Media Release: Collective Shout releases annual sexploitation offender blacklist
Grassroots campaigning movement Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation has released its annual ‘Crossed Off’ list.
First launched 15 years ago, the blacklist is a curated line-up of company offenders who have objectified women and sexualised girls to sell products and services through the year.
This list serves as a guide for consumers who wish to spend their Christmas shopping dollar ethically.
Media Release: “It’s out of control…it’s insidious…it’s not okay!” Teacher sexual harassment in schools report released today
The findings of a national survey of Australian school teachers exposes widespread, entrenched and normalised harmful sexual behaviours in Australian schools.
Teachers – almost all female – report being subjected to routine sexual harassment. They are propositioned, threatened with rape, subjected to sexist slurs, mimicking of sex acts, sexually moaned, groaned, and grunted at, asked for nudes and intimated.
While adolescent males in Yrs 9 and 10 were responsible for the majority of harmful sexual behaviours, children as young as Kindergarten to Grade 3 were also exhibiting these behaviours.
The survey results are analysed in the report ‘Sexual Harassment of Teachers’ [SHoT] report, released today. The report is published by Collective Shout in partnership with parenting author and educator Maggie Dent.
The aim of the survey was to gain understanding of the prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian schools. More than 1000 teachers responded. Almost 80% reported a rise of harmful sexual behaviours in their schools.
Many female teachers said they did not feel safe at work. They were also having to deal with multiple disclosures from adolescent victims of harmful sexual behaviours, including girls in Yrs 5 and 6 coerced into sending sexual images.
Survey respondents are seeing more victims of Image Based Sexual Abuse [IBSA]. They report instances of children as young as Year 2 accessing and sharing pornographic content through personal devices or social media.
Teachers expressed despair about the rapid rise of harmful sexual behaviours which they attributed to early exposure to pornography, the malign influence of social media influencers, and broader societal sexist attitudes.
Many respondents reported major gaps in policies, procedures and codes of conduct. One teacher commented: “The safety of very large portions of the school community is at risk, not just physical safety but mental and emotional wellbeing.”
The report contains six recommendations for dealing with the issue. It can be found here.
Maggie Dent:
"I have been very concerned for a while now about some of the things I'm hearing from teachers and parents in my community and the team at Collective Shout and I thought it was important to get a sense of the prevalence of sexual harassment in schools.
This report demonstrates a strong need for educational authorities to provide teachers and schools with clear steps they can follow to prevent and deal with sexual harassment.
This is something staff, parents and students need to be educated about. Some of what we are hearing about in this report is technically criminal behaviour and it simply cannot be dismissed as 'boys will be boys' – which was a phrase we heard multiple times in the survey.
I would also urge parents and other caring adults in our kids' lives, to have awkward conversations with their kids, and not just expect schools to be responsible for addressing this behaviour from some boys. This needs to be a whole community response."
Melinda Tankard Reist:
“This is a crisis. Schools have become sites of abuse.
The safety of teachers and female students is significantly compromised.
I speak in large numbers of public and private schools and the stories I’ve been told by female teachers and students this year are the worst I’ve heard in more than a decade of engagement with public and private schools.
The situation is unacceptable. There needs to be strong, national, uniform response to address it.”
Monday October 28, 2024
Contact:
Melinda Tankard Reist, Collective Shout Movement Director and report editor: email [email protected]
Tahlia Perry, report co-author: email [email protected]
Media Release: Teacher sexual harassment in schools survey reveals widespread and entrenched harmful sexual behaviours in children and young people
The findings of a national survey of Australian school teachers reveal widespread, entrenched and normalised harmful sexual behaviours in Australian schools.
The survey results are analysed in the report ‘Sexual Harassment of Teachers’ (SHoT) to be released Monday. The report is published by Collective Shout in partnership with parenting author and educator Maggie Dent.
The aim of the survey was to gain understanding of the prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian schools. More than 1000 teachers responded.
Teachers – almost all female – reported being subjected to routine sexual harassment by male students. They were propositioned, threatened with rape, subjected to sexist slurs and mimicking of sex acts seen in pornography.
While trying to perform their duties as educators, they were sexually moaned, groaned, and grunted at, asked for nudes and intimidated. Some of the harmful sexual behaviours were exhibited by children from as young as Kindergarten to Year 3.
Many female teachers reported they did not feel safe at work and the response from executives and principals was inadequate when they did report sexual harassment.
Teachers reported dealing with multiple disclosures from adolescent victims of harmful sexual behaviours.
Read moreMedia Release: More sexual abuse, harassment and violence against women if Government refuses to act on age verification
Emergency national cabinet meeting tomorrow must address porn as a driver of violence
In response to a rising tide of violence against women – including a spate of recent homicides - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said we need to “change culture” if we are to prevent this violence. He has called an emergency meeting of State Premiers and Chief Ministers tomorrow to respond to the crisis.
Read moreMedia Release: Shopping centre sex store Honey Birdette hits 74th advertising violation
Media Release
Shopping centre sex stores Honey Birdette hits 74th advertising violation
Playboy-owned sex shop Honey Birdette has been found in breach of the Australian Association of National Advertisers code of ethics for the 74th time. The latest Ad Standards rulings related to three p*rn themed window displays.
Since 2010, Ad Standards has investigated over 160 complaints about Honey Birdette promotions, upholding complaints against 74* – three in the last month alone. Two separate ads were deemed to have a “high level of nudity” and found in breach of Section 2.4 of the Code.
Read moreMedia Release: Sex store Honey Birdette receives record 70th advertising ethics code violation
Playboy-owned sex shop Honey Birdette has received its 70th ruling for being in violation of Australian Association of National Advertisers code of ethics. The rulings relate to the company’s porn-themed window displays in shopping centres.
Since 2010, Ad Standards has investigated close to 160 complaints about Honey Birdette promotions, upholding complaints against 70. The latest ruling was announced 13 March, with two separate ads deemed to have a “high level of nudity” and found in breach of Section 2.4 of the Code.
Read moreMedia Release: Women’s Safety, Child Protection Groups Call on Gov to Trial Age Verification P*rn Protection for Children
Media Release
Women’s Safety, Child Protection groups call on Federal Gov to roll out age verification p*rn protection for children
Australian experts, academics, women’s safety organisations, child protection advocates and prominent Australians have called on the Federal Government to reverse its recent decision against implementing an age verification system to help protect children from exposure to p*rnography.
In their letter to Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, the 43 signatories urge the Government to roll out a pilot program as soon as possible.
Signatories include Robert Fitzgerald AM, Commissioner and Member of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, well-known authors and anti-violence campaigners Jess Hill, Chanel Contos and Grace Tame, leading child sexual exploitation investigator Jon Rouse, White Ribbon CEO Allan Ball, Professor Michael Salter, Katherine Berney, Executive Director of the National Women's Safety Alliance, Madonna King, author 'Saving Our Kids', internationally renowned author and psychologist Steve Biddulph and community leader Tim Costello.
The letter reads:
Dear Minister,
We the undersigned are writing to request a re-think of the Federal Government’s decision not to proceed with an age verification system to help protect children from exposure to p*rnography, as recently announced by yourself on behalf of the Government.
Early porn exposure harms developing s*xual templates, contributes to damaging stereotypes, the development of sexist ideas, the normalisation of violence against women and a rise in child-on-child s*xual abuse. These harms were placed on the record by academics, educators, child safeguarding NGOs, and experts in child development and welfare in submissions to the Inquiry into Age Verification for Online Wagering and Online P*rnography conducted by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs.
In its final report, Protecting the Age of Innocence (February 2020), the bipartisan committee recommended adoption of an age verification system as one obstacle in the way of children being able to access p*rnography. The Committee concluded:
that age verification can create a significant barrier to prevent young people - and particularly young children - from exposure to harmful online content. The Committee’s recommendations therefore seek to support the implementation of online age verification in Australia.
The Committee recommended that the eSafety Commissioner lead the development of a roadmap for implementation of a mandatory Age Verification system for online p*rnography as part of a broader approach. The previous Government accepted this recommendation and eSafety provided its report in March.
In its response, your Government stated it would not implement an age verification system, preferring industry self-regulation. It deferred to the development of industry codes which are likely years away from finalisation. In the meantime, millions more children will be exposed to p*rnography which frequently depicts and eroticises extreme violence against women.
Online p*rnography is recognised as a threat to children in General Comment 25 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ('On children's rights in relation to the digital environment'). The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also recommended “implementing age verification technologies with a view to limiting the access of children to p*rnographic websites.”
The Federal Government acknowledges the role p*rnography plays in violence against women, in its National Plan to Address Violence Against Women and Children (2022-2023).
With p*rnography now overwhelmingly consumed online and via mobile devices, it is both prevalent and pervasive, perpetuating sexist, misogynistic and degrading views about women. This is a serious concern in addressing the drivers of violence against women and children. (p.49)
Our Watch - the lead national organisation for the primary prevention of VAW - also identified the role of p*rnography in contributing to violence in its 2020 report P*rnography, young people and preventing violence against women.
The influence of p*rnography is of concern to those working to prevent violence against women and promote respectful relationships and gender equality, because the bulk of evidence identifies both frequent depictions of violence and typically stereotypical representations of men and women in p*rnography. For example, studies have highlighted the high frequency of specific violent behaviours, largely directed at women, including gagging and verbally abusive language, and the more generally prevalent portrayal of male dominance and female submission. (p.4)
…content analyses have revealed frequent aggression, non-consensual behaviour and multiple forms of violence towards women in p*rnography. These include physical aggression (eg. hitting, slapping, gagging) and verbal aggression (eg. name-calling). The frequency and eroticisation of such depictions may normalise and condone violence against women, in sexual relationships and more generally. P*rnography may encourage these views and/or reinforce them where they already exist. (p.12)
It is our strong view that the Government has allowed itself to be swayed by industry resistance to an age verification system. Vested interests should not have been put before the wellbeing of children.
The Government’s initiatives regarding respectful relationships and consent education, while welcome, cannot compete with the world’s largest department of education – the global p*rnography industry.
The Government claims that age verification technologies are immature. However, age verification providers are already successfully utilised in many parts of the world. Age verification systems can be independently assessed by a formally accredited third-party certifier. We note that the Age Check Certification Scheme has robust criteria, including criteria approved by the UK’s Information Commissioner's Office, for independent assessment and certification of age verification providers.
In regard to privacy concerns, providing age verification does not require a record of the purpose for which an age check is carried out. A double-blind approach is applied to age checks, where the age-restricted website is not given any information about the identity of the user, and the age verification provider records no data about the identity of the website seeking to confirm a user's age.
According to eSafety research, more than three in four Australian adults support government implementation of age assurance for online p*rnography. In its report, eSafety recommended (p.8): “Trial a pilot before seeking to prescribe and mandate age assurance technology.”
We request that at minimum, this recommendation be adopted.
In its response to eSafety’s roadmap report, the Government concluded: “The first duty of any Government is to protect its citizens from harm.” Actioning eSafety’s recommendation regarding a pilot program would demonstrate your Government is sincere in its stated concerns about the protection and safeguarding of our most vulnerable citizens.
We urge the Government to re-evaluate its decision and proceed with a pilot program.
September 19, 2023
Contact: Melinda Tankard Reist: [email protected];
Porn profits before child protection: Government dismisses age-verification
Media Release
Porn profits before child protection: Government dismisses age verification
Collective Shout has condemned the Federal Government for refusing to adopt an age verification system as one obstacle to help protect children from exposure to pornography.
The Federal Government today published the eSafety Commisioner’s Roadmap for Age Verification along with its response.
This is a sad day for child safeguarding stakeholders who lobbied for years for an age verification system, contributing to Federal inquiries and stakeholder roundtables.
The Government has caved to the vested interests of the porn industry.
The Government has passed the buck to the development of industry codes which are still years away from being finalised. It is highly unlikely a pilot, as recommended by the eSafety Commissioner, will ever get off the ground.
It’s time to stop calling this process a “Roadmap”. There is no “Roadmap”. There are only delays and obstacles to doing anything that would bring the predatory porn industry into line.
Even while acknowledging porn as a driver of violence against women, as reflected in its National Plan to Address Violence Against Women and Children (2022-2023), the Government has allowed itself to be swayed by industry resistance to an age-verification system.
If France, Germany, UK, Louisiana and Utah can roll out age verification systems, why can’t we?
Vested interests should not be put before the wellbeing of children.
The Government’s initiatives regarding respectful relationships and consent education cannot compete with the world’s largest department of education – the global pornography industry.
Every day without Government action, more and more children are being exposed to rape, torture, sadism and extreme degradation of women, deforming their developing sexual templates. We are seeing the results in our schools every day, with a rise in sexual harassment, rape threats and demands for nudes. Primary school girls are routinely sent dick pics.
Adolescent boys aged 15-19 are the largest cohort of sexual offenders in this country,
In its response to the eSafety report, the Government concludes: “The first duty of any Government is to protect its citizens from harm.” In dismissing the adoption of proof-of-age protections for children, it has failed in this duty.
Thursday August 31, 2023
Contact: Melinda Tankard Reist
Movement Director
Media release: Call to Hardie Grant to remove advice on 'headless nudes' from new sex book: over 1000 sign open letter
Media Release
Collective Shout has called on Hardie Grant Grant Children's Publishing to remove advice for minors re the sending of nudes from its new title 'Welcome to Sex’ (Dr Melissa Kang, Yumi Stynes, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing, Richmond, Vic, 2023).
The Open Letter is addressed to Sandy Grant, Chief Executive and Chair and Fiona Hardie, Chair, Hardie Grant Media & Director. It has so far been signed by 1,237 individuals including leading adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg and cyber-safety expert and former police officer Susan McLean.
Read more