Published by Courier Mail - May 17, 2021

Parents have shared their horror stories as more and more young children’s behaviour is impacted by exposure to porn.

Response to Age Verification Inquiry report overdue in face of sex abuse crisis in schools

In March 2020, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs’ Inquiry released its report on age verification for online wagering and pornography. Now over a year old, the report - Protecting the Age of Innocence- recommended a roadmap for an age verification system to help protect children from exposure to online porn.

Sunday marks the annual UN International Day of the Girl (#IDG2020). This year’s theme is ‘My voice, our equal future’. 

Click here to give, and help girls know their true value on Day of the Girl

Our Movement Director, Melinda Tankard Reist, was a delegate at the Beijing Women’s Conference 25 years ago when the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the global agenda for advancing the rights and empowerment of women and girls - was formulated.

"A form of pornography" 

‘Porn is presenting rough sex and anal sex as something normal, and teenage boys are learning from their screens that it often involves violence and humiliation’ – Nikki Gemmell

How encouraging to read the concerns a number of us have been attempting to raise for close on a decade now, in our national broadsheet The Australian.

Trigger warning: sexual abuse.

A recent article offering men advice about how to proposition a woman wearing headphones – encouraging them to block her path to prevent her from ignoring them – rightfully provoked a major backlash. But the backlash also brought a certain phenomenon to wider public attention – the fact that women sometimes wear headphones as a way to avoid unwanted approaches in public.

The public conversation on violence against women tends to focus on sexual assault and domestic abuse. We talk less about the routine intrusions women experience from men in their everyday lives, even though this is the most common form of sexual violence.

My recent research looked at how women navigate interruptions, intrusions, and harassment from unknown men in public. What was most surprising was how all 50 of the women I interviewed significantly underestimated the amount of work they were putting in to avoid intrusions by men in the street, and the impact this had on them.

They recognised that they were making certain decisions about routes home, or where to sit on public transport. They spoke about using sunglasses or headphones in order to create a shield – a way to give the impression that they didn’t hear that man making a sexual comment, or didn’t see that other man touching himself as he walked behind them.

Many categorised their clothes in relation to safety. Scarves were seen as safe – handy for covering your chest. The colour red was, for some, seen as unsafe – too bright, too obvious, too visible. Some even adopted particular facial expressions, trying to balance “looking tough” against the desire to not be told to “cheer up” by a man they’d never met before.

The women I spoke to knew they were doing some of these things but other behaviours were less conscious. They hadn’t really reflected on how much energy went into avoiding unwanted contact below the surface and how their freedom was affected.

Image: The Federalist

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Tracey Spicer says she will reveal the names of "long-term offenders" of sexual harassment in Australia's media industry, and has called on her social media followers to share their stories of harassment and abuse.

The veteran journalist, a regular contributor to Fairfax Media, said she was currently investigating two offenders but there are "plenty more".

Image: Fairfax