A strong anti porn campaign is being run by a former advisor to Senator Harradine, Melinda Tankard Reist, and a South Australian group, Kids Free 2B Kids.

Their aim is to get plastic sealed, adult magazines out of newsagencies and petrol stations. This campaign has had an unreported consequence over the summer break with the Classification Office issuing a statement saying they would refuse to classify imported adult magazines with post-print modifications (black dots on rude bits) to meet Australia’s strict censorship guidelines. Effectively this decision would have ended the importation and legal distribution of all soft core (Category 1 Restricted) magazines in Australia.

Because of the extortionate cost of classifying publications in Australia ($500 to classify a raunchy business card!) most imported magazines are sold without being classified. After legal advice and some pretty strong letters to the director of the Classification Board from the Eros Association, he overturned his earlier decision.

This constant and rising fear of sexualizing children began with a shrill report from the left-leaning, right-sliding, Australia Institute on ‘corporate paedophilia’. They accused retailers such as David Jones of producing Lolita-like ads for children’s clothing. Talk about moral panic! This was followed by the Bill Henson witch -hunt which has now led to the most innocuous of photos of topless toddlers being banned from a regional West Australian art gallery.

Where will this all end? We are now starting to get many reports of what used to be clear and unambiguous adult sexuality being defined as child pornography by people in public office. Instances where authorities agree that models are definitely over 18 (often with age certificates stating they are in their 20s) but because they feel the models are ‘acting’ young the material suddenly becomes 'child pornography'. An adult woman dressed in a school skirt is now taboo. Hairstyles are now being used as a gauge to how young people appear as well as a lack of proliferation of body hair. Does anyone else think that this issue is spiraling out of control and that society’s scant resources to stop actual child sexual assault and child pornography are being wasted in this bizarre moral panic? We are dangerously blurring the lines between legal sexual activity and depictions of criminal activities and the Sex Party believes that it is time that the federal Parliament opened an official enquiry into this whole issue.

The media must take some of the blame. RSS feeds and news services that pick up articles about pornography show that about 90% of ‘porn’ headlines actually relate to child pornography but media organisations short-hand this with the misleading heading “man found with porn”. What they actually mean is 'man found with images of children being sexually abused'. From Conroy to the Canberra Times this blurring of child porn with consenting adult sexual activity is a very major concern.

Fiona Patten