On the weekend – on the eve of International Women’s Day – I wrote about a Facebook slut page, arguing it enabled cyber bullying, stalking and harassment. On the page, photos were posted of girls and women who were labelled ‘sluts’. One was 10-years-old. Another had been bashed (she deserved it, she was a slut). A later image showed a woman bound, with her head decapitated. Many were just smiling young women at home or having fun with girlfriends. And so it went on, image after image of girls and women branded with this virtual scarlet letter.
The piece got a run in On Line Opinion today.
It appears that Facebook has responded to criticism. The site has been removed. Thanks to all who reported it.
Of course, that’s not the last of the bullies. Dannielle Miller from Enlighten Education blogged on bullying and social networking sites this week. You can read her piece here.
My friend Anita had her own experience with on-line abusers this week, who demanded their entitlement to child pornography. Anita set up a Facebook site to find 3 billion people willing to add their voice to a global campaign against child porn. The site was inundated with comments by men extolling the pleasures of child rape and posting links to child porn. (She has removed them). Please support Anita’s efforts against the production of and demand for child sexual assault images and sign up.
Below is a comment on my original blog by Merryn Smith. It’s so good I wanted to give it more prominence.
“I think the problem with social networking sites and a great deal of internet is that people assume that it merely reflects socio/cultural reality. Actually it produces reality, as does all discourse. So it’s easy to reduce the meanings generated by groups like these as mere ‘words’. Hence men (and a small proportion of young naive girls) always call forth the freedom of speech argument to conceal one of purposes of this type of ‘othering’ discourse. Women are the largest group that are targeted as the ‘other’ inhuman ‘thing’ through this type of ancient discursive act. But of course ethnic groups and the working classes are also kept in place through these ‘othering’ discourses. This is of course about power. The power to dehumanise comes hand in hand with physical acts of violence. But we know that young women suffer terribly high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault in our cultures. Yes these groups reflect that, but they also produce a cultural climate and language that condones, encourages and applauds the dehumanisation of half of the worlds population. Of course these groups hide behind notions of freedom and the separation of bodily acts and psychological acts, or body and mind, body and speech. But of course these young men and boys (mostly) are passing through their right of passage-their right to dehumanise woman and girls. This is how men bond. It is through the ‘othering’ process that makes them feel that they belong. We need to fight this by creating spaces for young women where they can ‘go’, real and virtual, where they are not used as a symbol of male belonging and bonding. We need to create spaces where woman and girls (especially girls) can create their own embodied and disembodied world realities. But it aint easy. Happy Women’s Day…”
16 Responses
I am very glad that this group has finally been removed by Facebook! Thank you for raising awareness for these causes.
Melinda, can you please post another link to your friend’s Facebook group that is campaigning against child pornography – the link you have provided seems to require a log in with your email address.
Thanks Melanie. Should be working properly now.
You know I’d respect Anita Tibbert’s efforts on her “3 Billion People To Fight Child Porn” Facebook group if she had used real statistics instead of ones which have been so widely discredited. The evidence can be found on Irene Graham’s Libertus.net website under the “Statistics Laundering: false and fantastic figures”.
The first claim “Child pornography is among the fastest growing criminal segments on the internet. It’s revenue is estimated at 3 billion dollars per year” seems to originate from a 2000 book called “The Drug of the New Millennium” by Mark Kastleman, who claimed when a journalist from Forbes magazine asked him about the statistic, “I don’t remember where I got that from […] That is a very common statistic”. So it’s completely made up by Mr Kastleman.
Second claim; “it is estimated that approximately 20% of all Internet pornography involves children”, is another load of codswallop. According to Irene’s research; This 20% ‘statistic’ originated in a 1994 study which found that approximately 20% of 150 images posted to Usenet newsgroups (i.e. not Web sites) depicted naked persons who were or were claimed to be (by the poster) under 18 years. The images were mostly of the type found in nudist magazines and the researchers said they “never came across an image depicting a sexual act between an adult and a child/adolescent, or acts between children”. So the question remains why Anita is using a 16 year old claim that even those who conducted the original 1994 research thought it was a bit dodgy at the time.
Child sexual abuse is bad enough without resorting to lying about it. Looking at Anita’s Facebook group, I’m not even sure of what she hopes to achieve. I kind of leave crimes and criminals up to the police. As she noted in Facebook group, 400 arrests were apparently made last year. Does this not indicate the police are doing their job and catching those who create and distribute child porn?
Lying about it Matthew W? That’s a bit unfair don’t you think? It sounds like Anita just cares about the issue. If you genuinely think she’s got her stats wrong, how about “hey Anita, great group. I thought I should let you know that the stats you’re using aren’t correct, a better place to find them is here…..” But instead you accuse her of lying?
It sounds like Anita is trying to do something positive, if you wanted to know what she wants to achieve with the group, how about joining the group and *asking her* rather than being so critical.
This is Testimony of Special Agent Flint Waters Lead Agent for the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, who writes about the challenge of limited resources in dealing with the problem of child abuse and the trade of child abuse images. It reads in part:
“I would like to be clear, I am NOT saying law enforcement isn’t doing enough with what they have. I am saying they could do so much more if they only had the resources.
Senators, I would ask you to picture the pile of work you have to leave waiting at the end of your day. While you want to make more progress at some point you have to go home,
as it is there isn’t enough time for home and family. Now imagine that in your inbox are hundreds of leads. And as you leave the office to go home, you know you are walking away from dozens of children who are waiting to be rescued. Each of those children must wonder if anyone cares.
Imagine if a serial rapist was on the loose in the U.S. attacking innocent citizens and then uploading videos of those rapes onto the Internet. That’s exactly what we see flooding the Internet now. But the sexual assault victims are children. Many are infants and toddlers. Some cry and scream for help. Others have stopped crying.
Please forgive the offensive nature of what I am speaking about here today. I describe these despicable crimes to you because I hope that you never have to see them. I want you to truly understand the crimes being perpetrated on American children because I know that you have some of the greatest power to intervene.”
Read full testimony here, warning *not pleasant reading – may be triggering.*
http://judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/08-04-16WatersTestimony.pdf
Grace said “Lying about it Matthew W? That’s a bit unfair don’t you think?”
Sorry, Grace, please show where I said she lied. She is using statistics that are widely discredited. That’s the issue here. It does not help to overstate the problem.
Grace said “It sounds like Anita is trying to do something positive, if you wanted to know what she wants to achieve with the group, how about joining the group and *asking her* rather than being so critical.”
Well, gee, making a Facebook group really helps children, doesn’t it? Gathering 3 billion members to do what exactly? Oh gee I don’t know, how about we let the AFP deal with criminals? How about we lobby the government to ask they stop wasting over a hundred million on censoring the internet which will not save a single child and poor it into the AFP’s chronically underfunded Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team? You do realise the Labor government shaved $2.8 million off their budget when they came into power and delayed the planned increase of an additional 90 staff for more than a year.
You know, I’m not going to waste my time making silly Facebook groups thinking somehow I’m going save children from being molested by their family members. I got off my arse and wrote a letter to my local MP suggesting that the money for their absurd internet filtering plan be diverted into things like the AFP’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team. I may have got a crappy form letter back, but hey, at least I took some action.
You want to help children? Ask the government to fund the AFP properly. Become a police officer, psychologist or councillor so you can work with damaged children and help them comes to terms with what has happened to them. Seriously gathering 3 billion Facebook members does nothing except make those involved temporally feel good about themselves.
Here is where you suggested lying:
“Child sexual abuse is bad enough without resorting to lying about it. Looking at Anita’s Facebook group, I’m not even sure of what she hopes to achieve.”
And you said:
“……..chronically underfunded Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team”
“You want to help children? Ask the government to fund the AFP properly. Become a police officer, psychologist or councillor so you can work with damaged children and help them comes to terms with what has happened to them.”
That might be exactly what Anita wants her group to lobby for. Many people create groups in order to connect with and educate people too. You have been unfairly critical and very presumptuous.
Grace, why doesn’t she actually say she wants to do then on her Facebook group? The only thing it actually mentions is that she wants 3 billion people to join. I mean why would anyone join if the group has no stated purpose or goal other than 3 billion people are meant to join? Why isn’t she up front and clearly states what she wants actually to do? There is no stated goal, nothing. Why do I have to join her group just to find out what her goal is? I’m not joining any group unless I understand what their goal and purpose is. As I said before, criminals are dealt with via police. She must have illusions of grandeur if she thinks that she’ll wipe out child sexual abuse if 3 billion people join her Facebook group.
Well don’t join then Matthew! Quit harping on about it and insulting Anita.
It actually says she wants people “ready to fight child porn.” That could entail any number of things in terms of campaign strategies, it’s up to her. If people want to be involved, they’ll join. If they don’t want to, they won’t. *So don’t.*
I’m not trying to insult her. I’m questioning why people like keep using statistics about child sexual abuse which have been proven time and time again to be utterly false. I’m questioning why people like her create such groups as all she seems to be doing is whipping up fear. The group serves no real purpose. There’s no direction, no goal. It’s unhelpful and only furthers the whole “pedos are everywhere!” nonsense. This is why we have absurd laws where parents can’t take photos of their own children at school swimming carnivals. There’s an irrational fear of this crime completely out of whack with the actual crime rates which is really unhealthy for a society and the children who grow up in it.
As I said before, crime is handled by police officers and specialised units with police organisations, not citizens. There is nothing that I, you or anyone else can do from stopping a child being molested by their uncle, a family friend or even their father. Nothing. We don’t have magic powers to stop this. Unless you can enlighten me as to how ordinary citizens can control others so they don’t commit these crimes, or how by gaining 3 billion Facebook members the crime will be magically eradicated from the face of the Earth.
Hi Matthew, Grace, thanks both of you for your concern. Matthew I actually think we’re on a similar page –
“You want to help children? Ask the government to fund the AFP properly. Become a police officer, psychologist or councilor so you can work with damaged children and help them comes to terms with what has happened to them.”
Exactly. I don’t think asking people to sign a petition, light candles or click
‘join’ on a facebook page is enough. All are good things, but before the average jo can become a psychologist or counselor with a particular interest in this area, they need to be aware that this is a problem in the first place.
Every person that joins highlights the problem to their extension of friends via FB news feeds. Potentially this exposes the problem to thousands who may not normally see how this issue is becoming increasingly imbedded into our societies.
Re stats. I agree with you it is not appropriate to paint a delusional picture but unfortunately my information is also what the UN reference. You sound like you care about this issue as much as I do. I’ll allow Abigail to outline this information further.
You’ll note on my page I was looking for people *ready* to fight child pornography. I hope to encourage creative initiatives, not do something as exclusive as prescribing a letter for lobbying. For example, an artist can create a expo to highlight the problem and raise monies, a chef can organise a dinner, a youth worker can become more aware of connecting issues such as the oversexulization of our children and do more to effectively address this problem. A law expert can offer legal advice to those in this arena, a radio announcer can broadcast a show, a comedian can use humour to highlight important truths to their audience, a barista can put a fundraising tin out besides their till, a drama group can run a play, the consumer can boycott products that sexulize our children. You get the point. Often when we ask for a signature on a petition people can assume that’s enough. It’s not.
Unfortunately leaving this issue solely up to the police isn’t enough. As highlighted in the report Melinda L posted, they need our help.
Please don’t feel you have to join ‘3 billion people to fight child porn’ in order to fight child porn or child abuse in general. The group is not about promoting fear, it’s about promoting action. The group is a gateway for awareness, motivation and change. I have no ulterior motives. I am not a prescriptive organization, a politician, or an answer. I am simply someone who cares calling on others to care.
Calling on the power of the human spirit will far out way the power of CP distribution.
That’s fine Anita, but here’s the problem for me; your campaign is about the creation and distribution of child porn. This stuff isn’t out in the open. Nobody can just Google the stuff and it comes up. Doesn’t happen. My 15 years or so on the internet seems to confirm this. From the press releases from the AFP, the majority of this stuff is shared via peer to peer and other secure networks.
So when you say things like “this issue is becoming increasingly imbedded into our societies” and “issues such as the oversexulization of our children and do more to effectively address this problem” and “the consumer can boycott products that sexulize our children”, well, alarm bells start ringing.
There is no link between paedophilia and the creation and distribution of child porn and companies who market boganware like bras for tweens or whatever. These are two separate issues. One is a serious issue that requires full funding of specialist units within police departments, the other is an issue with the media in general and some companies who sell these products. I believe the second has absolutely no relation to the first. I also believe that to a degree the eye has been taken off the ball (deliberately or otherwise) and somehow over the last decade or so the parameters of what is child porn have expanded, seemingly for no other reason other than to create a new set of criminals.
First example is the Henson affair. Despite the whole nonsense over it, the “worst” image was rated PG by the classification board. And we now have new laws in NSW where artists will have to submit their work to the classification board if it contains nude children.
Second, the Biggles9 case. Chris Illingworth, a 60 year old from QLD, was charged with publishing child abuse material after he republished a viral video of a man twirling a baby around. Never mind that this video had been screened on various news shows across the world. Never mind the fact that the classification board later rated the video MA15+ and case was rightly dropped.
In both cases, children were not harmed. In both cases those accused had not harmed children. In both cases valuable police time and resources were wasted on what were essentially nonsense charges.
So my problem is; a) people are already aware of the problems of child porn. It regularly features in the news and current affairs shows I really don’t know how anyone could not know about it. b) Widening the definition of child porn and abuse material only nets innocent people for no real reason. c) because of the widening of the parameters of what is child porn, this takes away police resources and time away from finding actual child abusers. Only the police can track paedophiles down, citizens shouldn’t play vigilante.
You know what Anita? I think what you are trying to do, as outlined in your post, is a great idea. Thanks for taking the time to facilitate such a group. I’m sorry you have to take as much crap and amazingly, criticism (!) as you’ve received for your efforts to create awareness, motivation and change. I heard a quote once which went something like “i used to think, I wish someone would do something about that – then i realised i was someone.”
Thanks for being someone.
Anita, I have joined your group on facebook for one simple reason. Its another stept in fighting this. We all cant be police or investigators or work in the welfare fiield dealing with the aftermarth of this abuse.
I am a mother who was this time last year groomed by a peadophile because he wanted my daughter. I “met” this person online and built up a relationship online with him. One night we were talking and he asked if I would like to see pictures. Of course I would, this man has 2 little girls similer age of my daughter (well he told me he did). I open the email and there are the most disgusting pictures I have ever seen. I didnt know what to do, who to tell about this and my first thought was I am going to be in trouble because I now have child porn on my computer! I rang the police and explained what happened and 2 uniforms turned up here joking about this because they had never heard of a mum being sent child porn. They soon stopped when they seen these pictures and were straight on the phone to detectives who were here within a few hourse.
One of the detectives was part of the JERT team and even she said that there pictures were among the worse she has seen.
Apparently this practice is not as uncommon as I thouhgt. These people will do anything to get what they want and as far as Im concerned after what Ive been through, I will support anything to stop this even if it is joining a facebook group.