MEDIA RELEASE
For release: Thursday, November 8, 2012
The Australian Christian Lobby has renewed its call for a mandatory internet filter to block refused classification material after new revelations show teenagers view explicit sexual practices as normal.
A leader at a prestigious Perth boys’ school has criticised parents for allowing their children unlimited access to the internet, which he says has caused students to believe that sexual acts such as anal and oral sex are normal for 13-year-olds because that is what they are exposed to in online pornography.
ACL spokeswoman Wendy Francis says this has highlighted the important need for the federal government to review legislation concerning the accessibility of online pornography by children.
“Talking to student about what they see online is important, but is too little too late. It is important to prevent unwanted access to pornography in the first place. In this regard the comments from Edith Cowan University’s Prof Lelia Green are naïve,” Ms Francis said.
“We must protect our children from forming unhealthy attitudes towards women and sex,” she said.
Australian research has found that children as young as 11 are regularly accessing porn online.
Research has also found that 84 per cent of boys and 60 per cent of girls have been exposed to internet sex sites accidentally.
ACL has recently made a submission to the Victorian Law Reform Committee’s inquiry into sexting, where it called on the Federal Government to introduce an internet filter to block refused classification material in an attempt to further protect children from the dangers of sexually explicit content.
Currently there is growing pressure for such a filter in the UK, with more than 110,000 people signing a petition calling for the Government to enforce opt-in filters on online pornography.
Yes, this filter should take place as soon as possible. Our precious children ar subject to enough of this type of thing. Please protect our lovely kids and care enough to do something. Any child is a potential target. The sooner the better.
Guys,
I do not believe that providers (Internet Service Providers) should be responsible for filtering internet services. I am of christian beliefs and have 3 children. There are plenty of filtering pieces of software available to parents to use if they are not proactive in the monitoring of what their children are viewing on the internet. It is about time, that people look in there own backyards then enforcing filtering on everyone. We are able to think for ourselves. Myself a victim of sexual molestation when I was a child is offended and apauled at some content – but I still believe that it is our duty as a parent to oversee what our children are doing
Good to see that Government has finally scrapped its plans to introduce this filter and let me be a parent to protect my children
Samantha
System Administrator
SBDC
Hi Samantha,
I understand what you are saying that parents need to accept responsibility … but what about protecting innocent children from pornography even when their parents are not concerned enough to be as proactive as you are. When it becomes the norm for the children around us to be polluted by such garbage, then the whole of society will suffer for it.
Eddie Olsen
Pastor, Tumut Valley Christian Fellowship
I agree with Pastor Olsen. We do not want a ‘nanny state’ but there are too many parents who are not sufficiently concerned with what their children are looking at. Children see these things, they talk about them, so this mind slant is circulated among a whole group of children – including children who are protected at home. I have been an R.I. teacher for 28 years and the decline I have seen in parental responsibility in that time is frightening. There are wonderful parents – but there are such a lot who are not.
It is regrettable that the call for internet filtering to protect children against exposure to pornography has failed, but there is a device which parents and school principals might like to try. It is a modem claimed to be better than the regular filtering software. It is called CyberSafe247.