content.
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Introduction
The exposure of children to sexualised images and content and its sexualising affect is a very serious
and damaging issue of widespread concern to the Australian community. Mums and dads are trying
to raise well-adjusted children in an increasingly toxic environment and it’s hard. Children are being
fed harmful messages as they pass billboards with sexual content with their families on the way to
school, are fed images of the ‘perfect body’ and sexual themes in magazines, almost all young boys
are statistically shown to have been exposed to pornography, standards of television classification
have dropped, and children are being exposed to new controversial sexual and gender ideas at school
that are potentially harmful to their childhood development.
It is clear that these messages are having a range of negative impacts on childhood sexual
development, particularly in outcomes of earlier ages of sexual development and initiation, a rise in
eating disorders, lost opportunities for healthy childhood experiences, a range of issues as a result of
the exposure to hard-core pornography on the internet, and a rise in gender dysphoria.
A range of policy areas currently fall short of protecting children adequately and need to be addressed.
In particular, ACL has chosen to focus on the inadequacies of advertising self-regulation,
recommending the best interests of the child be put first, and that the depiction of sex, sexuality, and
nudity in advertising needs to better reflect community standards. ACL also believes the ASB should
be able to fine those advertisers who breach the code or fail to comply with a determination. Lastly,
ACL submits that outdoor advertising should be ‘G’ rated with a child audience in mind and regulated
through a government body.
Magazines aimed at early teen audience, called ‘tween’ magazines have a high readership amongst
Australian children. The sexualising content contained within some of these magazines is alarming.
ACL believes more needs to be done to address the level of sexual themes and content allowed under
current classification rules.
There is compelling evidence that pornography is having a profound impact on the lives of children by
shaping young people’s sexual understandings, expectations and practices. Children’s exposure to
pornographic material puts one at increased risk of developing sexually deviant tendencies,
committing sexual offences, experiencing difficulties in one’s intimate relationships, and accepting the
rape myth. Given the sharp rise in addiction rates, the rise of freely available hard-core pornography
on the internet, and the very high rate of consumption of pornography by children, it is obvious that
immediate action to curb children’s exposure to internet pornography is needed. A universal, by-
default, ISP-level internet filtering regime at the Commonwealth level is needed to provide a child
friendly ‘clean-feed’ internet service. The increase in the use of smartphones to access the internet
means it is essential that this extend to mobile services. Adult customers would be able to opt out of
the ‘clean-feed’ on request to their ISP.
Sex education and the discussion of sexuality needs to be age and content appropriate so as to avoid
potential harm to childhood development. ACL has genuine concerns about the Safe Schools Coalition
Australia which now operates in a large number of New South Wales Schools. The content of the
program introduces children to controversial and complex, gender and sexual issues. The heavy focus
on sexual and gender identity, at such a young age, runs the risk of causing children to view and label
each other through a sexual lens. An end to the teaching of this content would be a move in the right
direction.
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