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Is govt ban on X-rated material enough? |
Monday, 2 July 2007: Australian Associated Press: Run in Canberra Times and National Indigenous Times
CANBERRA, July 2, 2007: A simple internet search on potential links between X-rated pornography and child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities highlights the predicament facing the industry and politicians. Just as the Google web pages differ, so do the opinions on whether a national ban on X-rated material will reduce child sexual abuse.
X-rated material is sexually explicit but is not allowed to show violence.
Its sale is legal in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, where a flourishing mail order service operates. But the federal government plans to ban the material in the NT as part of its radical reform to stop child sexual abuse. The plan was sparked by the Little Children are Sacred inquiry, which found alarming levels of sexual abuse in NT Indigenous communities.
Among the report's 97 recommendations were strategies to restrict children's access to pornographic material. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says X-rated pornography will be banned in the NT and all publicly-funded computers will be audited to identify illegal material. Mr Ruddock also has called for tougher restrictions on the sale of X-rated pornography in the ACT.
"The current focus is on strengthening the Northern Territory laws, we are also looking at ACT distribution," he said. Community groups are backing Mr Ruddock's call for tougher restrictions. But academics and adult industry groups argue a national ban will do nothing to protect children in Indigenous communities.
Australian Christian Lobby managing director Jim Wallace says the link between pornography and child sexual abuse is not restricted to Indigenous communities. He says X-rated material should be banned throughout the country. "It is time to take action on this issue throughout Australia. We're calling on the ACT government to ban the sale of X-rated pornography," he said.
"It's commonsense what the prime minister is doing in responding to this but it is also commonsense to say pornography doesn't discriminate by race."
However, Sydney University associate professor of media, Catharine Lumby, said there was no link between X-rated pornography and child sexual abuse.
"There's no evidence, that I have ever seen, and we have looked internationally, that there's any connection between X-rated material and child abuse," she said. "The reality is that there is X-rated material in many, many Australian homes where there are children but those children are not exposed to that material any more than they drink the alcohol in their parents' liquor cabinet."
Professor Lumby said a ban on X-rated material would not stop the black market trade, which the adult industry argues is the real problem.
Fiona Patten, from peak adult industry body Eros, said violent pornography was only available through the black market, an industry she says is worth tens of millions of dollars every year. "We have been urging the state and federal government to crack down on illegal operations selling sexually violent material and material that is refused classification for years," she said.
Mr Ruddock said the federal government was cracking down on violent and blackmarket porn. The minister said he and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough wrote to the NT attorney-general last month "raising the issue of unclassified and RC films being sold in the Northern Territory and asking that a higher priority be given to enforcing classification laws". "The Australian government considers these measures need to be strengthened," he said.
Prof Lumby said that while she welcomed the federal intervention in the NT, a much broader approach was needed to stop children being exposed to pornography. "In any family or community setting where children are being exposed to pornography there's clearly (a) big breakdown of care and concern for those children," she said.
"A broader strategy is required and education is part of it." - AAP |
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