Submission On the inquiry into Harm being done to Australian children through access to pornography 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, 1 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. 2 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 sex 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. 3 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 oral sex. 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 4 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 “sexting” 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.