Why does Kevin Rudd continue to give sanctuary to the X rated, hard core pornographers in Canberra?  It is illegal to sell, hire or display X rated videos/DVDs in any state in Australia.  They are only available from the territories, mainly Canberra in the ACT.

Medicine, Mind and Adolescence in 2000 found pornography plays a determining role in causing sexual deviancy, trouble in intimate personal relationships, sexual assault and rape.  Unlike someone's personal opinion, the scientific results are "clear and consistent" according to the peer-reviewed scientific journals.

The International Journal of Pediatrics (2006), Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (2007), ANNALS of the New York Academy of Sciences(2006), JOURNAL WATCH (2006) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (2006) along with any number of current empirical scientific journals all agree with Dr Claudio Violato from Universita Ambrosiana in Italy, that pornography "has an influence on violence and family functioning."  Even the senior lecturer in psychology at Macquarie University, Prof R Power, says that if visual imagery had no impact on human attitude and behaviour we would not have advertising campaigns.  We all know that's true.

Dr Don Thompson, the director of Forensic Psychology at Monash University in an address to the Victorian Criminal Justice Symposium reported that "pornography is causally related to sexually violent behaviour" and Crown Prosecutor Richard Read, QC, says "there definitely is a very clear link" between pornography and sex crimes. 

The latest OECD figures show that Australia leads the developed world in rape and violent assault.  The Home Office in London, the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the European Union, the Australian Institute of Criminology and even ABC TV have all reported that "Australia leads the developed world in rape".  It is now proven that pornography contributes to this societal dysfunction and indeed even "causes" it.

Concerned Australians would do well to heed the scientific data instead of ill-informed, self styled 'experts' and demand that the Rudd government place the same simple restrictions on X rated porn in Canberra and the Northern Territory as already exists in all of our states.  

Boys who see porn more likely to harass girls
Maurice Chittenden and Matthew Holehouse
 
BOYS exposed to porn are more likely to indulge in casual sex and less likely to form successful relationships when they grow older, according to research carried out in a dozen countries.

The report, Harms of Pornography Exposure Among Children and Young People, also found that young boys who see pornography are more inclined to believe there is nothing wrong with pinning down or sexually harassing a girl.

Michael Flood, who carried out the study at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, said: “There is compelling evidence from around the world that pornography has negative effects on individuals and communities.

“We know it is shaping sexual knowledge. Some people may think that is good. But porn is a very poor sex educator because it shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance. Often it is quite callous and hostile in its depictions of women.

“It doesn’t mean that every young person is going out to rape somebody but it does increase the likelihood that will happen.”

Research in the UK suggests that 60% of boys under 16 have been exposed to pornography, accidentally or deliberately. The average age at which they first saw porn has dropped from 15 to 11 in less than a decade. The average amount of time they watch porn on the internet is 90 minutes a week.

John Carr, an adviser to the government and secretary of the Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS), said: “We had a case in west London where a boy in the first year of primary school was bringing pictures to school and was acting them out in the playground during the break. When they did a home visit the dad was downloading it and it was all over the house.

“It is not an argument for banning it but it is an argument to find better ways to make it harder for kids to get hold of it.”

Such is the international spread of porn through the internet that youngsters in Asian and African countries see blonde white women on screen and then regard tourists with the same attributes as sex objects, Flood says.

However, Thaddeus Birchard, a psychotherapist who runs a sex addiction practice in London, said: “We are entering a period of moral panic and this is part of it. Children are not receiving sex education at home. Sexually explicit material on the net can even help educate them.

“The internet is a way of being sexually addicted but it does not cause the addiction. What causes it is the relationship between the child and their parents. Almost always they are maternally deprived.”

Petra Boynton, a psychologist, said: “Children are not necessarily looking at porn for gratification. They are doing so because they are bored and not supervised. Often when children look at more extreme porn it is done for bravado so they can laugh and say how disgusting it is.”