Young People

For discussion and comment on young people and pornography.

Porn is an issue for the left but practical approaches from across the political spectrum shouldn’t be rejected out of hand

Porn is an issue for the left but practical approaches from across the political spectrum shouldn’t be rejected out of hand

Last week saw the publication of the ‘Findings and Recommendations’ of the UK Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection. The inquiry was headed up by the Conservative MP Claire Perry, and while some may argue (or presume) that the report is couched in a “save the children” small ‘c’ conservative-style rhetoric, the cross-party inquiry’s findings and recommendations are actually far more balanced in their ideological approach than one might expect. Crucially, in the report the inquiry shows special concern regarding the “violent, degrading and coercive” pornographic material that teenagers are said to be accessing (p.13), and noted from evidence given by the NSPCC, that “overuse of pornographic material has been shown to desensitise children and young people to violent or sexually aggressive acts ...

London Conference Next Month: A New Category of Child Abuse

London Conference Next Month: A New Category of Child Abuse

Is corporate and commercial targeting of children and young people a new form of child abuse? Has western society reached a critical point in the way it targets children and young people which leads them towards addictive hybrid consumer orientated lives? We have 24 hour bombardment of their minds to eat, purchase, imitate, possess or conform. Much of the targeting of children and young people is on the basis that there is no objective consent or informed knowledge. On the 22nd and 23rd March 2012 two groundbreaking events take place in London to explore critical issues in relation to child protection, child welfare and child development. The events are supported by KIDS COMPANY, OBJECT, BASW, BASPCAN, The Safeguarding Children e-Academy Speakers include: Susie Orbach,...

Australian teachers urged to address porn in sex education

Australian teachers urged to address porn in sex education

Below is an article from today’s Sydney Morning Herald about the findings of two Australian researchers who have examined the influence that porn is having on the sexuality and sexual behaviour of teenagers. Porn industry ‘veterans’ who took part in the research noted that there had been a shift from ”lovey-dovey sex” to Gonzo sex, a cinematic style where a hand-held camera is used to film what is often a violent scene. They also interviewed young female performers, who confirmed that pornography had become more violent in recent years, and that they had to pretend to enjoy being treated badly. The researchers argue that “young people urgently need help to critique pornography’s representations of gender and sex, and to help them distinguish between what...

EMMA Winter edition. A large-scale human experiment

EMMA Winter edition. A large-scale human experiment

In the Winter 2011 edition of EMMA (Germany’s leading feminist magazine in Germany, and the only political magazine in Europe entirely run by women) a large part of the magazine was dedicated to pornography. We felt that a couple of articles in that edition of EMMA would be of interest to a lot of you, so we decided to translate them into English. The first article A large-scale human experiment shows that the concerns about the harms of pornography are being raised world-wide. The second article The dream of being a porn star, which we have split into three posts that will be published over the coming weeks, is a detailed account from a survivor of the pornography industry. A large-scale human experiment In...

Over 1in5 UK Children view ‘inappropriate content’ on their smartphones

Over 1in5 UK Children view ‘inappropriate content’ on their smartphones

A study, compiled by YouGov for Carphone Warehouse has found that 21% of 8 to 15 year olds in the UK have accessed ‘inappropriate content’ from their mobile phone. The investigation into the mobile web behaviour of 8 -15 year-olds in the UK found that 2.8 million or 25% of UK children aged 8-12 have smart phones, and more than one in five of those children admitted to accessing websites that they know are “not for them.” However, answers to other questions in study indicate that this number may be higher with 87% saying they know that they do not have parental restrictions on their mobile phones. Other possibly interesting stats are that the number of children watching ‘online videos or video clips’ on...

Pornified images are a problem made worse by the lack of women’s representation elsewhere in the press

Pornified images are a problem made worse by the lack of women’s representation elsewhere in the press

Following their written submissions to the inquiry, representatives from End Violence Against Women, OBJECT, Eaves, and Equality Now sat in front of Lord Justice Leveson on Tuesday to give evidence. Amongst the demands of the four groups was a call for a consistent legislative approach to hyper-sexualised images of women in the media. Such images wouldn’t be shown on television past the 9pm watershed, it was argued, and so shouldn’t be left unchallenged in non age-restricted publications on the ‘news’stand. The groups also accused some media outlets of perpetuating myths about rape, which they argued could prevent victims reporting the crime. The Daily Mail, for example, reported about six footballers being jailed after gang raping 12-year-old girls in a “midnight park orgy” and referred...

ACTION SUCCESS: Typo promises to remove porn themed products from shops after petition

ACTION SUCCESS: Typo promises to remove porn themed products from shops after petition

Australian retail chain Cotton On’s stationery shop Typo was criticized last week for adding a product line which include a travel mug that says “Porn is my saviour” and an iPhone cover featuring a naked woman sitting provocatively in a cross-legged pose with the word “dirty” above her. These items are part of the chains’ “Back to School” sale. A notebook featuring a topless woman pouting in front of a bullseye is also for sale, while another appears to be trying to emulate the front of a porn magazine. Anti-child exploitation group Collective Shout spokeswoman Melissa Tankard-Reist said parents should boycott Typo and online petition which was started in response to the sell of these items calling for the withdrawal of the products from sale gathered more than 500...

Pleasure vs. profit website launched

Pleasure vs. profit website launched

On December 14th The Women’s Support Project and Zero Tolerance‘s Pleasure vs. Profit launched it’s own website. The people behind the project acknowledge that young people are increasingly worried about the influence of pornography on their culture, relationships and sex lives, but that there is little information out there to help them understand and challenge the porn industry. Pleasure vs. Profit aims to fill this gap, providing the facts in an accessible, young-people friendly way as well as linking to further reading and resources for parents, carers, youth workers and teachers who want to tackle the subject with the young people they work with. To visit the Pleasure vs. Profit website, click here. Follow Pleasure vs. Profit and their Porcupine Campaign on Facebook here. You can view the Pleasure vs. Profit video...

Porn and Me: an adolescent’s relationship with porn

Porn and Me: an adolescent’s relationship with porn

I am a teenager living in the US and this is a short account of my relationship with porn. I started watching porn when I was in 5th grade. Seriously? 5th Grade? Yup. I had gotten my first laptop, and it was so easy to access. All I had to do was open up an internet browser, search, and there it was. It started by just looking at girls in their underwear, but then slowly developed until I was watching porn. At first it was just every now and then, then it became more frequent, until I was watching it 3 or 4 days a week. ‘Lesbian’ porn, hand-jobs, and then the list goes darker. I would masturbate to it, and the endorphins would...

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