Submission

On the inquiry into Harm being done to Australian children through access to on the internet

to the

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

by

Peter Stevens,

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Contents

Introduction 2

My story 3

Porn’s damage to kids – Australia and elsewhere 4

One possible solution to Porn’s damage to kids 9

Conclusion 11

References 12

Introduction

The availability and use of pornography (in the West) has become almost ubiquitous among adults and adolescents. Consumption of pornography is associated with many negative emotional, psychological, and physical health outcomes. These include increased rates of depression, anxiety, acting out and violent behaviour, younger age of sexual debut, sexual promiscuity, increased risk of teen pregnancy, and a distorted view of relationships between men and women. For adults, pornography results in an increased likelihood of divorce which is also harmful to children. i

Children damaged by porn damage other children.

Children damaged by porn grow into damaged adults.

It’s not too late to turn the tide.

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My Story – children grow up to be adults

I’m 62 years of age.

When I was 10 my experience with porn was looking at pages my mate, from the farm across the road, had torn out of his dad’s magazines. I saw women clothed in one piece swim suits standing in provocative poses.

(Many children today have smart phones and easy access to the internet. Their porn is moving images with deliberately aggressive scenarios such as gagging, choking, spanking, and multiple partners penetrating a woman as they call her abusive names.ii )

I’ve never been particularly interested in porn. I didn’t think much about it until around five years ago when many of my close friends’ relationships began to unravel (names changed for privacy).

Janice, a young university student friend told me her sister and brother in law had separated because Sue had discovered her husband was a porn addict (I’m using addicted in the Macquarie dictionary sense of devoted or given up to a practice ). The whole family, including children and grandparents were traumatised. Sue and her husband are currently back together.

Imogene is a friend in her early thirties who is involved in organising big Melbourne events. She and her businessman husband Ken have several young children. Imogene rang me to say that Ken is addicted to pornography and that they are getting counselling. In the process of getting help Ken disclosed that he had been sleeping with other women.

Jean is another university student friend in her early twenties. Her brother discovered their dad watching porn in the garage. Her mum and the two siblings were devastated. After several years of trying to patch up their marriage, their dad, Graeme, was not able to give up the porn and a divorce is underway. Though there is much love in the family, Graeme’s addiction triumphed to split the family. He now has little contact with Jean, her brother and mum.

Doreen is a friend who works in the city of Melbourne. She and husband Bill were happily married, despite both being aware that Bill was addicted to pornography. When Doreen found out that Bill’s porn use had led him to have with other women, they decided to divorce. One child is involved in the split, which was recently formalized. Doreen still loves Bill but couldn’t continue to live with his lies.

Another young friend, Judith, was happily married to a conservative young man. Judith and Ian both worked and were planning changes so that they could have their first child. Judith discovered 1000’s of images of child porn on Ian’s computer. She reported the matter to police and has not seen Ian since that day. They are now divorced and Judith has married again. Ian is on the sex offender’s list for life.

All of these people, and their families, are within my close circle of friends. Some started watching porn as children. It has been distressing to watch their relationships and families fracture, and children suffer, as a direct result of the damage porn inflicts.

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Porn’s damage to kids – Australia

How porn twisted a South Australian four-year-old’s mind – Mamamia 29/02/16

A little (four-year-old) boy from South Australia whose behaviour is so sexualized he has to be chaperoned at all times in case he starts playing “sex games” with the other children. A child’s whose behaviour has been so twisted after his young mind viewed online pornography that he plays at anal and . Anal and oral sex instead of superheroes. iii

How porn damaged a 6-year-old Queenslander - Daily Mail Australia 08/02/16

A mother-of-three has revealed how she was 'traumatised' and left battling mental health issues after she was shown a graphic magazine on the school bus at the age of six.

Liz Walker, 42, from Brisbane, said she was 'catapulted' into an awareness of her sexuality after an older girl sat next to her and showed her a pornographic magazine she found under her brother's bed.

She started looking at porn every day and began 'seeking out' sexual interactions wherever she could - even trying out the scenarios she saw on other children.

Her life spiralled out of control after she lost her virginity at 12 as she started binge drinking and experimenting with drugs to 'numb' the emotional pain.

'I can pinpoint it all to that moment on the bus when I was six,' Ms Walker told Daily Mail Australia.iv

Aussie girls crying out for help - The Advertiser, Adelaide 03/03/16

More than half of all teenage girls are receiving uninvited sexually explicit material on the internet and say their boyfriends are pressuring them to send sexy photos online.

And they are pleading for a crackdown on online pornography they say is influencing men’s attitudes to women.

A survey of 600 Australian girls aged 15-19 by aid agency Plan International has found eight out of 10 believe it is unacceptable for their boyfriend to ask them for a naked photo.

However half the girls said there was pressure to take sexual photos and share them online.

Seven out of ten girls reported being bullied online.

We need some sort of crack down on the violent pornography that is currently accessible to boys and men,” an 18-year-old girl told the survey.

“This violent pornography should be illegal to make or view in Australia as we clearly have a problem with violence and boys are watching a lot of pornography which can be very violent … This is influencing men’s attitude towards women and what they think is acceptable. Violent pornography is infiltrating Australian relationships,” she said.

Victorian children suffer - The Age, Melbourne 26/06/15

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The number of children sexually abusing other children has risen steeply, with treatment services reporting that pornography and family violence are fuelling the trend.

Children as young as four are being referred to programs for problem sexual behaviour as more parents and schools detect abuse in the family home and in the playground.

The Royal Children's Hospital's Gatehouse service saw 350 new cases in the past financial year – more than double the previous year. Of those children, 60 per cent were abusing a sibling; more than 90 per cent had experienced or witnessed family violence.

Experts say the seriousness of the sexual acts has escalated in recent years and that online pornography is often being used as a "teaching manual" for abuse.

"One of the most concerning cohorts for us is the very young kids – the children who are under 12 or even under 10 and their sexually abusive behaviour is quite severe. We're seeing a lot more of anal, oral and vaginal penetration of younger children," said forensic psychologist Russell Pratt, who spent 12 years with the Centre Against Sexual Assault and is one of Australia's leading authorities on sexualised behaviour in children. v

Porn is the number one sex educator in Australia - Courier Mail, Brisbane, Kylie Lang 20/09/15

So I’m talking to Michael Carr-Gregg, Australia’s top-gun child psychologist, about some of the big issues facing kids today, and the discussion turns to pornography.

It’s not a problem in our house, I tell him; my 15 year old “isn’t into that sort of thing”.

Carr-Gregg pauses, a little too long, then says: “The average age kids are seeing porn today is 11, and by the time boys are 15, 100 per cent have seen violent porn.”

Much as parents might not want to believe the statistics, or fancy that they apply to “other people’s kids”, it’s folly to ignore them.

Searches for “teen porn” have tripled since 2005, according to Google Trends, and porn sites get more monthly hits than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

So my insistence on computers coming out of bedrooms and into communal areas where they can be monitored is worth the push back?

“Absolutely! This is a non-negotiable,” says Carr-Gregg.

“The internet is the number one sex educator in the country but sadly, governments, schools and parents are asleep at the wheel.” vi

Problems in Cootamundra, NSW – Illawarra Mercury 03/03/16

Easy access to porn is partly to blame for a rise in “” between teens, a leading youth expert has warned.

It comes as police in Cootamundra last week revealed they destroyed seven mobile phones as part of an underage sexting investigation.

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The phones, valued at more than $500 each, all contained provocative images of people under the age of 18.

Youth expert David Kobler – who last week presented talks at Wagga’s Mater Dei and Kildare Catholic colleges – was unsurprised by the amount of phones destroyed and said sexting was considered “the norm” among teens.

“We were at a talk recently where my wife was told a girl had received up to 100 messages from one person asking her to send photos of her ,” he said.

“She knows it’s sexual harassment, in any workplace it would be considered sexual harassment, but she just accepts it as part of being a teenager.

“It’s so engulfed in their culture.”

Mr Kobler said online pornography had in so many ways changed the game, with society more sexualised than ever before.

He said the average age of a young person’s exposure to pornography was 11.

“We’re not talking about the centrefold of a magazine,” Mr Kobler said. “Pornography today is often violent, aggressive and even dehumanising.” vii

What kids really see – Sydney Morning Herald 05/11/13

Maree Crabbe, a community educator who specialises in pornography and young people, says, "What parents need to understand is that the relationship between young people and porn has shifted. Porn has become incredibly accessible, in ways unprecedented. What people see when they come across porn now is no longer a centrefold. It's commonplace to see moving images with deliberately aggressive scenarios such as gagging, choking, spanking and multiple partners penetrating a woman as they call her abusive names."

According to research by Porn Harms, a US organisation, the average age of children's exposure to pornography is 11, but parents and professionals are dealing with exposure issues of children much younger. viii

Porn’s damage to kids – New Zealand

Office of Film and Literature Classification, New Zealand 19/01/16

But, today's mainstream pornography is not the careful drawings of a renaissance master, neither is it a glossy magazine centrefold of days gone by, nor the relatively benign that some generation x and older adults may remember watching on VHS cassettes. Producers of porn, particularly online, are going to greater extremes to make an impression in an increasingly crowded market for pornography. Porn has become more violent and degrading and dehumanising as it seeks to keep ahead of the competition.

A 2010 study looked at a range of the most popular adult titles for sale in the United States finding that 88% of scenes include physical aggression and 48% of scenes include verbal aggression.

The physical aggression included gagging (aggressive oral sex that obstructs breathing and or swallowing and/or triggers a gag reflex) in 54% of scenes, choking (one or both hands around the throat) in 27% of

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scenes, and spanking in 75% of scenes. Verbal aggression included intimidation, belittling, humiliation and other forms of psychological abuse.

In 94% of incidents, the targets of the aggression were female performers. Unfortunately, 95% of aggression was met with a neutral or positive response suggesting that violent sexual behaviour is acceptable — even sexually arousing to women. As a result, it is somewhat unsurprising that consumption of pornography has been associated with increased , coercive sexual behaviours and sexual aggression. ix

At the average age of 10 – 3 News, New Zealand 05/10/15

Schoolkids today are watching porn like never before. It's free, it's instant and it's having a devastating effect.

3D has spoken to porn users and porn addicts, as well as a sex educator and a top international scientist who say this new type of porn can actually alter our brains.

The vast majority of teenage boys are into it, as well as a surprising number of girls. If it were cocaine and children we were talking about, we'd be shouting about it from the rooftops. But porn is embarrassing and no one wants to talk about it.

Research suggests the average age New Zealand children are exposed to internet porn is 10. Looking at pornography can become a daily habit for users, and what they see on the screen is what they want in the bedroom. x

Porn’s damage to kids – UK

Daily Mail, UK 16/09/15

A tidal wave of graphic online pornography was blamed for the 'catastrophic sexualisation' of young people yesterday.

Easy access to extreme material is corroding the lives of children and destroying their innocence, a senior police officer warned.

Chief Superintendent John Sutherland said he has been left speechless by the impact of available to anyone with a smartphone – and listed a series of violent sex crimes by children which he believes have been fuelled by the internet.

These included teenage boys coolly planning the gang-rape of a young girl and forensically cleaning up afterwards, and the knife-point rape of a boy by another teenage boy.

He accused those who attempt to 'brush off' the risks of allowing boys unrestricted access to hardcore footage as 'either wilfully ignorant or wilfully stupid'xi

A GP in the UK 25/04/15

A GP, let's call her Sue, said: "I'm afraid things are much worse than people suspect." In recent years, Sue had treated growing numbers of teenage girls with internal injuries caused by frequent ; not, as Sue found out, because they wanted to, or because they enjoyed it, but because a boy expected them to. "I'll

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spare you the gruesome details," said Sue, "but these girls are very young and slight and their bodies are simply not designed for that."

Her patients were deeply ashamed at presenting with such injuries. They had lied to their mums about it and felt they couldn't confide in anyone else, which only added to their distress. When Sue questioned them further, they said they were humiliated by the experience but they had simply not felt they could say no. Anal sex was standard among teenagers now, even though the girls knew it hurt.

There was stunned silence around that table, although I think some of us may have let out involuntary cries of dismay and disbelief. Sue's surgery isn't in the brutalised inner-city but in a leafy suburb. The girls presenting with incontinence were often under the age of consent and from loving, stable homes. Just the sort of kids who, two generations ago, would have been enjoying riding and ballet lessons, and still looking forward to their first kiss, not being coerced into violent sex by some kid who picked up his ideas about physical intimacy from a dogging video on his mobile.xii

Porn’s damage to kids – US

American College of Pediatricians 01/10/15

The availability and use of pornography has become almost ubiquitous among adults and adolescents. Consumption of pornography is associated with many negative emotional, psychological, and physical health outcomes. These include increased rates of depression, anxiety, acting out and violent behaviour, younger age of sexual debut, sexual promiscuity, increased risk of teen pregnancy, and a distorted view of relationships between men and women. For adults, pornography results in an increased likelihood of divorce which is also harmful to children. The American College of Pediatricians urges healthcare professionals to communicate the risks of pornography use to patients and their families and to offer resources both to protect children from viewing pornography and to treat individuals suffering from its negative effects. xiii

US National Centre on Sexual Exploitation 14/07/15

A “tsunami” of obscene, violent and degrading pornography is harming children, women, men and the American culture, a panel of experts told a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday.

The standing-room-only event was organized by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and led by NCSE officials Patrick Trueman and Dawn Hawkins.

Panelists urged members of Congress to see that pornography is linked to sexual victimization, prostitution, human trafficking, child abuse and addiction — and hold hearings on these topics.

All of this makes pornography “a public health crisis,” said therapist Cordelia Anderson, an advocate for child abuse victims. It’s a “sexual tsunami,” said psychotherapist Mary Anne Layden, a specialist in treatment of sexual abuse victims and perpetrators. xiv

Mercatornet – Navigating modern complexities 24/02/16

A committee in the Utah legislature has voted to classify pornography as a public health crisis. Although this is merely a resolution and not a law, it could mark a new stage of awareness of the harms of pornography.

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"Everything in the resolution is supported by science and research,” said the state senator who introduced the resolution, Todd Weiler. “It's not just a kooky thing that some politician from Mormon Utah came up with. It's bigger than that."

The news was ridiculed across the internet and on social media by people who asserted that pornography is neither addictive nor harmful. "I personally believe it is,” Weiler responded. “I think the science shows that it is. I believe that's a discussion we should be having because it's impacting divorces, it's impacting our youth, it's undermining the family"

“Public health crisis” is a term which has been used to describe Ebola, SARS, the Chinese milk scandal and smoking. Is porn really as destructive as these?

Pornography is a huge industry, although hard figures are difficult to obtain. According to a report in The Economist, there are possibly 700 to 800 million individual porn pages, 60 percent of them in the US. A portal for pornography, PornHub, claims that it had nearly 80 billion video viewings in 2014 and more than 18 billion visits.

It’s obvious that we live in a pornography-saturated culture. The figures vary from study to study but across national boundaries, the story is the same: young people are consuming lots of pornography. Michael Flood, an Australian researcher in the sociology of pornography, notes that in one Swedish study from 2007, 92 percent of young men and 57 percent of young women aged 15-18 had watched a “porno film”. xv

One possible solution to Porn’s damage to kids – already gaining traction in the UK

UK Government news 30/07/15

The Prime Minister (David Cameron) has given internet giants a final warning that if under-18s are not locked out from viewing adult content he will take action.

‘I want to see age restrictions put into place or these websites will face being shut down.’

With the growth in online pornography, the government believes it is currently all too easy for children to access adult content on websites without restriction – whether intentionally or otherwise.

Minister for Internet Security and Security Baroness Joanna Shields said: ‘As a result of our work with industry, more than 90 per cent of UK consumers are offered the choice to easily configure their internet service through family friendly filters.

‘Whilst great progress has been made, we remain acutely aware of the risks and dangers that young people face online.

‘This is why we are committed to taking action to protect children from harmful content ‘Companies delivering adult content in the UK must take steps to make sure these sites are behind age verification controls.’

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A Childline poll earlier this year found nearly one in ten 12 to 13-year-olds were worried they were addicted to online porn and 18 per cent had seen shocking or upsetting images.

Figures from data analysis company Comscore show that in May, one in five under-18s in the UK visited an adult site, while one in ten UK visitors to adult sites were children. xvi

Sky success in the UK – Daily Mail Australia 14/07/15

Almost three-quarters of Sky's (UK) internet customers have opted to block online pornographic websites after being forced to choose.

The company announced an automatic block on harmful sites six months ago in a bid to prevent children from stumbling across hardcore images and videos.

Under the system, users must opt out of the default family-friendly filter in order to access adult material. Now Sky says it has finished rolling out the technology to its 5million customers.

Seven in ten homes that were forced to choose have kept the filters, in a victory for online safety campaigners and the Daily Mail's Block Online Porn campaign. The figure compares with just 5 per cent who voluntarily set up a blocker when emailed that the service was available, Sky said.

The announcement will heap pressure on rivals BT, TalkTalk and Virgin to introduce similar measures. Sky has a fifth of the UK's broadband market of 25million consumers.

In 2013 David Cameron warned that easy access to web porn was 'corroding childhood', and reached a deal with internet providers to make it easier for parent to impose filters.

Sky's system was the first one that blocked harmful websites automatically. The firm's director Lyssa McGowan said: 'We're proud of the approach we took to ensure that millions more people are safer online.'xvii

ARS Technicha, UK, 16/02/16

The UK government plans to force all online porn providers to add age verification technology to their websites, or else face the threat of civil sanctions. All companies that profit from making pornographic material available online will be expected to comply with the proposed law, the department for culture, media and sport said, and it will be illegal for those sites to allow anyone under the age of 18 to access that content, it added.

The DCMS said that it hoped to "establish a new requirement in law for commercial providers to have in place robust age verification controls for online pornographic content in the UK." It added that the government would "legislate to establish a new regulatory framework, underpinned by civil sanctions."

Under that regulatory framework and civil regime, the government plans to give a watchdog powers to enforce the new law on a "flexible" basis. Officials will monitor commercial porn providers to ensure that they are complying with the legislation. Where they are failing to provide age verification controls, porn sites could see their payment options being choked. Sanctions will be imposed on providers that flout the law.

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“We are delivering on our manifesto promise by launching this consultation today, which proposes we require companies providing this pornographic content to ensure they have safeguards in place to ensure those accessing their websites are over 18,” said internet and security minister, baroness Shields.

The Internet Service Providers' Association, which represents some of the country's biggest telcos, welcomed the proposals. “ISPA agrees with the proposed ‘follow the money’ approach targeting those profiting from websites offering adult content without offering suitable age verification procedures. Internet safety is, and will continue to be, a top priority for ISPs,” said the lobby group's chair, James Blessing. xviii

Conclusion

With ready access to the internet, Australian children as young as four are watching hard core porn.

Hard core porn is moving images with deliberately aggressive scenarios such as gagging, choking, spanking, and multiple partners penetrating a woman as they call her abusive names.

Hard core porn is the standard sex educator for most Australian children.

Children are being damaged by other children as they act out porn scenes.

Most hard core porn is anal. Girls are being damaged by boys who expect them to respond like porn stars.

Hard core porn is violent towards females . Female porn stars act neutrally or positively to porn abuse. Boys are taught that girls like sex with violence.

Use of hard core porn in today’s culture is precipitating a ‘public health crisis’ . (I learned at a recent Symposium that A2M – arse to mouth – anal sex followed by oral sex without washing – is a currently popular ‘signature sex act’ in porn scenes).

Porn has become embedded in our culture.

It’s not too late to fix. Moves in the UK for ISP’s to voluntarily regulate the internet are succeeding. A rising number of children in the UK are being protected while over-18’s may choose to receive porn.

Strategies in the UK could be emulated here.

The Senate should emphatically recommend ways to protect Australian children from hard core pornography – including by internet regulation.

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References

i www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/the-impact-of-pornography-on-children ii http://snip.ly/MH8c#http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/too-much-too-soon-20131105-2wz6g.html iii http://www.mamamia.com.au/porn-and-young-children/ iv http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3436394/Woman-reveals-porn-destroyed-life-seeing-age-SIX.html v http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/porn-family-violence-linked-to-surge-in-childonchild-sex-abuse-cases-20150626-ghykne vi http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/kylie-lang-on-sunday-children-and-pornography/story-fnihsr9v-1227536540984 vii http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3526026/underage-sexting-a-parents-problem/

viii http://snip.ly/MH8c#http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/too-much-too-soon-20131105-2wz6g.html

ix http://www.classificationoffice.govt.nz/news/news-concern-about-pornography.html x http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/3d/is-free-pornography-destroying-our-brains-2015100515#axzz3notAa2jk xi http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3236083/Porn-s-effect-youth-catastrophic-Met-officer-despairs-boys-girls-brutalised- extreme-films-online.html xii http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/11554595/Pornography-has-changed-the-landscape-of-adolescence- beyond-all-recognition.html

xiii http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/the-impact-of-pornography-on-children xiv http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/14/tsunami-of-pornography-misshaping-next-generation-/#ixzz3g6ubLMG0 xv http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/is-pornography-a-public-health-crisis/17664 xvi https://www.gov.uk/government/news/curbing-access-to-pornographic-websites-for-under-18s

xvii http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3159987/Seven-ten-Sky-internet-users-block-porn-rival-providers-face-pressure- follow-suit.html#ixzz3fuKAPSpK xviii http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/02/uk-government-proposes-age-verification-for-all-smut-sites/

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