Trish Draper (Makin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on three issues, time permitting. Firstly, I want to talk about the results of a recent study at the centre of the new book The Sex Lives of Australian Teenagers, by reputable author Joan Sauers. Secondly, I want to talk about corporate paedophilia and the exploitation of young children and teenagers. Thirdly, I want to talk about an education program for judges making family law court decisions.

The results of the aforementioned study can only be described as alarming, disturbing and most concerning. Some of the results of the internet survey include the fact that 53.5 per cent of girls had viewed pornography by the age of 12. This figure rises to 97 per cent by the age of 16. Boys start earlier, with 70 per cent having viewed pornography by the age of 12 and 100 per cent of the respondents viewing porn by the age of 15. Fifty-eight per cent of the girls and 87 per cent of the boys described being sexually excited by the pornography. By the age of 16, 51 per cent of girls and 65 per cent of boys had engaged in oral sex, either giving, receiving or both. Overall, a third of respondents had lost their virginity before the age of sexual consent.

I speak about this subject not as an expert but as a concerned parent and a member of parliament who has long advocated for greater protections and more inclusive classification structures for the media content that our children are confronted with every day. I have long held and expressed my view that our children are being exposed and moulded by sexually explicit, sexually promiscuous and inappropriately violent and graphic material. This includes everything from internet pornography to cult programs such as Big Brother Uncut, violent video games and soft porn music videos.

I would like to congratulate Phillip Adams on his article entitled ‘Paedophilia Inc.’ on page 15 of the Weekend Australian magazine, 21 and 22 June 2003. Highlighting the negative impact this material is having on our children, he said:

The mass of pornography in the unmediated world of the Internet is bad enough. But the images that are projected in the mainstream media are equally ominous.

I’m talking about what I’ve been calling, for years, corporate paedophilia: the abuse of children—involving sexual abuse, violent abuse and economic exploitation—by some of the mightiest corporations ...

Adams continued:

We accept all this as perfectly normal. Well, it isn’t. Or it shouldn’t be. A child should be allowed to be a child as long as possible. It is a child’s right not to know about many of the ideas and issues and activities of the adult world.

I accept that children want to be liked and respected by their peers, but more often some of them are giving in to peer pressure and gaining popularity, respect and acceptance because of their willingness to take part in aggressive, violent and sexual behaviour. Almost weekly, another inappropriate video which has been posted on the internet is revealed. These include everything from fights to gang rapes, vandalism, stripteases and more. The internet has allowed this material to be broadcast around the world, viewed by our children at the click of a button.

Another concerning revelation of the study is the fact that one-third of the female respondents had described feeling pressured into having sex. Leo Schofield also highlights this point in this week’s Bulletin magazine. In explaining the emotional effect of these results, I draw on the experiences of two of Sauers’s interviewees. One explained how she had performed a striptease for her boyfriend and expressed disappointment that he had invited his mates to view the footage. Another explained how she felt ‘ashamed’ when her boyfriend complained her pubic region was ‘too hairy’ and did not conform to the pornographic images he had seen of women with ‘Brazilians and breast implants’. What is the message this young girl receives? She is probably more likely to feel ostracised, insecure, intimidated, worthless and used than loved, proud and confident.

Not only do parents need to be more vigilant when it comes to monitoring their child’s behaviour but also our communities deserve the protection of the judicial system and must have confidence that the best interests of the child will be upheld. The weekend papers revealed a disturbing example that this is not always the case. They outlined the case of an eight-year-old boy being ordered by a judge to live with his stripper mother, despite acknowledging that her boyfriend was one of Australia’s worst child pornography addicts. The boyfriend, a sick pervert of the worst kind, was released on bail after serving only one year of a three-year sentence for amassing 350,000 images and 6,400 videos of pornographic images, and for a related criminal conviction.

As the Chairperson of the coalition Classification Issues Group, together with Senator Barnaby Joyce, who is the deputy chair of the group, we demand an education program for judges in family court cases particularly where there is a possibility of a child being at risk sexually, emotionally or physically. (Time expired)