned with the sexualisation of children in society. The research is saying that the sexualisation of children is leading to real mental health problems for those children as they get into their adolescence and their adult years.

We think that the sexualisation of children from as young as eight is what is doing the damage – that’s the danger time, middle childhood. We want to protect those children in those years.

We are not being prudish in doing that, we are actually giving them a chance then to stride out and be sexual beings when their time is right -when their body is right – when their mind is right – to make better choices based on feelings rather than on what they read or what they see.”

Adolescent psychiatrist Dr Sloane Madden from Westmead Children’s Hospital Sydney says: “One third of eight year olds are not happy with their weight and shape. Nearly one in four are dieting. I think there is a growing concern amongst eating disorder professionals around the world that children at this age are being subjected to increasingly sophisticated and adult messages. Messages acquainting thinness with success – sexualised images – presented to children at an age when really they’re psychologically unable to understand those images.” 

Sexualised imagery and easy access to pornographic images on the internet also impacts greatly on our boys and young men.

Kilbourne and Levin go on to say: “Boys are surrounded by media messages that encourage them to judge their female peers based on how they look, often to view them with contempt, and to expect sexual subservience from them. Young men these days are quite actively discouraged from entering into mutually satisfactory intimate and committed relationships with women. Men who have been conditioned to judge women by the current standard of beauty and to compare real women with the idealized images in the popular media and pornography often find it difficult, if not impossible, to feel empathy for women. Needless to say, they are unlikely to be satisfying partners for women. Boys who lack empathy, who have deficit compassion disorder, often become men who find it impossible to have deep and fulfilling intimate relationships with their partners, with their children, with anyone. This is a very high price to pay.”

Exposure to sexualised imagery and pornography at young ages is having negative impacts on our kids’ mental health. This exposure is linked to increased depression, anxiety, body images problems, eating disorders, self harm – a decrease in the age of first sexual experience and an increase in sexually transmitted infections.

While some parents and teachers are concerned about sexuality education leading to earlier or increased sexual activity, recent and comprehensive literature reviews find instead that sexuality education leads to a delay in the onset of sexual activity, reduced rates of sexually-transmitted infections and greater adoption of safer sex practices by those young people who are already sexually active.

It is incumbent upon parents to communicate with children about the messages they are bombarded with in the media. Children need strong direction and guidance, and permission to reject the hyper sexualised culture that imposes unrealistic expectations on them.

While teenage boys may be stereotyped as sex-mad, a report by researchers in the Journal of Adolescence (USA) suggests on the contrary, that boys are motivated more by love and a desire to form real relationships with the girls they date.

“Let’s give boys more credit,” said study author Andrew Smiler, an assistant professor of psychology at the university. “Although some of them are just looking for sex, most boys are looking for a relationship. The kids we know mostly aren’t like this horrible stereotype. They are generally interested in dating and getting to know their partners.”

The data also suggest that teenage boys will be receptive to parental messages about the importance of getting to know a girl and respect within relationships, even if they act otherwise. “Very few parents really talk to their sons about relationships,” Dr. Smiler said. “We know that many parents do have these kinds of conversations with girls.” Dr. Smiler said parents should talk to boys and girls and try to teach them about both romantic and platonic relationships, how to develop and maintain them, how to deal with ups and downs and how to forgive and regain trust.

“Somehow we buy into this idea that guys aren’t emotional, that guys aren’t interested in relationships, so we don’t give our teenagers the information,” Dr. Smiler said. “Boys rarely hear this kind of information about relationships from parents, whether about friendships or romantic relationships.”

If we leave our kids’ sex education up to the media then we will continue to see an increase in dysfunctional relating between boys and girls. We will continue to see girls acting out of an imposed ‘hot’ and ‘sexy’ construct, which, along with objectified and sexualised images of females, affects the ways boys relate to and treat them.  We will continue to see our kids depressed and confused about how they are supposed to behave in their relationships…or their ‘hook ups’ …or their ‘friends with benefits’…or their f**k buddies. We will continue to see girls and boys sexting naked images of themselves, and very young girls performing oral sex under tables at school and at parties long before they are emotionally and psychologically equipped to engage in such behaviour. We will continue to see rates of Chlamydia soar – the silent sexually transmitted infection, which according to medical professionals, may see the next generation of young women with an unprecedented high incidence of infertility. The ramifications are many.

The media is devoid of valuable information about love, respect, caring, intimacy and importantly for our girls, sexual assertiveness, the right to say “no” and the right to expect respect.

In Australia, one in three girls and one in five-seven boys will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of eighteen. This is totally unacceptable.

It is well and truly time for parents to demand that the contemporary media environment and marketing and advertising – works responsibly to support their efforts to raise whole well rounded and happy children.

Australia is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC) which was first adopted in 1989.  In May 2002, world leaders convened at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children to review the progress in meeting the goals and to agree on new goals for the next decade.

Comments from the 2002 United Nations General Assembly on the World Summit for Children include:
• Eleven years ago, at the World Summit for children, world leaders made a joint commitment and issued an urgent, universal appeal to give every child a better future.
• We reaffirm our obligation to take action to promote and protect the rights of each child – every human being below the age of 18 years, including adolescents.
• We stress our commitment to create a world fit for children…taking into account the best interests of the child…including the right to development.
• We hereby call upon all members of society to join us in a global movement that will help to build a world fit for children.
• Put children first. In all actions related to children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.
• In line with (the) principles and objectives, we (are) confident that together we will build a world in which all girls and boys can enjoy childhood – a time of play and learning, in which they are loved, respected and cherished, their rights are promoted and protected, without discrimination of any kind, in which their safety and well-being are paramount and in which they can develop in health, peace and dignity.

Our Government must focus on recommendations made by child development professionals and groups concerned about the wellbeing and mental health of our children, in the recent senate inquiry into the sexualisation of children in the contemporary media environment.  The inquiry is due for review at the end of 2009. Parents and other concerned individuals and groups must take action and speak out about the negative impacts on our children.

We have a right to expect better for our kids, and the Government has to show us the action promised when Australia signed CROC. Our kids deserve that.

Reference:

1. Faking It. Women’s Forum Australia.
2. Corporate Paedophilia Report. The Australia Institute.
3. So Sexy So Soon. The New Sexualised Childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.
   Diane E Levin, Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D
4. So Sexy So Soon. The New Sexualised Childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.
   Diane E Levin, Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D
5. Sunday Program. Nine Network. 22 June 2008
6. AM – ABC. Eating disorders on the rise. 28 May 2008
7. So Sexy So Soon. The New Sexualised Childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.
   Diane E Levin, Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D
8. APA Taskforce on the Sexualisation of Girls. American Psychological Association. 2007.
9. (Grunseit et al. 1997;Roker and Coleman 1998, p 15) Youth and Pornography in Australia -  Evidence on the extent of exposure and likely effects. Flood and Hamilton 2003.
10. “I wanted to get to know her better”: Adolescent boy’s dating motives, masculinity ideology and sexual behaviour. Department of Psychology SUNY Oswego NY. 2008 Feb;31(!):17-32.Epub 2007 May 29
11. Inside the mind of the boy dating your daughter. Parker-Rope. New York Times. 15 Feb. 2008
12. Childwise.
13. Ratified by Australia in Dec 1990.
14. S-27/2. A World Fit For Children. United Nations
15. href=”http://www.aph.gov.au/SENATE/committee/eca_ctte/sexualisation_of_children/index.htm”

Writer: Julie Gale, Director, Kids Free 2B Kids. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

At first glance it would seem that choosing Video Hits as a Media Partner for the recently held Australian National Youth Week made perfect sense, all teenagers are into music of some sort. Music crosses the great divide and is accessible to everyone; it can communicate on a level without barriers.

But when we see the latest music clip from American singer Kiely Williams “Spectacular” (The Sex was Spectacular) then the question must be asked: ‘Should Video Hits have been a Media Partner of National Youth Week?’ when it has been clearly shown that some music videos can depict the sexualisation of young people and have a deleterious effect on body image and self esteem, leading to increased risk of eating disorders.

Certain lyrics and imagery also perpetuate the myth that violence, sex, love and rape are all the same thing, where consent is irrelevant and aggression acceptable.

This latest offering by Kiely Williams glorifies a one night stand where rape is questionable. The lyrics are crude and confronting. She doesn’t even know the man’s name or if he used a ”rubber”. In the song being so drunk that you can’t remember anything seems to be an achievement, or at the very least nothing out of the ordinary, as she puts it; ”I was face down, ass up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off”.

The images in the video clip depict nudity and outfits that leave little to the imagination, to say nothing of the graphic dance moves. A video clip like this only perpetuates the rape myth that says it is OK because the girl is too drunk to say ‘no’.

A new book to be published in July by sociologist Anastasia Powell of La Trobe University, Victoria called “Sex, Power and Consent: Youth Culture and the Unwritten Rules” draws on the experiences of 117 young people as they talk about youth sex within popular culture, love, sex, relationships and agreeing consent. She develops a gripping context for understanding the ‘unwritten rules’ and the gendered power relations in which sexual negotiations take place.

Powell says the sexualisation or pornification of society – the preponderance of sexualised imagery in media, music and other popular culture – has done little to empower young women.

”Some things have improved in terms of women’s equality but we’re still hanging on to a whole range of gender norms; ideas about men, women and sex that still place young women in situations when they experience pressured or unwanted sex and sexual assault,” Dr Powell said.

Cyber safety expert and Generation Next Seminar speaker, Susan McLean says “sexting – the sending of naked images, almost always of young women, by mobile phone – and other inappropriate sexual behaviour is widespread in Australian schools. Boys and girls, but predominantly girls, are sharing pictures for no other reason than they can.”

McLean said that once the pictures – or in some cases videos – were out in cyberspace they were almost impossible to remove.

A national survey released on 19 April, “Changing Cultures Changing Attitudes” showed that:
• 13% of people still agree that women ‘often say no when they mean yes’
• 16% agree that a woman ‘is partly responsible if she is raped when drunk or drug-affected’
• 7% agreed ”a man is less responsible for rape if he is drunk or affected by drugs at the time”, and
• 34% of people still believe that ‘rape results from men being unable to control their need for sex’.

Minister Plibersek said the Rudd Government is spending $17 million on a social marketing campaign to promote respectful relationships among young people.

So, given the type of material Video Hits is airing, it is probable that the answer to the question : ‘Should Video Hits have been a Media Partner of National Youth Week?’ is a resounding “NO” – this is not the type of message we want to send to our youth during National Youth Week or at any other time.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

SOURCE: Anastasia Powell of La Trobe University, Victoria – “Sex, Power and Consent: Youth Culture and the Unwritten Rules”
VicHealth – “Changing Cultures Changing Attitudes A National Survey on Community Attitudes To Violence against Women”