Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

10 March 2016

RE: Harm being done to Australian children through access to on the Internet

Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association, is the peak national sex worker organisation in Australia. Formed in 1989, the organisation represents a membership of individual sex workers and sex worker organisations. Scarlet Alliance and our member organisations and projects have the highest level of contact with sex workers in Australia of any agency, government or non-government. Through our project work and the work of our membership we have high levels of access to workplaces in the major cities and many regional areas of Australia. Scarlet Alliance has a diverse membership of individual sex workers - including porn performers. It is these experiences and the high level of contact and support provided by our membership to sex workers which informs our submission.

Sex workers working in porn should be counted among key stakeholders throughout this inquiry. Problems arise when the majority of texts written about pornography, legislation introduced to regulate pornography, and decisions made about pornography are made by people who do not work in porn and do not speak from their own experiences of watching and/or producing pornography.1

If you require further information please contact our Chief Executive Officer Jules Kim on 02 9517 2577.

Regards,

Ryan Cole President

1 McKee et al (2008) The Porn Report, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 25.

1 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography

Contents

Impact of Pornography ...... 3 Healthy Sexuality and Relationships ...... 3 Is Porn Harmful? ...... 5

Harm Reduction Strategies ...... 6 Restricting Access to Pornography ...... 6 The Role of Parenting and Sex Education ...... 7

Conclusion ...... 8

2 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography

Anti-porn advocates have long argued that pornography is, and causes, violence against women. Some warn that the content currently available is new, more extreme, and more violent than ever before – no longer ‘your father’s Playboy’.

A study conducted by McKee showed that, despite viewing pornography at earlier ages than previous generations, “every generation of men has better attitudes towards women than the previous.” 2 The study suggests there is no causal relationship between seeing pornography under the age of 16 and having negative attitudes towards women. McKee notes that, in their research, a number of variables did emerge as directly correlated with negative attitudes towards women, including voting for a right wing political party and being religious.3

Impact of Pornography

The assertion that pornography is, or contributes to, violence against women, is often stated as fact, when it is theory that is not proven. While anti-porn advocates have heralded studies showing a causal link between porn and misogyny, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, an equal number of studies show no link at all. It is also important to note that even if some studies purport to create a causal link; this is not evidence of causation. Anti-porn advocates present anecdotal research that gives an “extremely biased picture of pornography that stands in stark contrast to sound scholarly research.”4

Pornography, or sexually explicit material (SEM), is often the scapegoat for broader societal issues. It is easier to blame sex workers and pornfor misogyny and violence than to acknowledge that violence against women, sexual assault, and sex education are issues that needs to be dealt with by society at a foundational level. The suggestion that watching consensual sexual acts in SEM may lead to violent or non-consensual behaviour is not supported by the current models or understanding of media effects.5

Healthy Sexuality and Respectful Relationships

McKee notes ongoing debates about the boundaries of healthy sexuality include “the point at which sexual enjoyment becomes sex or compulsivity, when an aversion to sex becomes sexual anorexia, the status of masturbation, and the use of pornography, casual sex, and sadomasochism.”6

2 A. McKee, ‘Does pornography harm young people?’ (2010) Australian Journal of Communication 37:1. 3 Ibid. 4 R. Weitzer, ‘Pornography’s Effects: The Need for Solid Evidence’ (2011) Violence Against Women 17:5, 666-675. 5 A. McKee, ‘Methodological Issues in Defining Aggression for Content Analyses of Sexually Explicit Material’ (2015) Archive of Sexual Behaviour 44, 81-87. 6 J. Giugliano, ‘A sociohistorical perspective of sexual health: The clinician’s role’ (2010) and Compulsivity 11, 43–55; L. Nelson, ‘Sexual addiction versus sexual anorexia and the church’s impact’ (2003) Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity 10, 179–191; M.D. Corley, ‘Sexplanations II: Helping addicted parents talk with their children about healthy sexuality, sexual addiction and sexual abuse’ (2006) Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity 12, 245–258; M. M. Ellison, ‘Beyond sexual fundamentalism: The call for an ethical eroticism’ (2001) Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity 8, 3–11;

3 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography

A consultative group consisting of seven Australian experts across a number of disciplines relating to children, development, and sexuality, including a psychologist specialising in preventing child sexual abuse, an early childhood expert, a legal expert in children’s rights, a specialist in sexuality education experts on sexual socialization, and experts on the media’s impact on children’s development, identified a multidisciplinary framework for understanding healthy sexual development. The consultative group asserted that healthy sexual development includes an “understanding of the nature and complexity of consent, not just their own but also other people’s, in sexuality. [Young people] need to learn about the ethics of human relationships and how to treat other people ethically.” 7 Kath Albury’s study of young people and ‘’ revealed that the young people interviewed were increasingly media savvy; they understood nuanced ethical differences between various types of images (both sexually explicit, and not), and how their peers, parents, and society view and interact with these images.8

Content analyses of aggression in pornography are regularly referred to when seeking to understand the impact of SEM on healthy sexual development. Many researchers studying SEM refer to increasing levels of violence or aggression depicted, without nuance or reference to consent. Excluding consent from definitions of aggression causes difficulties for attempts to understand representations of healthy sexuality;9 for example consensual sadomasochism and bondage are habitually counted as a form of aggression, counted in a category with ‘‘incest and rape.’’10 Such an approach risks pathologising “minority sexual groups such as gay men, lesbians, swingers, and sadomasochism practitioners” who consent to partake in activities deemed violent or aggressive. 11

It is also important to consider why researchers place such a premium on the amount of violence or aggression in SEM in discussing its potential effects on children. Violence, physical or verbal, is permitted in all classification categories (including the G category, available to minors) except the X18+ category. Children are exposed to violence in G and PG rated films and television shows, and teenage minors through MA15+ rated material, but anti-porn advocates remain convinced that young people displaying violent behaviour do so because they learned it from non-violent pornography.

Is Porn Harmful?

There has been a lot of conjecture around the impacts of pornography and whether or not it is harmful to children and adults. While there can now be general agreement among social scientists that consumption of pornography by adults in a consensual setting does not cause harmful attitudes

D. J. Williams, ‘Different (painful!) strokes for different folks: A general overview of sexual sadomasochism (SM) and its diversity’ (2006) Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity 13, 333–346; Cited in: A. McKee, ‘Methodological Issues in Defining Aggression for Content Analyses of Sexually Explicit Material’ (2015) Archive of Sexual Behaviour 44, 81-87. 7 McKee, A., Albury, K., Dunne, M., Grieshaber, S., Hartley, J., Lumby, C., et al. (2010). Healthy sexual development: An interdisciplinary framework for research. International Journal of Sexual Health, 22, 14–19. 8 K. Albury et al, Young People and Sexting In Australia: Ethics, Representation and The Law (2013) CCI: UNSW. 9 A. McKee, ‘Methodological Issues in Defining Aggression for Content Analyses of Sexually Explicit Material’ (2015) Archive of Sexual Behaviour 44, 81-87. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid.

4 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography

towards women, laboratory settings where subjects are exposed to SEM unwittingly may produce adverse results.12

Many of those discussing the harms done to children through being exposed to SEM are people who believe that children should be kept ignorant of sex until the age of consent, or beyond. McKee notes that these parties believe “any knowledge of sex on the part of children is a form of child abuse [and] that any sign of sexual curiosity or experimentation by children is both a sign of, and a further example of, sexual abuse.”13 However, it has been demonstrated through retrospective studies and longitudinal research that consensual sexual experiences (i.e. ‘sexual games’) among similar aged children have no impact (positive or negative) on adult sexual adjustment, or healthy sexual development.14

Further to this, keeping a child ignorant about sexuality has been shown to increase the risk of abuse for that child:

“Children who know about ‘good touching’, ‘bad touching’ and ‘questionable touching’ are more informed and defensively armed than those who do not know. Similarly, children who know the names of different parts of their genitalia appear to be less desirable to child sex offenders. Such children are less vulnerable to sex offenders.”15

Children are aware that their parents expect them to remain ignorant of sex, and perform this ignorance for the benefit of their parents. Studies have found this performative ignorance to be more distressing and cause more problems for children, than their knowledge of sex or exposure to sexuality in media.16 Buckingham and Bragg note that “for some, much of the embarrassment … seemed to derive from having to pretend that they did not know about such things, in order to keep their parents happy.”17

12 A. McKee, ‘Does pornography harm young people?’ (2010) Australian Journal of Communication 37:1. 13 Ibid. 14 E. Greenwald & H. Leitenberg, ‘Long-term effects of sexual experiences with siblings and non-siblings during childhood’ (1989) Archives of Sexual Behavior 18(5), 389-399; A. C. Kilpatrick, Long-range effects of child and adolescent sexual experiences: Myths, mores, and menaces (1992) New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; P. Okami, R. Olmstead, & P. R. Abramson, ‘Sexual experiences in early childhood: 18-year longitudinal data from the UCLA Family Lifestyles project’ (1997) The Journal of Sex Research 34(4), 339-347. S. Lamb, & M. Coakley, ‘Normal’ childhood sexual play and games: Differentiating play from abuse’ (1993) Child Abuse and Neglect 17(4), 520. 15 J. Krafchick, & Z. Biringen, ‘Parents as sexuality educators: The role of family therapists in coaching parents’ (2002) Journal of Feminist Family Therapy 14(3/4), 59. 16 A. McKee, ‘Does pornography harm young people?’ (2010) Australian Journal of Communication 37:1. 17 D. Buckingham, & S. Bragg, ‘Opting in to (and out of) childhood: young people, sex and the media’ (2005) Studies in Modern Childhood: Society, Agency, Culture, 62.

5 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography

Harm Reduction Strategies

The issue of how to stop children from accessing pornography and other explicit materials has been discussed, debated, and analysed for as long as explicit material has existed. Internet access through smartphones and tablets is simply the newest face of the issue. Twenty-five years ago the government was concerned with minors ordering porn through mail and telephone ordering. Back then a member of the ACT Legislative Assembly remarked that “although businesses appear to be concerned to stay within the law, there seems to be only so much they can do if minors are determined to gain access to this material.”18

Decades of research have shown consistently that children are naturally curious about sexuality, that “the development of sexuality in children is a normal part of their general development”19 and “the preschool years are times of increased curiosity and intense questioning about everything, including sexuality.”20

Studies going back to the 1930s have found that young children (as young as 12 months old) explore themselves and their peers sexually as part of normal developmental behaviour.21 A 1932 study determined that over 50% of children had asked their parents a question about sex by the age of five.22 What we can learn from these studies is that children have always been interested in exploring sexuality, it is not a symptom of the internet or of pornography. McKee states that there is little evidence that there has been a change in children’s behaviours, rather there has been the “pathologisation of childhood sexuality play that has previously been regarded as normal.” 23

Restricting Access to Pornography

Media is regulated in Australia by the Classification Board. Explicit material is classified into ratings categories such as R18+, which includes only simulated sex, and X18+ which contains real depictions of sexual acts. Despite it being legal to import and possess X rated films, it remains illegal to sell them in all states except the ACT and prescribed areas of the NT; adult retail outlets who sell X rated films face serious fines and even imprisonment.24

18 B. Collaery, Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Select Committee on HIV, Illegal Drugs and Prostitution 1991, Prostitution in the ACT: Interim Report, Canberra. 19 C. Sanderson, The seduction of children: Empowering parents and teachers to protect children from child sexual abuse (2004) London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd, 57. 20 I. Larsson, & C. G. Svedin, ‘Teachers’ and parents’ reports on 3 to 6-year-old children’s sexual behavior: A comparison’ (2002) Child Abuse and Neglect 26(3), 248. 21 M. Rutter, ‘Normal psychosexual development’ (1971) Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 11, 259-283; R. R. Sears, E. E. Maccoby, & H. Levin, Patterns of Child Rearing (1957) New York: Harper and Row; S. Isaacs, Social development in young children: A study of beginnings (1933) London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 22 K. W. Hattendorf, ‘A study of the questions of young children concerning sex: A phase of an experimental approach to parent education’ (1932) Journal of Social Psychology 3, 37-65. 23 A. McKee, ‘Does pornography harm young people?’ (2010) Australian Journal of Communication 37:1. 24 Eros Parliamentry information guide, Censorship, Public Opinion and Adult Retailing in Australia, 15-16.

6 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography

As noted by Zahra Stardust:

“The Australian legal framework presents barriers for individual artists, collaborators and companies aiming to create independent, feminist or queer pornography. As a result, queer and feminist pornographers in Australia report making compromises in terms of aesthetics and ethics in order to meet classification requirements and avoid law enforcement. In effect, the regulatory system prohibits the kinds of pornographies with the potential to challenge hegemonic representations and to model safety and consent.”25

The question of restricting access to pornography online falls to how we regulate access to online content more generally, as online content falls outside of the classification system.

Porn producers aren’t marketing their material to children, and porn performers have been vocal about the fact that their content is not made for minors. Pornography producers and performers have been instrumental in online measures to deter and prevent minors from accessing their websites and content. The government can work together with the industry on further measures or methods of preventing children accessing explicit material online, while avoiding a broad censorship or internet filtering approach.

“The task of the law is to regulate people's public lives: that is, their dealings with each other in the public sphere. In dealing with people's sexual lives, the law is going beyond its usual function. To do so wisely is difficult.” 26

In 2009, when a national ISP filter was being discussed, a national telephone poll of 1,100 people was conducted by Galaxy and commissioned by GetUp. It found that only 5 per cent of respondents want ISPs to be responsible for protecting children online, and only 4% want Government to have this responsibility.27 The following year, the results of the Whirlpool Australia broadband of 21,755 internet users was published, finding only 8% were in favour of the mandatory filter, and that 81.8% of respondents believed the Government should focus on educating parents.28

The Role of Parenting and Comprehensive Sex Education

Healthy sexual development requires open communication with parents, where children are not embarrassed to talk to their parents about sex and explicit material, and don’t feel pressured to perform ignorance for their parents’ benefit. McKee reports:

“It has been regarded as normal and healthy for many decades for even very young children to ask questions about sex. Having been accidentally exposed to sexually explicit information, it is

25 Z. Stardust ‘Fisting is not permitted’: criminal intimacies, queer sexualities and feminist porn in the Australian legal context’ (2014) Porn Studies 1:3, 258-275. 26 B. Collaery, Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Select Committee on HIV, Illegal Drugs and Prostitution 1991, Prostitution in the ACT: Interim Report, Canberra. 27 A. Moses, ‘Web censorship plan heads towards a dead end’ (February 26, 2009) Sydney Morning Herald. 28 APC, ‘92% of Whirlpool users against filter’ (February 22, 2010) [http://apcmag.com/92-of-whirlpool-users- against-filter.htm]

7 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography

important that children feel safe to talk to responsible adults in their life about this without being punished for it.” 29

Pratt recommends that parents be encouraged to talk to their children about explicit material to “assist young people to ‘decode’ pornography”; to understand that pornography is fantasy and, like other types of media, is not necessarily fully representative of what sex and relationships are like for most people. 30

Pratt also stresses the important of quality, practical sex education for young people that goes beyond mechanics and reproduction as essential to healthy sexual development. 31 McKee notes that porn makes sex look easy; SEM rarely depicts the extensive conversations that ascertain sexual interests and boundaries, and establish consent. 32 He notes that this is not a bad thing, or an inherent deficiency of pornography, it is simply something that needs to be taken into account when considering what sex education needs to provide. 33 Practical, comprehensive sex and sexuality education that discusses relationships, boundaries, and consent in addition to the basic biology and health aspects is important to complement and temper messages that young people may encounter through explicit material.

Conclusion

Anti-porn advocates have long argued that pornography is, and causes, violence against women. Some warn that the content currently available is new, more extreme, and more violent than ever before – no longer ‘your father’s Playboy’. While anti-porn advocates have heralded studies showing a causal link between pornography and misogyny, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, an equal number of studies show no link at all. More to the point, pornography is often the scapegoat for broader societal issues. Anti-porn advocates would rather blame sex workers and pornography for misogyny and violence than to acknowledge that violence against women, sexual assault, toxic masculinity, and sex education are issues that need to be dealt with by society broadly. Every classification category for media allows violence, even media aimed at children; to say that pornography is the root cause of violence in society is reductive and ignores the plethora of media consumed by children every day.

The issue of how, when, and whether to stop children from accessing pornography and other explicit materials has been discussed, debated, and analysed for as long as explicit material has existed. Children have always been interested in exploring sexuality, Internet access through smartphones and tablets is simply the newest face of the issue. The most effective way that the government can promote healthy sexual development for young people is through comprehensive sex education that provides the information and nuance that is lacking in pornography. Open communication with

29 A. McKee, ‘Does pornography harm young people?’ (2010) Australian Journal of Communication 37:1. 30 R. Pratt, ‘The ‘porn genie’ is out of the bottle: Understanding and responding to the impact of pornography on young people’ (April 2015) InPsych. 31 Ibid. 32 A. McKee, ‘Does pornography harm young people?’ (2010) Australian Journal of Communication 37:1. 33 Ibid.

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parents, carers, nurses, and teachers, is essential to ensure that children can be comfortable discussing and understanding explicit material if they are exposed to it and aren’t reliant on pornography to teach them about sex and relationships.

Scarlet Alliance recommends against any measure that seeks to restrict access to explicit material by criminalising, censoring or prohibiting pornography generally, or which negatively affects, criminalises or harms sex workers making pornography. Regulation of sexually explicit materials and access to pornography does not require special laws, and can be regulated through the current classification system and a partnership approach with producers of explicit material to restrict online access.

9 Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association Submission to Inquiry on Harm to Children through Pornography