Porn, family violence linked to surge in child-on-child sex abuse cases The number of children sexually abusing other children has risen steeply, with treatment services reporting that pornography and family violence are fuelling the trend. Children as young as four are being referred to programs for problem sexual behaviour as more parents and schools detect […]
Member of ‘150 Women Who Shake the World’ in Australia with a powerful message American documentary-maker and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) expert Libby Spears arrives in Australia today with a powerful message. “Commercial exploitation of children is not just a third world problem. “The USA has a thriving child sex industry. The same […]
UPDATE: Brisbane Screening October 2 In addition to screenings in Sydney (October 7) and Melbourne (October 9), ‘Playground’ will also be shown in Brisbane October 2. Details and bookings here.
My story is as isolated an incident as the existence of Walmart stores There’s this idea that trafficking happens ‘over there’ somewhere, in some God-forsaken hellhole. There is little understanding that the selling of girls happens every day in so-called enlightened Western liberal democracies. Carrie Bailee’s story of being sold by her father into a […]
In the pornified music world populated by churned-out female pop stars pumping and grinding to a sexualised script, cavorting semi-naked and presented as sexually insatiable, we see Miley Cyrus simulating sex acts while denuded of real sexuality. While many around the world condemned what was seen as an overtly sexualised performance at the recent MTV […]
Parole board failures a matter of life and death When murderer John Coombes was convicted for a second murder, what did the Adult Parole Board do? Let him out of prison in 2007 to murder his friend, foster mother Raechel Betts, and throw her body parts into the sea. When violent offender William Watkins was […]
Over exposure is making teens pawns to porn A 15-year-old boy confided in me after I addressed his class at a Sydney school last year. He cried as he told me he had been using porn since the age of nine. He didn’t have a social life, had few friends, had never had a girlfriend. […]
Pouty self portraits have turned boy-girl relations into a cut-throat sexual rat race. If social media only caused narcissism, it wouldn’t be the worst thing. Instagram and Facebook are social networks that not only breed narcissistic tendencies but transform relations into a sexual rat race. On these ubiquitous portals, the popularity of girls is hotly […]
‘Roxy and the “sex sells” agenda of surf corporations a la Big Surfing are completely disconnected from what we know surfing to be about: freedom. We don’t want what you are selling’ When writing my column on the objectification of women in sport, I came across the writings of American surfer and Women’s World Longboard […]
My first column with Fairfax As a teenage girl growing up in country Victoria, I was an avid reader of The Age. It inspired in me a passion for journalism. I did work experience on the local paper and went on to study journalism at RMIT. I scored a cadetship and began my life as […]
Abused, threatened, but Talitha Stone won’t be stopped One of the great rewards of this work is seeing a growing wave of young women go into battle against violence against women in all its brutal manifestations, calling out and naming this violence as unacceptable. One such woman is 24-year-old Talitha Stone. Talitha decided she had […]
‘Encouraging teens to wait until they feel ready for sex is not to promote oppression. It is to promote empowerment’ By Dr Emma Rush Clueless, to say the least. Michelle Griffin’s claim (‘Why teens should read raunchy novels and straight-up smut’) that “teens should read more porn”, not to mention her implied claim that more […]
