What a year it’s been! From challenging the porn and sex doll industries, exposing the sexual exploitation of girls online, authoring two new books and representing CS in Wales and the UK, the Campaign Strategy Team has been busy.
Challenging the porn industry
This year, we saw:
Pornhub executives resign
Pornhub kicked off Instagram, TikTok AND YouTube
Victims of Pornhub launched a $500m class action law suit
Challenging the sexual exploitation of children
This year, our campaigns resulted in:
Twitter and Instagram removing CSAM
Big brands pulled ads from Twitter after child exploitation investigation
The creation of a new offence - "Administering a digital platform used to deal with child abuse material" - added to the NSW Crimes Act 1900
Twitter adding a tool to report child sexual exploitation
Balenciaga withdraws Christmas gift ad campaign featuring children and BDSM-themed products
Sex dolls withdrawn
After exposing companies facilitating and profiting from the sale of sex dolls modelled on the bodies of women and girls...
Made in China removed child sex abuse dolls
Etsy ‘black sex slave’ sex dolls were withdrawn
Sexist and violence-inciting products pulled
Sexist push-up bra ad taken down
Tees normalising violence against women removed from sale
Highlights
We exposed Lendlease broadcasting Honey Birdette pornified exposed genitals ads during school holiday activities
We exposed the epidemic of sexual harassment/sexual moaning in classrooms around the country
We confronted Scentre Group executives at their AGM for profiting from pornified portrayals of women
Collective Shout supporters attracted both national and international media attention for their action against Honey Birdette at Broadway shopping centre
A social media post on Andrew Tate by our campaigner Renee Chopping went viral
More Etsy sellers shut up shop as a result of the company’s unethical business practices
We collaborated with ChildSafe Australia on 'How and when to talk to your teen about consent' for parents attending the Resilient Kids Conference this year
Anna Cordell’s Etsy petition reached 68 000 signatures
We called on Playboy shareholders to stop propping up sexploitation
Many companies signed up to our corporate social responsibility pledge, promising not to objectify women or sexualise girls. If you’d like to have your business included and promoted to our thousands of supporters, please sign the pledge here
Media
Campaigner Lyn Kennedy and Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist attracted national media coverage for our campaigns against child sexual exploitation on Instagram and Etsy
MTR’s piece on the phenomenon of boys sexual moaning in class was run in Eureka Street
Campaign Manager Caitlin Roper's research on child sex abuse dolls was featured in an article on news.com.au
MTR’s essay “The Virtual Death of Nurture” was published in Case Quarterly
Caitlin was invited to write a piece on how sex dolls in the female form harm women and girls for Mamamia
MTR shared the accounts of girls, subjected to sexual harassment, rape threats and abuse by male classmates in an article on news.com.au
Youth Advocate Daniel Principe was interviewed on Sky News on the harms of porn exposure to young people
MTR was featured in a new documentary Trafficked to Australia
Click here to see a full list of Collective Shout in the media.
Publications
MTR and Caitlin released new books on the harms of porn and sex dolls, both published by Spinifex Press
We released our report Side Hustles and Sexual Exploitation, jointly authored by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATWA) exposing how Australian media promoted the sex trade to women during the pandemic
Events
MTR and Caitlin represented CS at FiLiA - the biggest annual feminist conference in Europe – held this year in Cardiff, Wales. Between the two, they presented six times – on running campaigns, challenging the porn industry and sexual exploitation of children, and launching their new books
We had our first in-person supporter event in three years!
Renee gave a presentation on Collective Shout campaigns and victories at the Connecting to Protect Global Virtual Summit 2022
Both Caitlin and MTR participated in the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Online Global Summit this year. Caitlin recorded a session on the harms of child sex abuse dolls, and MTR participated in a panel discussion on the harms of porn on intimate relationships
Caitlin gave two talks at Brisbane Meanjin IWD – watch them here and here
MTR and Caitlin launched their books both virtually and in person – watch the online launches here and here
Education
MTR and Dan reached 21,000 students in public and private schools in every state of Australia (and Christmas Island!) who were empowered and equipped to resist porn culture and engage in cultural transformation.
We partnered with parenting expert Maggie Dent in a survey on the prevalence of sexual harassment in schools
Submissions/Inquiries
We produced a number of submissions into Government inquiries this year, including:
Submission to Social Media and Online Safety inquiry (which MTR appeared before)
Australian Association of National Advertisers' Children's Advertising Code Review
Submission to ONLINESAFETY.ORG.AU
As always, thank you for your support! We couldn’t do it without you. We look forward to achieving more victories in 2023.
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