Naomi, a 13-year-old Melbourne student, saw this large billboard advertising DFO with the catchline: ‘Starving for Style’. She knew it was wrong, and got her Mum to contact us.

We are very pleased to report that we have successfully defended our movement against legal threats from Sexpo, with the Federal Court in Brisbane dismissing an application  brought against Collective Shout by Sexpo Limited. Sexpo Limited was also ordered to pay Collective Shout’s costs.

It was in May 2017 that we were alerted to public buses servicing school routes in Perth that featured advertisements for Sexpo. The ads included the web address for one of their sponsors, a broadcaster of live streamed sex shows.

Ad Standards dismissed complaints and rejected our request for a review. Case Manager Nikki Paterson claimed that advertising live sex shows on the side of a bus was not a breach of the code. Our petition to prevent similar ads on Brisbane buses, due out the following month, attracted over 5000 signatures.

Brisbane Sexpo ads running on school buses, billboards- News.com.au

Sexpo’s lawyers threatened to sue Collective Shout for damages for “misleading and deceptive behaviour” under consumer law, citing social media posts by two staff members.

Sexpo claimed that Collective Shout was misleading because the bus ads promoting MyFreeCams.com did not share a url, and only included the words ‘My Free Cams’ with no .com to follow. They also denied that the image existed on a bus or any other physical medium. Take a look at a range of photographic evidence that proves otherwise:

In the weeks following the release of our petition, the ‘.com’ from the following billboard was blacked out:

Last month, The Honourable Justice Reeves dismissed Sexpo’s application against Collective Shout, concluding:

I do not consider Sexpo has established that it held a reasonable belief that it had suffered any harm to its commercial reputation as a consequence of Collective Shout’s alleged representations such that it may have a right to obtain relief in a claim against it. Sexpo’s application under r 7.23 must therefore be dismissed. I will order accordingly.

Justice Reeves also noted that Sexpo provided more than 500 pages of affidavit material in connection with their application, yet only three paragraphs were directly devoted to the existence of Sexpo’s belief about its right to obtain relief from Collective Shout, an argument ultimately rejected by the judge. Real the full judgment here.

The ruling against Sexpo is a significant victory- not just for Collective Shout and our supporters, but for all those who support the rights of children to live free from pornography. The sex industry in Australia has been permitted to target children with advertising for pornography and prostitution in public spaces for too long, and we are more committed than ever to stand up for the rights of children.

See also:

Sexpo organisers take on prominent feminists in Federal Court- Courier Mail 

Brisbane Sexpo ads running on school buses, billboards-News.com.au

Sexpo loses federal court bid against anti-sexualisation organisation- Brisbane Times

Corporate Paedophilia: Ad Standards Board justifies promoting porn sites to children

Ad Standards have upheld complaints against a strip club, Goldfingers Mens Club over an “unavoidable” poster on the corner of King Street and Lonsdale Street featuring a highly sexualised image of a woman with a guitar between her legs.

We congratulate Amazon today for removing the anatomically correct child sex dolls that have been for sale on its website. The sale of such dolls and similar material has earned Amazon a spot on the National Center’s Dirty Dozen List for the past two years.

A mother has won a battle against teen clothing company Missguided who were promoting child sexual abuse imagery in their shop.

Clarks removal of “Dolly Babe” demonstrates the power of speaking up. Your voice matters and as a collective, we can end sexploitation of women and girls. 

The well-known British shoe brand, Clarks, came under fire after naming a pair of girls’ shoes “Dolly Babe” and a pair of boys’ shoes “Leader”, enabling sexist stereotypes. Clarks are withdrawing the school shoe for girls called “Dolly Babe” after it provoked accusations of sexism, however, the equivalent version for boys called “Leader” have not been removed. Despite Clarks choice to keep “Leader”, their actions demonstrate successful corporate responsibility and accountability. 

Perth's Indi Bar has taken down an image from their Facebook page after a barrage of complaints from Facebook users accusing them of promoting rape culture and violence against women. The image, referencing an act of sexual violence common in pornography, was an ad for their hot dogs and beer.

                             

We were pleased to report that after our successful campaign to get sexploitation mag Zoo Weekly out of Coles supermarkets Bauer Media announced the sexist lads mag was closing. 

Last week we were alerted to an ad by education provider Learning Cloud, featuring on their Twitter and Facebook page.

It’s been a massive year of campaigning at Collective Shout this year- perhaps our best yet!