Almost half of Australians aged 9 to 16 years of age are “regularly exposed to porn”, a journalist has told a committee of the country’s politicians.
Speaking to Australia’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Jess Hill said that its inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws would be irrelevant without tackling pornography.
She said: “It is hard to overstate just how damaging that is as a cultural education, particularly for young boys and men.”
Violence
The Committee heard that one in five Australian women over the age of 15 will suffer sexual violence in their lifetime, while males aged 15 to 19 represented the highest rates of offending of any age group.
Religious liberty group Australian Christian Lobby highlighted that pornography promotes “aggression, coercion and physical violence” and “detracts from a healthy understanding of sexual consent in Australian society”.
But the group warned that ‘consent education’ in schools must not involve explicit content, saying: “This may encourage early sexualisation among students, and potentially even contribute to problems regarding ‘sexual consent culture’.”
The Committee is due to report in September.
UK
In June, the UK Government announced a review of pornography regulation to tackle any gaps which allow “exploitative, abusive and illegal” online content.
The review, which is not expected to be completed before the end of the year, is set to address the separate regimes covering online and offline pornographic material to ensure that any restrictions are consistently applied.
In addition, the review will consider how to better warn children about the dangers of pornography.
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