The annual roundup - be encouraged!
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What a year it’s been! 2020 has been challenging for all of us, but we have continued the fight against the objectification of women, sexualisation of girls, porn and porn culture, and achieved some amazing victories along the way. And what a perfect end to the celebration of our ten-year anniversary. Here’s a summary of the main victories:
We successfully called on global e-commerce platform Alibaba to withdraw child sex abuse dolls after identifying 23 sellers in a campaign that attracted global attention. Alibaba and other mega on-line shopping corporates are now consulting with us to prevent the sale of these and other child sexual exploitation-related products on their platforms. (Our campaign exposing global marketplace Etsy for selling child sex abuse dolls was the lead piece on news.com.au. We continue to put pressure on the platform to remove child sex abuse dolls and child sex abuse doll parts).
We participated in the global campaign to shut down Pornhub, exposing their crimes of violence against women and children - resulting in the porn site removing the download button and only allowing uploads from verified users. Both Mastercard and Visa have since cut ties with the platform, blocking use of their cards on the website. In the last 24 hours Pornbub has deleted 10.6million videos - 75 percent of its content! 
Our #WakeUpInstagram #InstaPimpsGirls campaign resulted in the platform removing hundreds of accounts for child exploitation activity after we reported them. It has also seen the implementation of a new privacy feature to block strangers from direct messaging children and an in-app reporting tool to flag accounts that sexualise children.
LOL surprise dolls in bondage and fetishwear marketed for girls were pulled from Big W, Target and Kmart after our campaign.
After our flash-campaign against it, Melbourne-based BBQ company Boss Hogg and the Duchess of Pork pulled its violent, anti-women promo material depicting a woman bound and being roasted alive by a monstrous male-pig figure.
Bakers Delight removed their ad depicting tween girls bound and gagged to sell tarts after we called them out for trivialising the serious issue of the abuse and torture of children.
Melbourne-based pizza franchise Bubba Pizza withdrew pizza boxes with sexist slogans after we exposed them.
Our campaign against KFC’s sexist grooming of boys attracted global media attention, with Campaigns Manager Melinda Liszewski quoted in the New York Times. KFC apologised for the ad which was in the top ten most complained about for the year.
Woolworths Dan Murphy’s withdrew former porn performer and alleged sex offender Ron Jeremy’s rum from sale after our rapid-fire campaign. The ad used the wording ‘Get some Ron into you’ and other porn-related double-entres.
A number of our complaints against Honey Birdette were upheld by Ad Standards, bringing the total of upheld complaints against the sex shop brand to 45. We exposed the men who profit from sex store Honey Birdette- male owners Brett Blundy and Ray Itaoui. We also met with heads of Male Champions of Change whose ‘male champions’ include the same CEO’s shopping centre landlords who allow Honey Birdette to continue to pornify women in a public space with impunity.
After three ethical super companies decided to divest or downgrade investment in shopping centres hosting the sex store, another two advised they were re-examining their relationships with the property groups.
We continued our long-running campaign to overhaul Ad Standards, calling out a weak code of conduct and lack of enforcement powers where complaints are upheld and no penalties for non-compliance. Following increased pressure, the Australian Association of National Advertisers announced a review of its Code of Ethics, to which we contributed here. (The new code will go into effect in the New Year. We wait to see if it will result in any improvements).
Australia Border Force blocked the importation of animated pornography ‘Hentai’, which has been found to contain depictions of rape, incest and sexual abuse committed against minors. We had earlier called for blocking of this content from importation.
After Melinda Liszewski called out a mobile trailer strip club ad featuring a naked woman just 500m from a local primary school, the Queensland government announced all sex industry ads would be investigated.
Highlights
We contributed to major Federal and State government inquiries including The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inuiry into Age Verification for online pornography, Australian Classification regulation, Online Safety Legislation Reform, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing, Victoria’s Review into Decriminalisation of Sex Work, the National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery 2020-24, the NSW inquiry into Modern Slavery, and the national inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence, and the UN inquiry into children’s rights in the digital environment. Read our submissions here.
We returned to schools after an 8-month hiatus due to Covid-19. The response has been so encouraging! Book Collective Shout speakers Melinda Tankard Reist and Daniel Principe for a presentation at your school or community group.
Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist represented Collective Shout at the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation’s (ACCCE) annual child protection stakeholder workshop during National Child Protection Week. We also published our statement of support for the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, backed by the WePROTECT Global Alliance.
Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist and Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper addressed the 2020 Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Online Global Summit hosted by the National Centre to End Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) in Washington. You can find their sessions here, along with a number of other interviews, podcasts and Facebook Lives. We took part in many podcasts on sexualisation, porn harms, sex dolls and robos and violence against women during COVID lockdown. You can find some of the main ones here.
We kept up pressure on car maintenance company Ultratune, attracting international attention for our social media actions during the Australian Open, during which Ultratune’s sexist ads were broadcast.
We welcomed Renee Chopping to our campaigns strategy team.
We celebrated ten years of Collective Shout, reminiscing on a decade of wins in the fight against sexploitation.
These wins and highlights would not have been possible without you. Thank you for your support, have a wonderful Christmas, and we look forward to kicking more goals with you in the New Year.
See also
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