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Suffer
the little children
Media
Release: Women's Forum Australia
July
13, 2007
AT
LAST, it is on the record: Pornography is
a significant factor in the violence and
anarchy in indigenous communities.
Alcohol
and drugs are well accepted as causing rampant
dysfunction in places already beaten down
by dispossession, disempowerment, unemployment,
ill health and poor education. But the trauma
caused by the invasion of pornography has
not been properly acknowledged.
The
Northern Territory's Little Children Are
Sacred report changes that. A toxic trifecta
of drugs, alcohol and pornography is fuelling
a culture of violence against women and
children. They are being bashed, raped,
disabled and killed. Their lives are marked
by desperation and terror. Predictably,
the sex industry is crying censorship. But
children suffering porn-driven sexual abuse
should come before sex industry profits.
Children
whose genitals have to be reconstructed,
and the babies with sexually transmitted
infections, need protection now.
While
the sex radicals want business as usual,
Aboriginal women are identifying pornography
as one of the agents of destruction in their
communities.
The
report tells of rampant sexually aggressive
behaviour, of children being exposed to
porn films and re-enacting what they have
seen, of porn being used by adults to groom
children for sex.
Pornography
has destroyed the cultural restraints which
would have protected women and children.
These
isolated communities have been destroyed
by white men bearing pornography. It has
fed dysfunction and increased cycles of
violence.
The
report states: "It is apparent that
children in Aboriginal communities are widely
exposed to inappropriate sexual activity
such as pornography, adult films and adults
having sex within the child's view . . .
resulting in the sexualisation of childhood
and the creation of normalcy around sexual
activity that may be used to engage children
in sexual activity."
The
inquiry that led to the report was told
that sexually aberrant behaviour involving
both boys and girls was becoming more common.
In all communities, men and women were concerned
that teenagers were becoming more violent,
sexual and anarchic. Young girls didn't
even know they could refuse a sexual advance.
Exposure
to pornography could be linked to a belief
in rape myths, the increased acceptance
of the use of physical force in sexual relations
and a lessening of compassion for child
victims. Also, pornography may lower inhibitions
around offending and increase the likelihood
of an assault.
The
1999 Report of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Women's Task Force on Violence
highlighted the link between X-rated films
and sexual violence against women and children:
"The incidence of sexual violence is
rising and is (in) a direct relationship
to negative and deformed male socialisation
associated with alcohol and other drug misuse,
and the prevalence of pornographic videos
in some communities."
The
Government needs not only to ban pornography
in the Territory but stop it being shipped
out of Canberra. And it is not only indigenous
communities which need to be freed from
this sludge.
Yes,
pornography is contributing to a moral tsunami
in indigenous communities. But pornography
feeds and legitimises violence against women
and children everywhere. Some have argued
that pornography is as harmful to women
as racist material is to the people it targets.
Many men who commit crimes of sexual violence
live on a diet of pornography. Up to a third
of child sex offenders said they had viewed
pornography before offending.
We
need to address the harm caused by pornography
everywhere.
Melinda
Tankard Reist is an author and founding
director of Women's Forum Australia, an
independent women's think tank
http://www.womensforumaustralia.com
This
article is reproduced with the Permission
of Women's Forum Australia
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