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

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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