Steve Crow, Porn and Companies Act Offences

Media Release 15 July 2009

No. 1 Story http://business.scoop.co.nz/2009/07/15/steve-crow-porn-companies-act-offences/

The Society has today filed 16 complaints against Porn Company Director Steve Crow with both the Legal Team of the Companies Office and the National Enforcement Unit, pertaining to 16 breaches of the Companies Act 1993. These alleged offences relate to his use on official documents of the company name “Eden Digital Ltd” over a period of five years, before such an entity was ever registered with the Companies Office.

The name “Eden Digital Ltd” was first registered on 26 March 2009 out of a name change of a former company – Vixen TV Ltd – of which Crow was the sole director. Crow has boasted to media that “Eden Digital Ltd” has arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of two of his other companies that have been placed into liquidation – Vixen Direct Ltd and Erotica Expo Ltd – and that they continue to trade as the newly formed company.

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Did Green MP Sue Bradford con the gullible into believing that her ‘anti-smacking’ legislation was needed to end Child Abuse?

A Growing list of child homicides in New Zealand suggests that the repeal of section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 has had no positive impact whatsoever on reducting the incidence of child abuse and child homicides in New Zealand. If anything the problem has become worse. The legislation, championed by Green MP Sue Bradford, that criminalises every parent that uses any form of force “for the purpose of correction” must be repealed. The latest shocking report of yet another child homicide must cause all decent-minded citizens to cry out “Enough is enough! We must fix this disasterous problem!” Read more

Announcing Society’s 2009 Members’ AGM

The Society’s 2009 (Members Only) AGM will be held on Monday night from 6.45 pm to 7.20 pm 8th June 2009 at Connolly Hall, Guilford Tce, Thorndon. The Public Address commencing at 7.30 pm, following the AGM, will be given by John Terris, former Mayor of Lower Hutt, former Labour Party MP for Western Hutt, Former Acting Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of Media Matters. All members of the public are warmly invited to attend this lecture, the discussion that follows and the supper. The Lecture Topic is: “New Zealand’d Media Landscape – It’s like the Wild and Woolly West. (Our value-averse little country is fast becoming the Sleaze Capital of the Universe).” Read more

Bill Hastings used tax-payer funding to induce 14-year olds to watch rape

Chief Censor Bill Hastings, who receives a tax-payer funded salary package of between between $210,000 and $220,000, used tax-payers money to induce a number of children as young as 14 years of age, to watch films featuring rape and graphic violence, all in the name of research study. He and Dominic Sheehan, chief executive of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, commissioned market researcher Colmar Brunton to assess the perceptions of 100 individuals of the harm from watching 13 violent clips from films, DVDs etc. Children were paid $60 each for participating. (Dominion Post 4/12/08). It is a serious offence under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 for any person to screen a restricted publication to any underage person.

Mother backs Bill Hastings paying her 14-year old son to watch rape

Mother backs TV Research Dominion Post 6/11/08 by Greer McDonald

The mother of a 14-year old who viewed footage of rape and domestic violence for research has defended the study and says children see worse on news broadcasts.

Dawn Bunker, of Wanganui, said she gave consent for her son to take part in the research and believed he didn’t see anything that wasn’t age-appropriate”.

“I feel it was well worthwhile and done professionally, and at no time felt he could not cope with what he was shown. As he himself put it – ‘You see worse on the TV news, Mum.’”

Mrs Bunker was offended by comments from Bob McCoskrie, of lobby group Family First, who said this week that the fact that parents had consented to their children taking part “says something about the parents”.

Mrs Bunker, a mother of three, said parents had to be censors in their own homes. “Some of the things you see on the news, I’ve kicked my kids out of the room – I’m censoring my children myself, I know what they can handle.”

She said chief censor Bill Hastings was doing a good job.

However, a community lobby group has called for he resignations of Mr Hastings and Dominic Sheehan, chief executive of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, for whose agencies the research was conducted.

John Mills, president of the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards, said Mr Hastings showed appalling judgment. “the society is outraged Mr Hastings has defended his breaking of the law by claiming that, because the younger participants gained parental permission before they they took part in the research, then that was okay.”

Society calls for Chief Censor and CEO of BSA to be replaced

Media Release 5 December 2008

The Society is calling on the new government to dismiss Chief Censor, Bill Hastings and the Chief Executive of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA), Dominic Sheehan, for their role in commissioning a market researcher, Colmar Brunton, to pay “children as young as 14 [to be] subjected to footage of rape, sadism and domestic violence as part of research directed by [these] two broadcasting watchdogs”, as reported in the Dominion Post (4/12/08).  Hastings in a feeble and misguided attempt to justify his appalling judgment, when confronted by the Dominion Post, admitted that the teens had indeed viewed attempted rape and graphic violence, but that much of it “went over their head” as they practiced “a type of self-censor”.

Society President John Mills responds “Yeah right Bill!” and asks: So if children are so skilled at self-censorship and are so oblivious of objectionable content and so unaffected by it, then why are you paid from the public purse over $220,000 per year to censor such material and demand that no adult allow it to be screened to kids, when these same kids can self-censor effectively – so you claim? 

In a self-congratulatory farcical ‘analysis’, Hastings told the Dominion Post that he believed the research on child viewing of rape etc. had proved that parents paid attention to film classifications and were “trusting us [the Office of Film and Literature Classification and the BSA] to make a sound call.”

Society President John Mills responds again “Yeah right Bill!” and asks: How can it be a “sound call” for the Chief Censor and CEO of the BSA to offer monetary inducements to children as young as 14 and their parents, in order to get the former to watch rape and graphic violence content and thereby break the law? (The kids were paid $60 to watch material and have their attitudes to it assessed, when screening it to them is illegal). Furthermore, most parents who care about their children would never put them within an arm’s reach of a censor who subjects them to such objectionable content under the pretence of research.

Those under 18 were shown scenes of attempted rape, graphic assaults and domestic violence in the movies Sin City (R18) and 8 Mile (R13), as well as television show Heroes. Violent scenes from episodes of R16-rated Mafia Show “The Sopranos”, the Adults Only TV Programme “Crime Scene Investigation” and the R18 Brad Pitt film “Fight Club” were also shown to the 14 year olds.

The Society is outraged that Mr Hastings has defended his breaking of the law by claiming that because “the younger participants gained parental permission before they took part in the research, then that was OK. However, he is duty-bound to uphold the law – the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 – that defines it to be an offence to show any portion of a restricted publication to an underage person.

The Ministers of Internal Affairs and Broadcasting should insist that the warrants to hold statutory office be immediately withdrawn from Bill Hastings and Dominic Sheehan and they be replaced with persons who uphold the highest standards of integrity in their respective roles as censorship watchdogs.

Reference:

Dominion Post Report

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4781424a1860.html

Shameful Decision by Judge Kevin Phillips in Bondage/Sadomasochism Dungeon case involving the scarification of teenage girls by Mr "Dragon"

The Society is appalled that a Christchurch District Court Judge has only sentenced Richard Jeffrey Barker, 52, to nine months home detention and reparation payments, for scarring two teenage girls, aged 15 and 17, during bondage and discipline sessions involving “blood play” – staged in a specially built “bondage/sadomasochism” facility in a Linwood house. The girls wore leather bras and knickers and gothic-style dresses at the time of the offences and candles and horror movies were part of the dungeon scene. The judge found that the 17-year-old had taken party pills and nitrous oxide at the house.

On 25 November Barker was convicted by Judge Kevin Phillips of “wounding” both girls “with intent to injure” and was required to pay $5,000 to each of his victims by December 20, 2008. The court was told that the scarring by the use of a scalpel had had a serious impact on both victims and the reparation payments were to be made for the emotional harm caused to the children.  Barker says he met the girls through friends and daughters of friends in Christchurch’s bondage, discipline and sado-masochism scene (BDSM).

In one incident on January 2, 2007, a 15-year-old girl was chained with her arms outstretched while Barker used a scalpel to design a dragon cut into her shoulder.

In another incident on December 20, 2006, a 17-year old teenage girl in a leather corset was chained up while Barker, flogged her with a “cat of many tails” whip. According to the NZ Herald, she was “suspended” standing with her arms outstretched between two loops of rope while Barker cut the first lines of a “corset”, from her waist and up between the girl’s breasts. He then made cuts on the girl’s wrists and showed her how to smear the blood on a large mirror with her arms outstretched to create a “blood angel”, a gothic reflection of the snow angels children make on winter days.

Barker claimed all the scarification was strictly consensual, the practice was merely a “hobby” he engaged in and that he had no sexual contact with the girls. The police laid four charges for sexual indecencies against Barker but the Judge dismissed all of these. However, he did note that there had been offending by Barker for dishonesty in 1985, convictions for drug offences in 1995 and indecency convictions in 1996.

The Press reported that Barker’s “Lindwood house bondage playland” had several “themed rooms”, including a “medical” room with a surgeon’s table and dental chair and a “dungeon” with a rack for tying up people.

The Society is outraged at the failure of Judge Phillips to issue a sentence commensurate with the gravity of Barker’s offending and one that will send a much clearer signal that society will not tolerate or deal leniantly with adults who intentionally injure and wound our precious young persons, or who inflict emotional harm on them and morally corrupt them through any activities involving sexual perversions such as sadomasochism, etc. (It is noteworthy that our censorship laws recognise that children and young people, as well as adults, can suffer serious harm when exposed to publications containing sexual violence and other objectionable content).

In justifyng the sentencing he imposed on Barker, Judge Phillips stated:

“Young people need to be protected not only from themselves but from situations where someone of more maturity can take inappropriate decisions for them.”

The Society finds these PC-weasel words (“inappropriate decisions”) offensive, given the circumstances. It believes Judges have a statutory and moral duty to address the true nature of the crimes committed against young people by those who manipulate young people, wound them with the ntent to injure, and have a history of committing sexual indecencies against children.

The court impact reports relating to the two victims revealed that one girl had been scarred physically, mentally and emotionally and suffered depression, anxiety, paranoia and panic attacks. The other suffered shame and fear and was on anti-psychotic medication.

Christchurch parents with young girls can sleep tight in the knowledge that Barker is not currently living at the house where the sick “bondage/sadomasochism” dungeon – now dismantled – was built. If they loitter in the streets near Barker’s present abode, they can be assured that he will not have exactly the same “playland” fitted out with chains and torture racks used in his recent offences, to lure them into. One hopes he is not busy building a new playland for sadomasochism for consenting adults while on home detention. In nine months time it could well be business as usual except that having learnt an important ‘lesson’ from the wise Judge Phillips – that his female clients will need to be 18 years of age or older and his racks a little longer to accomodate older and longer legged-clients.

One outspoken Member of Parliament for children’s ‘rights’ Green Party MP Sue Bradford would have no problems with this playland arrangement. She has stated:

“Personally, I have no problem with sadomasochism carried out between consenting adults using safe sex practices – what I do have a problem with is a legacy of hidden sexual violence practised on children and young people under a mantle of so-called discipline.”

http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/speech10204.html

The Society would like to know why an MP would choose to publicly condone sadomasochism – a sexual perversion that fosters sexual gratification derived from so-called fantasy/horror violence and why Judge Kevin Phillips has issued such a shameful decision that fails to properly address the gravity of the offences committed by Barker.

It has been reported that Barker intends to appeal against Judge Phillip’s decision.

References:

Linwood house bondage playland

Ian Steward – The Press

Wednesday, 03 September 2008

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4678612a6009.html 

Man who cut girls denies guilt

The Press

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4772632a6009.html

 

 

 

 

Family blames Dr Nitschke’s book for woman’s death

Euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke. (AAP: Dean Lewins, file photo)

A Perth woman is calling on the federal Attorney General to ban a book written by euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke.

Sally Doyle’s sister, Erin Berg, who was not terminally ill, became suicidal after the breakdown of her marriage and the birth of her fourth child.

Ms Doyle says her sister borrowed one of Mr Nitschke’s books from a public library and travelled to Mexico to purchase a drug restricted from sale within Australia. She died ten days later.

Ms Doyle says she wants the book withdrawn from sale in Australia.

“Our concern is that there actually is a significant amount of specific suicide information peppered throughout the book,” she said.

“Included in the book is information identifying and repeatedly identifying what Nitschke terms the best drug with which to suicide.”

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/12/2301934.htm

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Society Granted Leave to have classification of Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited US version) reviewed

Press Release 21 July 2008

The Society was today granted leave by the Secretary of Internal Affairs, Mr Brendan Boyle, to apply to the Film and Literature Board of Review to review the classification of the computer game Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited US version). The game was classified R18 by the Chief Censor’s Office. Read more

Film “End of the Spear” R16 rating downgraded to R13 following Society’s successful appeal

Press Release 4 July 2008

The film “End of the Spear” has had its classification downgraded from R16 to R13 following a successful appeal by the Society against the classification decision issued by the Chief Censor’s Office. The Society contended in its written and oral submisssion to the Board that the nature of the depiction of violence in the film – medium level violence – could not possibly justify an R16 classification. The nine member Film and Literature Board of Review agreed and in a unanimous decision, issued to the Society on Wednesday this week, took the view that 13, 14 and 15 year old children would not be harmed by exposure to the violence which formed only a small part of a compelling Christian message of forgiveness and redemption that is told based on the “true story” of the missionary outreach in the 1950s, to the violent South American Waodani Indian tribe. A revised censor’s note from the Board, alerts viewers to the medium level violence involving tribal warfare that some might find “disturbing”.

This is the second successful appeal by the Society in recent years involving a major Christian film that has led to its classification rating – issued by the Chief Censor’s Office – being downgraded by the Board. The Society made both oral and written submissions to the Board to overturn the R16 classification of Mel Gibson’s blockbuster film “The Passion”, and this led it to being reclassified R15. The applicant in this case was the film’s distributor and the Society opted to take a role as an interested party.

The Society has as one of its six objectives: the promotion of freedom of expression, within the boundaries of good law that safeguards the public good from injury.

Society President Angry over Pro-Abortionists’ Crimes and Deception

Press Release 11 June 2008

Society president John Mills is very angry and says: “In the Silent Screams DVD promoted on our Society’s website (www.spcs.org) an unborn child is torn apart without anaesthetic. Someone needs to be held to account for such brutal murders carried out every day in New Zealand with taxpayers’ funding. By far the most dangerous place to be in New Zealand is inside your mother’s womb. I expect the anti-smacking brigade, who are so opposed to child abuse, would wholeheartedly agree with me on this issue!”

Angry women’s health advocates such as Women’s Health Action Trust director, Jo Fitzpatrick, and Family Planning chief executive, Jackie Edmond, are quoted in today’s NZPA report (Dom Post 11/06), as rejecting anti-abortion lobbyists’ claims that New Zealand effectively has “abortion on demand”. And yet this is exactly what a High Court judge’s ruling, made public yesterday, suggests, and backs up what Dr Christine Forster, Chairperson of the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) has conceded.

“Certifying consultants were using mental health grounds to provide abortion on demand and that she did not believe that all these had a mental health problem”. (Front page article Sunday Star Times in November 2000)

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Grand Theft Auto IV Addiction Link To Criminal Rampage

Rampage blamed on game obsession

“Reid [the offender] was hardwired for violence and anti-social behaviour and programmed by his recreational pursuits” [involving the game Grand Theft Auto].

The Dominion Post Saturday, 31 May 2008

Like a character from Grand Theft Auto, the game he played compulsively, Tim Reid went on a rampage, stole a police car, and left a policeman unconscious and bleeding on the roadside.

Yesterday, his lawyer Chris Nicholls said Reid was remorseful for what happened to Sergeant Kevin Wellington in New Plymouth on December 29 last year, but he was a product of his upbringing.

He committed violent offences and compulsively played Grand Theft Auto.

Mr Nicholls said a video game that showed violence toward police was a public safety concern, with the game promoting the behaviour.

Tim Henare James Junior Reid, 25, of Mt Victoria, Wellington pleaded guilty to aggravated wounding, escaping custody, reckless driving, dangerous driving, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and two charges of failing to stop, breach of supervision orders and being an unlicensed driver.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4566395a23955.html

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Application for Leave re Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited version)

The Society has sought leave under s. 47(2)(e) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”), to apply to the Film and Literature Board of Review (“the Board”) for a review of the classification of the highly controversial console game Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited US version) [also known as or GTA 4]. As noted in our application for leave dated 27 May 2008, the unedited game was classified R18 by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (“the OFLC”) on the 21^st May 2008.

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Grand Theft Auto IV: Who is the NZ distributor profiting from this offensive “Crime-Promoting Game”?

Grand Theft Auto IV (also known as GTA 4) – a computer game formatted for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – was launched on April 29, 2008 and sold nearly 2.9 million copies in the United States in its first five days.1 The game – made by Two’s Rockstar studio – with first-week worldwide sales forecast of up to $US400 million, was submitted to the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) on the 4^th of February 2008 by the Film and Video Labelling Body Inc (FVLB).

The computer game’s distributor, the applicant to the FVLB, recorded on the application form, its identity as “TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE”. All other details relating to the company were deleted from the form by the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, when he provided the application form to the Society, in response to its Official Information Request (OIR). The applicant’s contact person, return street address for the publication and contact telephone number, were all deleted.

The Society Investigates……..

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Is there a causal-effect between exposure to video game violence and violent behaviour?

Video Game Violence and Public Policy

David Walsh, Ph.D.

National Institute on Media and the Family

Concern about violent video and computer games is based on the assumption that they contribute to aggression and violence among young players. That conclusion was originally based on the extensive body of research about the effects of television violence on children’s behavior. Prominent organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association have all concluded that the scientific evidence shows a cause-effect relationship between television violence and aggression among the children and youth who watch it. Based on this research, many social scientists have hypothesized that we should expect video games to have an even greater impact for the following four reasons.

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html Read more

Chief Censor’s Office Report on Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA 4)

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BSA Report on Children’s Television Viewing: Cause for Alarm

Media Release: 8 May 2008

The Society is not surprised that over half the sample (56%) of more than 600 adult “primary caregivers” of children aged between six and 13, who were interviewed as part of a report into children’s television viewing habits; were unable to identify 8.30 p.m. as the time after which programmes that are NOT suitable for children are shown on television The report containing this statistic entitled Seen and Heard, dated 6 May 2008, was commissioned by the BSA – the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

In response, the Families Commission issued a media release, calling for the 8.30 p.m. “watershed time” – to be more widely publicised by broadcasters. But is this an adequate response if the Commission is truly concerned about certain so-called “adult-only” material – pornography, sexual violence, graphic violence, blasphemy and obscenity – being viewed, or potentially viewed, by tens of thousands of our country’s children and young persons every night of the year from 8.30 p.m. onwards? Society president John Mills says the Society says “it is a totally inadequate response” and notes “we have written to the Chief Commissioner, Dr Rajen Prasad, pointing this out and called for more effective solutions from him to the problem of children and young persons being exposed to unsuitable, morally corrosive and corrupting television content.”

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Detrimental impact of hardcore pornography on young people

LIVES CHANGED: The accessability of hardcore pornography is having a detrimental impact on the lives of young people in remote Australian towns and is seen as central to a sexual assault in Maningrida, east of Darwin.

AAP Friday, 21 December 2007

Posted: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4332725a12.html

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Dr James Dobson Interviews Serial Rapist and Murderer Ted Bundy hours before he is executed by electrocution

Ted Bundy explains step-by-step to clinical psychologist, Dr James Dobson, how his interest in soft-core porn led on to an addiction to hardcore porn and then on to a fascination for hard-core violent porn and how that helped fuel and crystallise his homicidal sexual fantasies leading to numerous horrific sex crimes and murders. Bundy explains how repeated exposure to softcore porn can desensitise a person to hard core porn leading to porn addiction and he expresses his concern that other men exposed to the prevalent violent sexual content available in todays film and print media will be affected by such content as he was.

Theodore Robert ‘Ted’ Bundy (Nov 24, 1946 – Jan 24, 1989) raped and murdered scores of young women across the United States between 1974 and 1978. After more than a decade of vigorous denials, he eventually confessed to 29 murders, although the actual total of victims remains unknown. Typically, Bundy would rape his victims, and then murder them by bludgeoning, and sometimes by strangulation. He also engaged in necrophilia. He was convicted of killing 36 women and girls.

Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison in Starke Florida. He became a born-again Christian while he awaited execution on death row. He explains to Dr Dobson his deep sense of shame and remorse over his cimes and how, while in prison, he had found forgiveness for his sins through Jesus Christ and peace as he faced his “Valley of the Shadow of Death”. Bundy recognised that he deserved to die and that it was a just sentence. He eventually cooperated with law enforcement agencies and disclosed all the details he could recall about all the homicides he was involved in.

Dr James Dobson says that “circumstantial evidence is overwhelming” from numerous studies that there is a link between hardcore violent porn and violent sexual behaviour. For example, an FBI study he cites involving 36 serial convicted murderers, revealed that 81% of them (29 out of 36) had a long-term and predominate interest in violent hardcore pornography.

Part 1 of 6

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Large Increase in Porn DVD Sales Indicates Growing Pornography Addiction

By Gudrun Schultz.

Researcher says porn "endogenous drug" that permanently restructures brain, mind, memory, conduct.

http://www.drjudithreisman.com/archives/2006/01/large_increase.html 

UNITED STATES, December 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A significant rise in pornographic DVD sales and rentals within the United States points to a rapidly growing addiction to pornography that is going largely unacknowledged within society.

The United States’ massive porn industry has reported a marked increase in sales of DVD’s for home adult entertainment. California-based Adult Video News predicted revenue of US$12.6-billion this year for the industry. Of that number, US$4.28-billion is predicted from sales and rentals of porn DVD’s, even though the price of a porn film has dropped 20% in the last year–to less than US$50.

The report offers no reason for the increase in sales and the growth of the industry overall, although some retailers of the products have suggested the increase is due to growing social acceptance of adult sexual entertainment.

That ’social acceptance’ is in fact a rapidly growing addiction to pornographic material within mainstream society, according to researchers and therapists who work in the field of sexual dysfunction.

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Pornography’s link to rape.

By Dr Judith A. Reisman

http://www.drjudithreisman.com/archives/2006/09/pornographys_li.html

Would you try to put out a fire with gasoline?

No? Then you might disagree with an MSNBC online article, "Porn: Good for America !" by Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor. Reynolds suggests that pornography reduces rape!

As proof, Reynolds quotes a U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ] claim that in 2004 rape of "people" over age 12 radically decreased with an "85 percent decline in the per-capita rape rate since 1979" (DOJ’s National Crime Victimization Survey of "thousands of respondents 12 and older").

But the FBI also estimates that "34 percent of female sex assault victims" are "under age 12" (National Incident-Based Reporting System, July 2000).

Since the DOJ data excludes rape of children under age 12, child rape may be up 85 percent, for all we know.

Although the FBI and local police departments are now swamped with teachers, police, professors, doctors, legislators, clergy, federal and state bureaucrats, dentists, judges, etc., arrested for child pornography and for abusing children under age 12, the Department of Justice excludes those small victims from its "rape" rates. Why?

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Dr. Craig Anderson: Violent Video Games and Aggression

Dr. Craig Anderson from the University of Iowa is one of the most frequently cited and published researchers in the field of video game violence. Anderson’s work has been used in a variety of venues from scholarly publications to State Supreme Court arguments. Anderson research was used in the Illinois video game legislation defense where he was described as, “The nation’s pre-eminent researcher on the effect of exposure to violent video games.” Anderson’s work has been published in a multiple books, from Children in the Digital Age: Influences of Electronic Media on Development (2002) to his own Violent Video Games Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research and Public Policy (2006).

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Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents Theory, Research, and Public Policy (Oxford University Press, 2006)

by Craig A. Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile and Katherine E. Buckley

Description
Violent video games are successfully marketed to and easily obtained by children and adolescents. Even the U.S. government distributes one such game, America’s Army, through both the internet and its recruiting offices. Is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior?

Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley first present an overview of empirical research on the effects of violent video games, and then add to this literature three new studies that fill the most important gaps. They update the traditional General Aggression Model to focus on both developmental processes and how media-violence exposure can increase the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both short- and long-term contexts. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents also reviews the history of these games’ explosive growth, and explores the public policy options for controlling their distribution. Anderson et al. describe the reaction of the games industry to scientific findings that exposure to violent video games and other forms of media violence constitutes a significant risk factor for later aggressive and violent behavior. They argue that society should begin a more productive debate about whether to reduce the high rates of exposure to media violence, and delineate the public policy options that are likely be most effective.

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Violent Computer Games and Youth Crime. Is there a link?

The NZ Herald reports: “Violent Xbox video games are being fingered by a top police officer as a possible cause of rising violence among young people.

“Superintendent Bill Harrison, national manager of police youth services, says youth violence rates have jumped in the past two or three years throughout the Western world, coinciding with the rise of new products such as the Xbox.”

See full story: Video violence beyond a game: top cop
Wednesday November 28, 2007. By Simon Collins 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10478781&ref=rss

Society Raises Concerns Over Dissemination of Objectionable Internet Content

Media Release 13/08/07

On Thursday night last week The Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced a A$189 million package to deal with the growing problems of internet porn and dissemination of, and availability of, objectionable content to minors via Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The tough measures adopted by the Howard government to stamp out two evils – accessibility to hardcore porn and alcohol abuse in Northern Aboriginal communities – because of their injurious effect on the “public good” and links to child abuse, has been matched by his latest measures. Every Australian public library as well as individual family will be provided with free software to filter internet content to prevent children downloading pornography and other offensive material, service providers will work alongside the government to filter pornography at its source, a ‘black list’ of pornographic sites will be established, and privacy laws will be altered so that sex offenders cannot ‘hide’ on the internet and chatroom sex predators will be rigorously hunted down and prosecuted. In addition a seven-day-a-week hotline will help parents put filters on their computers to block material that is passed on to home computers via ISPs.

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Society Wants Obscene ‘Police Baton’ Sex Video Approved by Chief Censor, Banned

‘Ban baton sex video’

Sunday Star-Times
11 March 2007, A4

A COMMUNITY standards lobby group is asking for a porn video featuring police batons used as “sex toys” to be banned in light of public outrage over historic allegations against police officers.

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards has applied for leave from the chief censor to have the classification of Big Boob Lesbian Cops II reconsidered.

This film – which features group sex and “humorous” role-plays involving police officers using batons as penetrative sex toys on women – was cleared for R18 release with no cuts in 1994.

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OFLC Ban on Reservoir Dogs Computer Game

Media Release 11/07/06

The Society is pleased that the Office of Film and Literature Classification (see Scoop 7 July) has applied the censorship law correctly and banned the computer game Reservoir Dogs that is based on the Quentin Tarantino’s ultra-violent sick film of the same name. However, the Society’s president Mike Petrus says:

“The OFLC has a very poor track record when it it comes to applying the law correctly – in particular its failure to apply section 3 of the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 (dealing with the definition of “objectionable” content) to films like Baise-Moi and Irreversible depicting sexual violence and large numbers of videos and DVDs where women are sexually degraded, demeaned and dehumanised.”

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CRITIC – Otago Uni Students’ Mag – banned by Censor’s Office

Media Release 1/02/06

In a decision dated 31 January 2006 and signed by the Chief Censor of Film and Literature, Bill Hastings, the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) has ruled that the Otago University Student Association’s Magazine CRITIC TE AROHI (Issue 23, Sept 19, 2005) is “objectionable” in terms of section 3(2)(b) and 3(2)(d) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”). The Society formally submitted this obscene and offensive publication to the OFLC for classification on the 23rd of September 2005, a few days after it was published by Planet Media Dunedin Ltd. and began to be distributed freely among university students at Otago University. The Commissioner of Police (NZ) and the Drug Rape Trust (NZ) also submitted the magazine for classification.

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