Dr. J gives the prize for the most misleading headline

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul/05/na-child-porns-dirtysecret-dads-often-behind-lens/news-breaking/
“Nearly twice as many children in a nationwide child-porn database were photographed by their parents as were victims of online enticement. The number victimized by parents was nearly seven times that of children exploited by strangers.”

Later in the article, we learn: "What law enforcement tends to be seeing is that the children who are being used to produce these images are kids being abused in bedrooms and basements and living rooms across the United States and elsewhere," said Michelle Collins, executive director of the Exploited Child Division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The division is a clearinghouse for law enforcement to share information when children depicted in pornography are identified. Collins said this helps prevent defendants from arguing that the children in their pornography collections aren't real.

Since the program started in 2003, more than 2,300 children have been identified in pornographic pictures and videos, Collins said. Of those, 27 percent were photographed by parents or stepparents; 24 percent by neighbors or close family friends; and 10 percent by other relatives.
Just 4 percent were photographed by strangers. The rest were photographed by coaches, babysitters, their parents' boyfriends and girlfriends, or by themselves, often after being enticed by someone they met online.”

Please note the sleight of hand: at the beginning, we hear about “parents.” only at the end of the article, do we learn that “parents” includes stepparents and biological parents. most studies that break this down by step, bio and cohabiting parents, find that bio fathers are MANY times safer than step parents or mothers’ boyfriends. So the 27% were photographed by “parents or stepparents” and the 4% photographed by strangers, is the basis for the statements that “The number victimized by parents was nearly seven times that of children exploited by strangers.” But almost certainly that 27% is dominated by non-biological “parents.”

I looked at the website for National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and could not find the original data on which these statements are based. If anyone else can find it, please post a comment to that effect. This anti-parent screed should be exposed for what it is: an attempt to frighten people into thinking that parents pose the greatest threat to their own children, and that only the state and its bureaucratic allies can be truly trusted to have the child’s best interest at heart.

YouTube remains porn-friendly

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The Culture and Media Institute claims YouTube is not keeping its commitment to be family-friendly.
According to the Institute's spokeswoman Colleen Raezler, YouTube's definition of family-friendly content is apparently opposes that of the average parent, who is concerned about what their children experience on the Internet.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=577594

U.S. can't adopt China's porn policy

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

China is ordering all new personal computers sold within the country to have software that blocks all online pornography.All pornography is unacceptable, according to Rick Schatz of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. But he says adopting China's policy would not work in the U.S.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=561920

A new sexual revolution

Marcia Segelstein - Guest Columnist -

We are awash in sex. We, and our children, can't escape it. The teen clothier Hollister prominently displays Maxim, a "soft core" pornographic magazine on a shelf next to publications devoted to skiing and skateboarding. Urban Outfitters, another retailer targeting teens, has naked models in its catalog. Victoria's Secret TV commercials, which run during supposedly family-friendly fare like American Idol, show high-heeled models strutting down runways in suggestive barely-there underwear. The Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, available annually at your local drugstore chain, has become an American icon. Sexual references and innuendoes abound in television shows and movies. "Women's" magazine cover headlines regularly promise to reveal secrets to better sex. Hotel chains make huge profits from their in-room X-rated movie offerings. Hugh Hefner -- who almost single-handedly brought pornography out of the shadows and into the light of day (making himself a fortune along the way) -- is just another celebrity.

We have "mainstreamed pornography," as author Michael Leahy puts it. Our hypersexualized, pornographic culture has all but obliterated a vision of what healthy sexuality is. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that the intentional viewing of pornography has become commonplace on college campuses and in the workplace. Michael Leahy documents these trends in his books, Porn University and Porn @ Work. Leahy is also a self-described recovering sex addict whose immersion in pornography nearly destroyed his life.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=533912

The Right and Wrong Responses to "Sexting"

by Mary Graw Leary

A proposed law in Vermont will not only do little to solve the problem of “sexting,” but actually risks resulting in making even more children vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

The issue of so-called “sexting” has captured the attention of the media and, now, the legislatures. But the way the media has handled the complicated social issue of children sending pornographic pictures of themselves to others has brought the Vermont legislature to the verge of creating a bad law. The Vermont proposal would exempt the trading of self-produced images of child pornography from some child pornography statutes. The issue of self-produced child pornography (which is defined as a minor creating a picture of him or herself which meets the definition of child pornography: i.e. engaged in sexually explicit conduct) is a complex one. The Vermont legislature seems more concerned with the secondary problem of unwise prosecutions than it is with the behavior itself. However, by neglecting the main problem, the legislation risks significant damage to the children engaged in this behavior and undermines the broader battle against child pornography.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.05.12.001.pdart

Child porn websites on the decline - but remain vigilant

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

The Internet Watch Foundation's annual report reflects a decline of nearly 10 percent in the number of international websites with child porn.

That may be because some countries such as Britain are pressuring or forcing the Internet providers to remove them. But Pat Trueman, special counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund, warns that people should not be complacent, even though the reduced figure is welcome news.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=519548

Sexperts only a text away from curious teens

Carolyn Moynihan

Adolescent health experts in the United States think they have made a great leap forward in sex education. Since the vast majority of teenagers have cellphones, and since an awful lot of them appear to be sexually active, programmes have been set up in several states to receive and answer questions about sex by text message. The beauty of the scheme is that kids can ask the rudest and the most serious questions about sex without bothering their parents.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/sexperts_only_a_text_away_from_curious_teens/

'Sexting' prosecutions in limbo

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Questions are being raised over court jurisdiction in cases involving teens who are "sexting" -- sending nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves via cell phones.

A Pennsylvania district attorney planned to charge the teens under child pornography statutes, but the American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued in federal court to block the prosecutions. Pat Trueman, special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), believes the judge was out of order.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=502786

'Safe sexting' - permission over principle

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

The special counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund is outraged over a Vermont state bill he says effectively legalizes production of child porn.

Vermont Senate Bill 125 will make "sexting" legal for teens ages 13 to 18. Sexting refers to the sending of nude photographs via cell phone -- a growing phenomenon among teenagers. Some teens who have been caught sexting have faced penalties ranging from expulsion from school, to child pornography charges, to having to register as sex offenders.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=489510

Dear editor: there is a life after palooza

Michelle Martin

Newspapers may be killing themselves by capitulating to porn.

There is something reassuring about the ritual of fetching the Hamilton Spectator from our doorstep each morning and having a quick browse through the local news. And we really want to support our local paper-- but Sexapalooza has made it tough.

Yep, after running banner ads all last week for the consumer show, there is an article this morning on Sexapalooza complete with photograph. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it, but we find this sort of thing hard to laugh off. We'd be sorry to drop the Spec, but it's tiresome childproofing it every day. We stopped subscribing to home delivery of the Globe and Mail years ago for that reason.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/dear_editor_there_is_a_life_after_palooza/

University of Maryland statement on screening of porn film

The University of Maryland is a diverse learning environment that respects the right of a free society to offer opinion, including opinions that may differ dramatically from the larger community.Last week, following cancellation of this movie as a university-sponsored event, we pointed out that we would explore other ways to return to the topics of responsible decision-making and effects of pornography in our society.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/college/bal-umdstatement0406,0,5604320.story

ACLU defends teens charged in 'sexting' scandal

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A temporary restraining order has been issued by a federal judge, who found that the three girls accused of sending child pornography via text message would likely win in a civil rights lawsuit against George Skumanick, the attorney who threatened them with felony charges. He had hoped the girls would be forced to participate in a five-week educational program to learn about the negative effects of their actions. The ACLU is representing the girls and their parents who allege the photos were not child pornography.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=472172

Campus porn nipped in the bud

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A questionable alternative to a night of binge drinking has been canceled at the University of Maryland.

The student union at the University of Maryland-College Park planned to show a triple-X film starting at midnight Saturday. According to an article in The Baltimore Sun, university officials say the film was offered as an alternative to late-night binge drinking and other dangerous activities.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=475366

A Parent's Prayer

by Marcia Segelstein

Writing about the dangers of internet pornography and children for my column today reminds me what a frightening world we live in. My “St. Augustine’s Prayer Book” includes this wonderful prayer for parents trying to protect their children:

"O Heavenly Father, I commend the souls of my children to thee. Be thou their God and Father; and mercifully supply whatever is wanting in me through frailty or negligence. Strengthen them to overcome the corruptions of the world, to resist all solicitations to evil, whether from within or without; and deliver them from the secret snares of the enemy. Pour thy grace into their hearts, and confirm and multiply in them the gifts of thy Holy Spirit, that they may daily grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; and so faithfully serving thee here, may come to rejoice in thy presence hereafter. Through the same Chris our Lord. Amen."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=426232

What parents need to know about porn and their kids

Marcia Segelstein - OneNewsNow Columnist

Most people probably don't picture kids when they think about who's viewing pornography. But according to statistics cited by the non-profit advocacy organization Enough Is Enough, the largest group of viewers of Internet pornography is children between the ages of 12 and 17. And there's more. The average age of first exposure to Internet pornography is 11. Eighty percent of 15- to 17-year-olds have had multiple exposures to hardcore pornography. Nine out of ten children between the ages of 8 and 16 with Internet access have viewed pornographic websites, sometimes inadvertently in the course of looking up information for homework.

Continue...

College wrong to host week of 'sexploration'

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 2/9/2009

The University of Cincinnati is coming under fire for hosting a weeklong event promoting pornography. "UC Sexploration" week was sponsored by Pure Romance and the University of Cincinnati Wellness Center. The event featured lectures by so-called sex experts, free sex kit giveaways, and a "Pizza and Porn" night. David Miller is the Vice-president of public policy with Citizens for Community Values (CCV), an Ohio-based family advocacy group.

Continue...

Selfish adults ruining childhood, says UK report

by Carolyn Moynihan

Yet another British report on how bad things are for children in that country blames most of the problems now facing young people on a culture of "excessive individualism" that has developed in recent decades. The Good Childhood Inquiry says the "me-first" attitude of adults is causing family breakdowns, competition in eduction, a growing gap between rich and poor, unkindness among teenagers and premature sexualization through advertising.

Continue...

Soft Core Porn in Urban Outfitters Catalogue

by Marcia Segelstein

Some of you may remember the uproar caused when teen clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch published a catalogue with outrageous photos of young men and women in various stages of undress.Well another clothier has followed suit.

Urban Outfitters, which sells clothes to teenage boys and girls, has just published a catalogue with photos any sane person would call soft core pornography, especially considering the age of the target audience.

Continue...

High court says no to protecting minors from porn

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/22/2009

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to revive the Child Online Protection Act, designed to protect children from sexual material and other objectionable content on the Internet.

Pat Trueman, who was a pornography prosecutor in the Ronald Reagan administration, is now special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. He objects to the decision by the nation's highest court on Wednesday not to revive the federal law that would have barred websites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet.

Continue...

Technology, teens, and trouble

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/21/2009

Years ago a wink was considered flirting. Today young people use technology instead. The current trend among youth is to transmit nude or semi-nude photos or videos via cell phones. Marisa Nightingale of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy explains the phenomenon.

Continue...