alt.support.girl-lovers 31st January 1999
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http://www.duende.demon.co.uk/456.html Last: 28th January 1999 (1)
* USA: Court upholds Maine's psuedo child pornography law
* UK: Mensa accused over child porn article in newsletter
* UK: Humorous column in 'Hospital Doctor' banned over joke.
* Greece: School's out for the kids of Greece - riots and demos
* USA: New net censorship legislation expected
* Japan: Internet crime statistics
* Australia: Gay quotes book causes "child porn" storm
* UK: New Labour plans to put teen mothers in hostels
* Book note
USA:
-----------------------------------------------------------
_Court upholds Maine's psuedo child pornography law_
_January 30, 1999_
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- A federal appeals court has upheld
a federal law that makes it illegal to possess indecent
computer images that look like people under 18. On Friday,
a U.S. attorney said it is the first time the law has been
upheld.
This week's decision in Boston overturned the ruling of a
lower court judge who declared the law unconstitutional.
The law targets computer technology that can be used to
alter an innocent image of a child into an indecent
picture of a child. Under the law, it is illegal to
possess images regardless of whether they show a real
child or a montaged image.
U.S. District Judge Gene Carter had ruled March 30 that the
law was unconstitutionally vague in the case against a
Norway, Maine, man.
Reversing Carter's decision, the appeals court said the law
is not so vague that a person could not understand what
is illegal under the law.
"A jury must decide, based on the totality of the
circumstances, whether a reasonable unsuspecting viewer
would consider the depiction to be of an actual individual
less than 18," Judge Hugh Brownes wrote for the 1st
Circuit Court of Appeals.
Because of Wednesday's ruling, McCloskey said his office
would pursue charges against David [...], 48, of Norway,
who was charged with possession of pseudo child pornography.
Hilton characterized himself as an anti-pornography
crusader and met with FBI and Customs officials on a number
of occasions to discuss material that was sent to him via
the Internet.
Hilton said he was not aware of the ruling and would have
to talk to his lawyer.
The federal law is also the subject of an appeal in
California after a judge ruled the law is constitutional.
The defendant appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,
which has not yet ruled.
-------------------------------------------------------------
[ So it looks like this is another one that will go all
the way to the Supreme Court. ]
UK:
-------------------------------------------------------------
31 January 1999
_Mensa accused over child porn article in newsletter_
MENSA, the society for people with high IQs, has had its
cerebral image shaken after a recent edition of the
newsletter Satyricon - circulated to Mensa members -
included an article calling for child pornography to be
legalised, and a contact list of members seeking partners
for sado-masochism and other fetishes.
A London law firm, Stephens Innocent, warned Mensa in 1997
that the newsletter could attract the attentions of Scotland
Yard's Paedophile and Child Pornography Unit, risking an
embarrassing raid that would give the press "a field day".
The solicitors advised Mensa to "de-recognise" the newsletter
as soon as possible.
Newsletters are published by Mensa for members who have
joined one of its 120 "special interest groups". In October
last year a letter was circulated to the board claiming
that the "offensive" newsletter was falling into the hands
of members under 18, known within the society as "Bright
Sparks".
The newsletter's secretary, Frank Mitchell, said that the
newsletter was "not a sex ring but a discussion group for
people with similar interests".
He insisted that his own interest in unconventional sexual
practices was "scientific" and said he was "fascinated by
the psychology of fetishes". He added: "The newsletter's
circulation is strictly controlled. I have got nothing to
conceal. I would be only too pleased to talk to the police
and get guidelines from them."
The child pornography article, in the July 1998 issue and
entitled 'Kiddi-porn', was suggesting de-criminalisation
as a way of reducing the problem, he said.
Pam Ford, who resigned as board member in charge of the
newsletter groups in November last year, made a complaint
to the police on Friday and handed over three recent
copies of the newsletter. "I am extremely concerned that
the board has ignored advice from members and lawyers that
this newsletter should be de-recognised," she said.
Ian Hadley, the chief executive officer, said the
nine-strong Mensa board was aware of "the particularly
contentious problem of the newsletter" and was planning to
discuss its future at a meeting next month.
Sir Clive Sinclair, Ms Baxter's predecessor as Mensa
chairman, said he had not seen the newsletter.
------------------------------------------------------------
[ Sounds like a nasty case of internal politics to me. ]
UK:
------------------------------------------------------------
26 Jan 99
[... from a comment column]
A humorous column in the medical press has been banned.
If bad taste jokes are common in the world at large, they
are more or less ubiquitous among doctors, who need to be
robust about the macabre, and often do it by joking about
the patient whose leprous finger dropped into the tea,
or the one who pushed a milk bottle up his bottom ("You
see, doctor, I slipped on the doorstep in my dressing
gown."). It is absurd to suggest that the quality of
professional care is diminished by the ribald talk in
the pub after work; it would be nearer the mark to
think that black humour makes it easier to do the job.
The column in the magazine Hospital Doctor, supposedly
the diary of a fictitious registrar, Dave Grout, has
caused a fuss by going into the fraught area of
paedophilia.
In one of Grout's adventures he gatecrashed a dinner
party and gave an 11-year old girl - "a decent bit of
totty, obviously fancies my pants off" - vodka and
marijuana, failing to seduce her only because she
started vomiting.
The column was quickly axed, and a line of the usual
suspects eagerly began giving their condemnations to
the newspapers.
------------------------------------------------------------
Greece:
------------------------------------------------------------
_School's out for the kids of Greece_
28th Jan 1999
School is definitely out for the kids of Greece: pens, set
squares and rough books have been exchanged for petrol
bombs and face masks as a wave of pupils strikes and school
occupations has rocked the country. Pupils and teachers
have joined forces to oppose implementation of the 2525/97
Act - which seeks to link education directly to the needs
and fluctuations of the capitalist economy - with a torrent
of actions resulting in imprisonments and a hunger strike.
The offending Act, introduced nearly a year ago and billed
as "a broad reform of the education system" means, in
reality, intensification, rivalry and total loss of free
time for children and college students.
First to react were teachers culminating in four days
serious rioting in many Greek cities - activist Costas
Mitropetros was among those arrested.
Pupils then occupied over 1000 schools in December. The
government hoped the children would 'get it out of their
systems' by the time of the Christmas holidays. By
mid-January, however, 800 schools are still occupied
and the government began prosecuting pupils.
Starting on January 15th, demonstrations swept almost
every Greek city; in Athens 25,000 people protested and
14 arrests were made, including Vasilis Evangelidis, 30,
an unemployed teacher.
On January 19th, as demostrations continued across the
country, Vasilis announced that he had started a hunger
strike, protesting at false charges, including arson. He
stated: "What is most important today is the continuation
of the struggle, the solidarity with the occupied schools,
the coming together and the communication of all people
in struggle."
On the 21st Jan, over 40 activists were arrested, mostly
in Athens and Patras, and bailed till February. The
demonstrations show no signs of abating.
--
Greek activists are urging counterparts in other countries
to organise solidarity actions: publicity is paramount.
Solidarity e-mails/faxes and/or messages for prisoners are
urgently requested; send to +30 31 257364 or nautilus@otenet.gr
and they'll be passed on. Continuously faxing the Ministry
of Justice at +30 1 779 6055 might upset those in high
places. So don't do it.
------------------------------------------------------------
USA:
------------------------------------------------------------
_New net censorship legislation expected_
Jan 26, 1999
Dozens of technology-related bills are expected this year.
Several bills related to Internet privacy have been
introduced and that area is expected to be a particularly
hot topic. Encryption, telecommunications reform,
electronic commerce, and bills involving legal liability
and the like associated with the year-2000 computer bug all
are likely to be debated -- and perhaps approved -- by the
U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
[snip]
The issue of filtering online content for children has come
up again, with the reintroduction of legislation that did
not survive the last congressional session. Senators John
McCain, R-Ariz., and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., already
touched off the first of what promises to be a series of
debates regarding online censorship with the Childrens'
Internet Protection Act. The legislation is intended to
protect minors from "sexually explicit and other harmful
material" when they use the Internet at schools and
libraries.
Schools that receive universal service discounts to help
with the cost of Internet connectivity would be required to
use content filters or blocking technology on computers to
keep children from obtaining information online that is
deemed harmful. Libraries would have to use filtering on at
least one computer so that machines could be used by
children. Schools and libraries would be required to
certify that they use a filtering system in order to obtain
universal service funds.
[snip]
Senator Burns intends to introduce an online privacy bill that
would make the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) more
comprehensive, the aide in his office said. The COPA was
approved last legislative session, but its enactment has
been held up in a court challenge, challenged in court
by the American Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs
who are arguing that it's unconstitutional to restrict
the content commercial Web sites can provide to minors.
Such action illegally restricts free speech, the plaintiffs
argue.
Like the debate that probably will occur over the new
content filtering bill, those opposed to COPA contend that
it is impossible to judge what might be harmful to minors
based on a community standard given the tremendous
variation in what is tolerated from community to community
in the United States, and considering the global nature of
the Internet.
The federal judge in the case is expected to rule on
whether an injunction should be imposed forbidding its
enactment on constitutional grounds by Feb. 1. Senator
Burns is among the lawmakers who have said they are closely
watching the debate as it unfolds in court.
------------------------------------------------------------
Japan: Statistics:
------------------------------------------------------------
29 Jan 99
The National Police Agency report released Thursday
revealed that the number of people arrested in connection
with all computer-related crimes hit a record high of 58,
almost double the figure for 1997.
Four crimes were reported and four arrests made in 1995,
18 crimes and 26 arrests in 1996 and 22 crimes and 30
arrests in 1997, the officials said.
------------------------------------------------------------
[ So we can count all internet-related convictions on
the fingers of one hand, eh? :) ]
Australia:
------------------------------------------------------------
_Gay quotes book causes "child porn" storm_
31 Jan 99
A new book by a leading Australian publisher has sparked
outrage among church groups, politicians and child welfare
charity groups
They have slammed The Little Book Of Gay Love, published
by Penguin.
The pocket-sized book contains quotes from various people
throughout history telling of the "experience of being gay,
the pleasures and tenderness, the secrecy and the pain".
One quote, from playwright Joe Orton, tells readers to "try
a boy for a change, you're a rich man, you can afford the
luxuries of life".
Another states: "I could not make love to boys without
loving them".
Yet another says: "A thing of beauty is a boy forever".
The book will go on sale tomorrow in book stores for $4.95
a copy.
However, the SA Attorney-General, Mr Griffin, warned the
book could be illegal under State laws.
"Under the Summary Offences Act it is an offence to sell,
supply or possess child pornography," he said.
"If this book, with its references to paedophilia, could be
defined as child pornography then an offence would be
committed.
"Anyone concerned about the book should contact the police
or the Classification Board of South Australia."
Chair of the Children's Interest Bureau Board, Ms Anne
Skipper, called on the State Government to ban the book.
Catholic Church spokesman, Father Maurice Shinnick, said
the book's paedophilia statements were extremely offensive.
Ms Joanne Fowler, the founder of support group Survivor's
Secrets, said some of the statements in the book
legitimised the sexual abuse of children and were very
offensive.
A Penguin Books Australia spokeswoman said the book was not
cleared by the Commonwealth Classifications Board because
all the quotes had been readily available for years.
------------------------------------------------------------
[ Predictable, and a sign of the way the anti-paedo
hysteria is being used in Australia as a front for
a poisionous homophobia. ]
UK:
------------------------------------------------------------
_Labour plans to put teen mothers in hostels_
TEENAGE mothers face being housed in specialist hostels,
under plans being considered by Downing Street.
Tony Blair's "social exclusion unit" is examining
controversial proposals to encourage young women with
babies to live together in blocks, attached to job
clubs, as part of its investigation into teenage pregnancy.
They follow the row over Home Secretary Jack Straw's
call for teenage mothers to give their children up
for adoption.
The proposal is part of a wide-ranging inquiry into teenage
pregnancy, which is expected to report in the spring. Mr
Blair ordered the investigation because Britain has the
highest rate in Western Europe, double Germany's, four
times France's and seven times that in the Netherlands.
Mr Blair's advisers are believed to want teenage mothers
to live in hostels in order to help re-integrate them
into society.
--------------------------------------------------------
[ Just another aspect of the ongoing war on the rights
of young people, which is the natural flipside of the
attack on child-loving. ]
Book notes:
--------------------------------------------------------
"Millennium Girls : Today's Girls Around the World"
by Sherrie A. Inness
Subjects: Girls; Social conditions; Sociology; Social Science
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
January 1999
ISBN: 0847691373
--------------------------------------------------------------
ends
alt.support.girl-lovers 3rd February 1999
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http://www.duende.demon.co.uk/456.html Last: 31st January 1999
[ Press-cuttings round-up ]
* Canada: Opposition fails to quash B.C. ruling on child porn.
* UK: Doctor calls for schoolgirl birth control implants.
* USA: Bill requires 'chemical castration'.
* UK: 'Don't stand so close to me'.
* UK: Museum unveils a child-free gallery.
* USA: Federal Court Smashes Net Censorship Again.
* Russia: The Moscow Times reports a new study on teen sex.
* New Zealand: Overseas paedophiles on run in NZ.
* Conference report - "secondary fathers".
* Cheap cellphone will access net from anywhere on the planet.
* UK: Fascist activists use the anti-paedophile campiagn to
spread hate-propaganda and seek new recruits.
Book notes
Book review
Press release
Canada:
-----------------------------------------------------------
February 3, 1999
_Opposition fails to quash B.C. ruling on child porn_
Passions ran high through a day of increasingly
partisan Parliamentary debate, but in the end the
governing Liberals voted to stick with Justice Minister
Anne McLellan's decision to let a controversial B.C.
ruling on child pornography be decided by the Supreme
Court.
--
(CP) Reformers failed Tuesday in their bid to push the
federal government to intervene in a British Columbia
judge's ruling that declared a child porn law
unconstitutional.
The Reform party introduced a motion in the Commons
calling on the government to do whatever necessary
to uphold the law prohibiting possession of child
pornography, even if it means using special
constitutional powers that have never been invoked
at the federal level.
The vote was 143 against the motion, 129 in favour.
--
In 1992, the federal government released a report which
claimed one of three males, and two of three females,
were victims of sexual abuse.
In response, Parliament changed the Criminal Code on child
pornography in 1993. Previously, it was an offence
punishable by a maximum of two years in prison to make or
distribute "any obscene material." The offence now includes
possession, and the maximum penalty has jumped to 10 years.
--
A Toronto civil liberties lawyer says the law is
unconstitutional and gives police far too much power. "(The
B.C. ruling ) has returned a little bit of the balance to
privacy, freedom of conscience and belief, and taken a
little bit away from the police," says Frank Addario, the
lawyer who defended Toronto artist Eli Langer after police
tried to seize Mr. Langer's paintings depicting nude boys.
"The police are still armed with many, many weapons to
combat depredations against children," he said. The B.C.
judge, he continued, "did not decriminalize the making (of
child pornography) or sex-assault laws that still apply to
any attempt to engage children in sexual activity, which
any right-thinking person would agree should be a criminal
offence."
He cites an example of two people legally married at 17
deciding to memorialize their honeymoon night on the
Betacam given to them as a wedding present. "If the police
found out about the video, they could get a search warrant,
knock down your doors, get a wiretap and listen to your
private conversations and launch an investigation.
"The law doesn't just apply to pedophiles, it applies to
collectors of art who could be criminalized. Some would say
that's going a bit far. I say that's going too far."
Mr. Addario points out that the B.C. judge also looked at
the sum of social-science literature dealing with the
"impulse relief," or masturbating habits of sex offenders,
as a significant factor in the possession of child
pornography.
------------------------------------------------------------
UK: ("Chemical cosh" #1):
----------------------------------------------------------
February 3 1999
_Doctor calls for schoolgirl birth control implants_
GIRLS as young as 12 could be fitted with long-term
contraceptive devices at school at the same time as
receiving their rubella jabs, a family planning expert
suggested yesterday.
John Guillebaud,medical director of the Margaret Pyke
Family Planning Centre in London, said a new device that
will prevent pregnancy for three years could be used in
areas with high teenage birth rates.
"In the future, and as a social policy, when you have an
area with a huge rate of teenage pregnancies you could go
into a school, obviously with the consent of the parents,
and fit this device so that everybody would start out not
being able to have a baby," he said.
The device, called Implanon, is manufactured by the Dutch
company Organon and was given its European licence just
before Christmas. It is a tiny rod, fitted under the skin
of the arm, which secretes a hormone that prevents
pregnancy. It can be removed if the woman decides she wants
to become pregnant.
Professor Guillebaud said the fact that the device was
"forgettable" made it ideal for use by young women who
tended to forget to take the Pill and who did not want to
be fitted with a coil. Girls are given their German measles
vaccination when they are about 12 or 13, and Professor
Guillebaud said this could be an opportunity to fit the
Implanon rod.
----------------------------------------------------------
USA: (Chemical cosh #2):
----------------------------------------------------------
_Bill requires 'chemical castration'_
Tuesday, February 2 1999
In an ordinary gray house nestled in Portland's Sellwood
neighborhood, Dr. Barry Maletzky quietly injects a drug --
and a controversy -- into the arms of men who have
committed unspeakable acts against children.
Twice a month, about a dozen male patients slip into
Portland's Sexual Abuse Clinic, tucked amid antique shops
lining the 8300 block of Southeast 13th Avenue, and roll up
their sleeves for a dose of medicine that some lawmakers
contend could offer a cure for child molesters.
A bill before the 70th Oregon Legislature would make the
state one of a growing number of states to mandate
"chemical castration" -- regular injections of a
testosterone-reducing drug -- for pedophiles.
According to Maletzky, the clinic's director and a
professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health Sciences
University, the treatment can reduce sex drive but doesn't
eliminate it. The effect wears off when the injections
stop, said Maletzky. Some of those patients take
the shot voluntarily; others take it as a condition of
their probation.
House Bill 2500, introduced by state Rep. Kurt Schrader,
D-Canby, would demand that all repeat sexual offenders be
"chemically castrated" before they are released from Oregon's
prisons. It also would grant the Board of Parole and
Post-Prison Supervision the discretion to inject first-time
offenders.
If released sex offenders stop showing up for their shots,
they would be sent back to prison under the proposed
legislation.
A similar bill passed the House last session but died in
the Senate without a hearing. The proposal also gives
inmates "the option" of surgical castration, Schrader said.
Depo-Provera -- the drug that would be used under Oregon's
proposed legislation -- originally was developed as a
contraceptive for women. Its side effects, when used in
men, include breast enlargement, nausea and hypertension.
Despite the constitutional, medical and ethical questions
chemical castration raises, several states have passed laws
mandating the procedure.
In 1996, California became the first state to pass a
measure known as a "chemical castration" law. Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana and Montana passed measures in 1997.
Efforts are under way to enact similar legislation in Iowa,
Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin. A Texas law allows repeat
sex offenders to elect for surgical castration under
certain conditions.
Depo-Provera injections are already being ordered on a
case-by-case basis for a handful of Oregon ex-convicts,
said Diane M. Rea, chairwoman of the Oregon Board of
Parole and Post-Prison Supervision.
But there is no formal state policy mandating the
practice.
The American Civil Liberties Union has argued that
"chemical castration is cruel and unusual punishment when
forced."
Although Schrader said most feedback on the bill has been
positive, medical professionals have been slow to embrace
legislation of the procedure, saying it should not be used
as a blanket punishment because it does not work on all
offenders.
"Our concern about mandating is that legislation makes it
sound like a complete treatment when it really is a
temporary preventive, rendering a person safer to be at
large while they're in treatment," Maletzky said. "It's
only the behavioral and cognitive methods that can take
hold and last for a lifetime."
Maletzky is the only psychiatrist in the state who
prescribes the procedure, and one of only a few doctors to
administer the drug.
Legislators who support chemical castration point to
European studies, which have shown that reducing the
testosterone levels of sex offenders reduced their sexual
offenses dramatically. In a Danish study of 900 surgically
castrated sex offenders followed for up to 30 years, their
recidivism rate was only 2.2 percent.
But what the Denmark study doesn't show, according to Dr.
Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders
Clinic in Baltimore, is what effect the drug will have on
patients who have been forced to take it.
The Denmark study only included sex offenders who
"volunteered and were interested in having this treatment,"
Berlin said.
"It's out on whether (chemical castration) can lower
recidivism in people who have it imposed on them against
their will," Berlin said.
No conclusive studies fully support the contention that
sex offenders are the most compulsive, recidivistic and
unrepentant of all criminals.
Another problem, according to Berlin and Maletzky, is that
the Oregon proposal does not mandate counseling, and little
treatment is offered offenders inside prison or out.
Four years ago, lawmakers shelved an Oregon State Hospital
program for imprisoned sex offenders, saying the program
was too expensive and produced little proof that it reduced
recidivism. Two years later, during the 1997 Legislative
session, lawmakers decided to stop funding in-prison
programs for sex offenders for much the same reason.
Responsibility for treating the state's worst sex
offenders after they are released has since fallen on
individual counties.
----------------------------------------------------------
UK:
----------------------------------------------------------
_'Don't stand so close to me'_
2nd Feb 99
She was young and "hungry for love". He was adored by all
the girls at the school for his boyish enthusiasm. Daniel
A. was - and still is - by all accounts, a brilliant
teacher, passionate about the subjects he taught, history
and drama, and interested in the welfare of his pupils. But
somewhere along the line, messy emotions intervened.
Last week at Southwark Crown Court one of his former
pupils, now 28, accused A., 54, of taking her virginity
when she was just 14. She claimed they had sex at the
school, in hotels and at his home. He accepted that he had
an "extraordinarily passionate" affair with the girl - but
only after she left school, aged 18.
The girl in question also told the court A. wrote a
spoof reference when she was only 15, including the lines,
"I can unhesitatingly recommend her as a lover. All in all,
I would say she could manage any position."
A. denied many of the lurid details, and was found not
guilty on five counts of indecent assault.
According to him, his involvement with the girl was
"normal" until she was 17, when he wept and poured his
heart out to her over the break-up of his marriage. He also
said he stopped the relationship after meeting the woman
who was to become his second wife. By this time the girl
was at university and dating other men.
As A. told the court: "It was something that should
have been left at the adulation it was before she left
school." Adulation is really the key word here, one that
most young male teachers have to come to terms with at some
point in their careers, particularly if they work in a
single-sex school.
At Angadi's school, however, the atmosphere seemed
especially intense. "The girls all fell in love with him,
of course", says Miranda, one former pupil. "One mother
even complained about it, but that was what all
14-year-olds did really. We spent our whole time having
crushes." Angadi, as he is known, was - and still is - an
extremely popular figure with all ages, it seems. There was
an appeal to cover his legal costs, to which two
headmistresses, a number of parents and ex-pupils donated
generous sums of money.
He would regularly produce plays with his pupils, and took
one production to Edinburgh which was a great success. His
mother was a successful novelist, and his father an Indian
intellectual. "He was from a typical liberal,
Hampstead-type background, a real egalitarian," says
Amanda, an ex- pupil in her late twenties who still keeps
in touch with his family. Like all the ex-pupils I spoke
to, she was deeply loyal about him. "He didn't flirt, but
was very enthusiastic and he always seemed younger than his
years. He was hugely energetic and used to cycle to school
everyday." A. was, by all accounts, charming and deeply
compelling compared to the other, mainly female, mainly
older, staff.
Yet whereas some male teachers courted female attention,
A. appeared to have more integrity, which was another
aspect of his charisma.
Lucy, another ex-pupil now in her thirties, recalls the
time A. took her to the British Library to work on a
translation of a medieval miracle play he was producing.
"He got me in by saying I was an undergraduate when I was
only 17. To me that was madly exciting, and to be
collaborating on something like that was great. It wasn't
just the illicitness of it, but that fact that he treated
me like an adult and like a colleague."
Miranda describes a competitive atmosphere where girls in
her class would vie for his attentions. "He was just
gorgeous - girls felt very strongly about him. All the
plays we did with him were so exciting. He was such an
influence on so many girls' lives. He had this mellifluous
voice and taught us about Marxism." He also had an office
near the drama department which he did up - with the aid of
willing helpers. "Girls used to queue up to help him do
that."
At one point, he asked Miranda to sit beside him during
class - it was, she insists, completely innocent. "Other
girls were so jealous, I remember, they wouldn't speak to
me for days. Looking back, it's a bit weird, but at the
time it was so innocent, paternal really."
The crossover between paternal and romantic figure was
muddling for the girls, and perhaps for A. as well. One
ex-pupil says, "He was a tremendous mentor and the only
person who really treated us like equals: he cared about
what we had to say."
----------------------------------------------------------
UK:
----------------------------------------------------------
2nd Feb 99
_Museum unveils a child-free gallery_
CHILDREN are to be banned from one of the galleries of a
97m arts, science and nature centre, funded by the
National Lottery, because they are too noisy.
The move follows private research which showed that the
thing adults hated most about visiting science museums was
the noise from children.
The head of At-Bristol, which opens next year, is Gillian
Thomas a former assistant director at the Science Museum in
London. She said if the experiment of having one "quiet
gallery" is a success, it is sure to be considered by other
museums and galleries.
----------------------------------------------------------
UK: interesting for the comment on 4000 UKP cost the private
non-police examining of computer equipment seized in the
raid:
----------------------------------------------------------
_Games pirates are 'let off'_
THE computer games industry is seething after four known
criminals were released with a caution after being caught
in raids in which pirated games worth more than 1 million
were seized.
The raid on homes in Sheffield involved 14 police officers,
plus trading standards officers and Elspa investigators.
The association then spent more than 4,000 examining
seized software and equipment.
----------------------------------------------------------
USA:
----------------------------------------------------------
_Federal Court Smashes Net Censorship Again_
02/01/99
A federal judge imposed a preliminary injunction on Monday
against the government from enforcing the latest Internet
censorship law aimed at children.
The Child Online Protection Act threatens the free-speech
rights of a broad group of plaintiffs representing
mainstream and unconventional plaintiffs, said U.S.
District Judge Lowell Reed Jr., in his ruling rendered
Monday in Philadelphia.
"The judge's decision was a sweeping victory," said Barry
Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil
Liberties Union in New York. "This represents an unbroken
string of victories for free speech in cyberspace," he
said.
"The Justice Department is reviewing the judge's decision
as to whether to take it to a higher court," said Justice
Department spokeswoman Chris Watney. The American Civil
Liberties Union led the battle on behalf of 17 Internet
sites against the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA,
passed by Congress last fall.
----------------------------------------------------------
Russia:
----------------------------------------------------------
February 3 1999
The *Moscow Times* reports a new study by the Sociological
Centre of the Russian Academy of Education, which says
the percentage of girls under 16 who claim to have had
sex doubled from 16 per cent in 1993 to about 33 per cent
in 1995. Thirty-six per cent of boys under 16 had sex
in 1993, and 44 per cent in 1995.
Schools, which began to teach sex education for the first
time in the 1990s, stopped in 1997 after parents complained
about explicit questionnaires given to children.
Although in private Russians are far more open than the
British about sex, public education on the subject has
barely started, leaving young people to find out about
sex through friends, magazines and television.
Medecins Sans Frontieres has launched a media campaign to
persuade Russian teenagers to use condoms. Ilona van de
Braak, the campaign co-ordinator, said that "young people
are well informed, but HIV [the Aids-related virus] is seen
as so remote that they take no preventive measures".
Organisers are hoping that Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow's Mayor,
who backs the Orthodox Church stance against sex education,
will not object. During a similar campaign last year, he
ordered posters to be torn down and banned educational
advertisements on a government-backed television channel.
Charities claim that forty percent of Russia's children
are chronically ill, due to the collapse of some areas
of the Russian healthcare system.
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New Zealand:
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January 29, 1999
_Overseas paedophiles on run in NZ_
The police are pushing for a law change to get rid of
foreign criminals allegedly hiding out in New Zealand
because there are no extradition treaties with their
home countries.
Wellington-based Interpol head Greg Allan said a draft of a
proposed new law going through Parliament included a clause
allowing one-off extraditions to countries with which New
Zealand had no extradition treaties.
In the last two months, Christchurch and Timaru police have
arrested four men wanted in Australia on sex-abuse charges.
In the last three years, the police have sent home nearly
35 Australians hiding out in New Zealand.
New Zealand was close, cheap to travel to, had the same
culture, language, and food, and some of the fleeing
Australians had relatives living in New Zealand. It would
be hard to stop all wanted people entering New Zealand, he
said.
The police were working on sending home about 20 foreigners
wanted by overseas police, Mr Allan said.
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Conference report:
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_'Secondary' fathers threaten evolutionary theory_
THE accepted scientific account of the evolution of
marriage, fatherhood and the family has been rocked by the
discovery that some societies believe a child can have
several fathers.
Participants at the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science were told of a
new threat to the scientific evolutionary picture that
places great emphasis on fatherhood.
Evolutionary biologists hold that we evolved with one
overarching purpose - to pass our genes to the next
generation. As a result, scientists have argued that the
relationship between men and women is based on a trade-off:
men look after women and their children in return for
fidelity that guarantees that the children do belong to one
father, said Prof Stephen Beckerman of Penn State
University.
"Contemporary men are thus argued to be intrinsically
jealous, women to be inherently coy," he told the meeting.
This meshes with the folk belief, accepted in the West
since Biblical times, that a child has only one biological
father. However, this assumption is undermined by the
discovery that some non-Western societies hold that every
man who contributes sperm during a pregnancy contributes
biologically to the child. "We now know that only one sperm
and one egg contribute to each child," said Prof Beckerman.
"But no one knew this scientifically until 1879," he said.
Before then, "it was just a lucky guess that Western folk
biology was correct".
The alternative belief, called partible paternity, is
common among indigenous groups in South America, is found
in at least one or two places in New Guinea and may occur
today on the Indian subcontinent - at least 18 groups
widely separated in distance and culture.
"Modern evolutionary scenarios that assume certainty of
paternity as a crucial element in the evolution of modern
humans from African hominids may be incorrect," he said.
"This may have important implications for the evolution of
the human family, including marriage, the sexual division
of labour, and the idea of fatherhood."
The behaviour of our ancestors is usually extrapolated
from that of chimpanzees: females only mated with males
when in heat and the many suitors took only a cursory
interest in offspring. This was replaced, according to the
standard evolutionary scenario, by a proto-marriage, where
men and women foraged for different resources and males
provisioned females and their young in return for paternity
certainty from females who were now receptive all year
round.
But Prof Beckerman said: "Not only does the contrary idea
of partible paternity exist in many South American groups,
but these groups have managed to create societies where
families exist and successfully raise children even though
they have multiple fathers."
Two previous studies indicate that children with multiple
fathers have higher survival rates. Secondary fathers
supply meat or fish for the child, or protect it from
danger.
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'Interesting hardware' corner:
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_Chameleon cellphones will work anywhere in the world_
-- New phones are highly portable and adaptable
February 3 1999
Mobile phones that adapt themselves to work on whichever
cellular system they happen to be in are expected to come
on the market next year.
The technology is based on a digital signal processing chip
that can use different configurations depending on the
radio system required. One of their key advantages is that
they will adapt to third-generation cellular systems now
under development.
The new phones will go one step further than the newly
introduced Ericsson I888 World phone, which will work
almost anywhere on the planet.
The "call from anywhere" phone is a joint development by
BellSouth Cellular and California-based QuickSilver
Technology. It uses QuickSilver's Adaptive Computing
Machines (ACM) that will automatically change their
configuration to work on different networks.
* The phone also has a built-in data capability and an
* infra-red port, so notebook and palmtop computer users
* can update their e-mail and even surf the Web almost
* anywhere without using wires.
"With ACM technology, cellphones will virtually act as
chameleons, easily adapting to different networks as well
as configuring to work with future technologies," says
Becky Jackson, director of strategy at BellSouth Cellular.
Ericsson's I888 World phone operates on both the
frequencies used in Europe (900 and 1800MHz) and also the
1900MHz frequency used in many US cities.
The I888 World comes with a travel charger with five
different plugs, covering most popular business
destinations around the world. It will come on the British
market next month at about 180 UKP.
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Book/academic notes:
------------------------------------------------------------
Hunter, J., "The Phallic Child: Its Emergence and Meaning
in a Clinical Setting," American Journal of Psychotherapy,
1995, 49, 3, pp.428-445.
--
From an academic mailing-list on the history of sexuality:
3rd Feb 99
"Other papers in press are on sexual taboos in [the Bible],
and pederasty and the centurion's servant.
[No further details]
--
Review of: "Contemporary Society - Childhood and Complex
Order", by Georg Pfeffer and Deepak Kumar Behera, Eds,
Manak Publications, New Delhi. Review by D. Raja Ganesan
in: The Hindu, India, November 17, 1998.
[No further details]
--
Dr Gill Valentine - 1996. "Children should be seen and not
heard: the transgression of adult's public space".
Dept of Geography, Sheffield University, England.
[No further details]
--
Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, Vol 4 No. 2, 1997.
_Science and the Mismanagement of Rapists and Paedophiles_
by N. McConaghy
Abstract:
"Data once accepted in the scientific literature tend to
resist evidence demonstrating that they are incorrect and
continue to be accepted. In relation to rapists and
paedophiles this has resulted in their continuing to be
individually assessed by the invalid procedure of penile
circumference plethysmography and to be treated by
procedures which aim to modify their sexual preferences
despite evidence that such modification is not possible.
Relapse prevention continues to be the currently most
widely accepted treatment, despite the only well-controlled
evaluation demonstrating it to be ineffective if not
harmful."
--
_No Go the Bogeyman -- Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock_,
by Marina Warner. Jan 99. Farrar Straus Giroux. 434 pp. $35.
From the Beast to the Blonde, Marina Warner's previous work
of grandly exuberant cultural history, was subtitled "On
Fairy Tales and their Tellers"
Now Warner has returned with a comparably ambitious survey
of how folktales, art and mythology deal with fear, in
particular with masculine figures of dread: ogres, giants,
cannibals, devils, strangers, serial murderers. No Go the
Bogeyman -- the enigmatic title echoes a line from the poet
Louis MacNeice ("It's no go the Yogi-man") -- starts with
an analysis of Goya's gruesome "black" painting "Saturn
Devouring His Child" and closes with reflections on our
contemporary obsession with pedophilia. In between, this
capacious volume considers the affinity of children and
monsters,
--
Archives of Sexual Behavior, Dec 1998
_Boys and sexual abuse: an English opinion_
by D. J. West.
Abstract:
"The nature and significance of sexual encounters between
boys and older persons have been studied. Moral problems
caused by sex between men and boys can be handled better
if the moral outcry from media can be lessened. True
victims of child sexual abuse can be served better if
penal laws are more discerning. Harsh measures should be
restricted to persons who exhibit criminal or dangerous
behavior. Additional protection which exists in some
European countries can be implemented by persons of
trust such as parents, teachers, doctors or employers."
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Book review:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Economist, London. December 5th 1998.
_Books_
Anne Higonnet "Pictures of Innocence"
James Kincaid "Erotic Innocence, the Culture of Child-Molesting"
_Reliable truths about parents, children and families are
inevitably mixed with myth and anxiety, as several new or
recent books remind us._
The opposite of "innocent", when said of children, is
"knowing". For adults, the opposite of "innocent" is
"guilty". What links these two pairs of ideas is more than
a simple pun. For parents normally feel very responsible
for the innocence of their children. If it is blemished or
destroyed, the parents must surely be guilty: for abusing
trust, for failing to protect, for neglecting helplessness.
The stricter the parents' sense of responsibility, the
purer the imputed innocence. How much easier it is to
picture cosy, Enid Blyton lands of carefree children than
to enter the passionate worlds full of angels and monsters
that the young invent for themselves. It tells you a lot to
watch a school playground where big older children bully,
intimidate and covertly torture small or awkward ones
longing to join in and be popular. Nor are young children
sexually innocent. They whisper garbled versions of the
facts of life to each other; they play doctors and
nurses-you show me yours and I'll show you mine. All
children do. Remember? But they choose to do those.,
secret, tingly things with one another, rarely with
grown-ups, who tend to forget. Innocence in Arcadia is, of
course, a myth that frw parents will hold to if pressed.
[other new general books on childhood mentioned]
The issue is fraught. Innocence is in the eye of the
beholder, and today's post-Freudian beholders have lost
it. Look at Lewis Carroll's photographs, let alone child
beauty contests, without being aware of the disturbingly
ambiguous feelings they provoke? Anne Higonnet's
thoughtful book, "Pictures of Innocence", studies the
depiction of children in painting and photography. "No
subject," she writes, "is as publicly dangerous now as
the subject of the child's body." Her introduction barely
gets to page two before the serpent of child sexual
abuse enters the Garden of Eden. Children's beauty and
their vulnerability to abuse have become linked in a
volatile mixture of protectiveness and fear. The
unsolved murder of a lipsticked, pouting six-year-old
American beauty princess, JonBenet Ramsey, possibly by a
relative, spotlit the connection that exists for many
people between displaying children in public and the
provocation this affords adults. What are the implications
of her death and how can such outrages be prevented? Should
beauty contests be banned and must parents stop
photographing their children? Keep them at home, safe from
prying eyes or, if they must go out, cover them up and
escort them everywhere? These are the methods of the
Taliban.
To fear and protectiveness, James Kincaid, the author of
"Erotic Innocence, the Culture of Child-Molesting", adds
a third element, which he calls, with some plausibility,
"hard-core, righteous prurience". He believes that many
upright citizens love tabloid tales of child molestation.
"These stories keep the subject hot," he writes, "so we
can disown it while welcoming it in the back door." It
takes courage to speak out against the tide of political
correctness and challenge the widespread hounding of
paedophiles, and Mr Kincaid argues that children often
lie about adult sexual interference, if only to draw
attention to themselves. Not much innocence there,
he scoffs. This, of course, is highly disputed territory.
About the witch-hunt-like climate, he is on less
controversial ground. He dismisses reports of satanic
ritual and treats the obsession with "recovered memory"
likewise. "I do not want to draw sensational parallels to
Salem, Nazi Germany or the McCarthy-ridden 1950s," he
writes, "but the stark moral drama offered by our child
molesting stories does suggest the possibility of
scapegoating,or at least of a cover narrative camouflaging
needs so dark and urgent we want neither to face them nor
to give them up."
------------------------------------------------------------
UK: Evidence from a fascist paper of how fascist activists
are using the anti-paedophile climate to spread hate-
propaganda and seek new recruits:
------------------------------------------------------------
_Building support_ http://www.webcom.com/bnp/build.html
Spearhead - September 1998
--------------------------------------------------------------
UK: Families for Freedom - Child Safety Bulletins
--------------------------------------------------------------
_Safer than you think_
Families for Freedom was set up in June 1996 [in the United
Kingdom], by a group of parents and professionals involved
with children. We believe that the risks to children are
grossly exaggerated. All the evidence points to the fact
that children are safer, healthier, better fed, better read
and more computer-literate than ever before. Prenatal,
infant and child mortality rates have continued to decline
over the past two decades. There has been no increase in
the minuscule risk of child abduction and murder in the
post- war period. And juvenile crime, despite all the scary
headlines, is low and declining.
Instead, we would argue, children do face very real
problems today. They are over- protected and prevented from
developing any life separate from their parents. They are
driven to school, watched at play and their activities are
organised by adults. As a result, they have less and less
opportunity to explore the world for themselves, to choose
their own friends, and to learn what it means to be
independent.
Parents also face unprecedented, often self- imposed
constraints. Intensely preoccupied with their childrens'
well- being they subordinate everything to it, including
their own interests. Most parents feel they must put their
own lives on hold while their children grow up, and even
believe that they should consult their children before they
make any decisions about the family's future. In
subordinating themselves to their children they undermine
their own ability to assert authority.
People are susceptible to the scaremongering around
children because we live in a society that has lost faith
in itself. There is also a profound sense of insecurity
about the future, however insignificant, can have
unforeseen and harmful consequences. This sense of risk and
fear of the unpredictable is sharply focused on children
and the way they are treated, which means that increasingly
everybody is blaming parents. Not only are problems
exaggerated but, where they used to be seen as having
social roots, they are now seen as being caused by
inadequate or irresponsible individuals. Reforming
individuals rather than society has become the major
objective for professionals and politicians alike.
Families for Freedom argues the case for less worry and
fewer restraints. We urge parents to relax and enjoy their
children. We implore everybody to resist the scares that
may frighten the life out of our future generation.
The following fact sheets are part of a series that
Families for Freedom plan to publish over the next few
months.
- Stranger Danger
- Children arid Accidents
- Secure Schools
- Youth - Vulnerable and Dangerous?
- The Cot-Death Guilt Trip
- Children, Sunshine and Skin Cancer
Stranger Danger
For a few mouths after Jamie Bulger was murdered, some
supermarkets displayed a poster showing a close-up
photograph of an adult clasping a small child's hand. The
caption beneath it said: `Don't let go, it only takes a
second' . In the years that have followed we have witnessed
an escalating fear of the unknown and uncontrollable freak
event - the stranger taking a child. Indeed, the recent
responses to the events at Dunblane and of Dutrouz in
Belgium have been characterised by the fear for every and
any child from an unknown individual who could be lurking
anywhere . 'No child now seems safe from what was
unimaginable only a year ago.' (Guardian Section G2,
20/08/97)
Most parents are scared of `the stranger'. This was borne
out by research conducted by FfF in June 1998 where, out of
200 parents interviewed, 76% put this as their biggest
worry. Similarly the Campaign group Kidscape's report `How
safe are our children? ' (July 1993) showed that, based on
interviews with 1,000 adults, by far the biggest fear of
parents was possible abduction of their child by an unknown
person. Ninety five percent of parents put this fear at the
top of their list. In 1995 Barnardos published a survey in
which they found that nearly 70% of parents felt their
neighbourhood was unsafe, and half said they never let
their children play out without adult supervision. Again
their biggest single fear was strangers. Other surveys have
supported these findings. Responding to the `risks' posed
by strangers, some `parent- friendly' supermarkets and
shopping malls have even offered to supply baby reins and
have discussed the possibility of electronically tagging
babies (Independent 14/01/96).
What is the risk?
Very few books on Childcare mention risks from strangers.
They tend to concentrate on issues such as accidents and
nutrition. Indeed one of the first surveys into crimes
children face found that the major problem was bicycle
theft and did not mention strangers at all. In publications
that deal primarily with children at risk from violence,
attack or sexual assault there is also little or no mention
of `the stranger'. This is because the risk of a stranger
harming a child is extremely small (see table below). A
Home Office researcher into murder of children commented
that, `There are two messages to emerge: First, children
are not becoming more vulnerable to homicide, and second,
the evidence of homicide by strangers on children has been
consistently low. ' (Quoted by Stuart Wavel in The Sunday
Times 06/08/95).
Offences recorded as homicide where the victim was aged
under 16 and a suspect was identified who was not known to
the victim (Home Office figures 1996).
1975: 7 1976: 6 1977: 6 1978: 8
1979: 5 1980: 14 1981: 5 1982: 6
1983: 4 1984: 6 1985: 8 1986: 10 1987: 9
1988: 6 1989: 5 1990: 4 1991: 10
1992: 2 1993: 5 1994: 7 1995: 6 1996: 5
Abuse and abduction by strangers
Research conducted in Scotland in 1990 found that, out of
the 89 families referred to the Dundee Royal Infirmary's
Department of Child Psychiatry for sexual abuse and related
problems, over a five- year period, the abuser was a
stranger in only three per cent of cases. Abduction by a
stranger is also very rare. It is hard to be precise as the
legal definition changed in 1984. Before that date there
was an offence called 'Child Stealing' and it only applied
to strangers. However, with the recognition that fathers
were taking their children without the consent of the
mother in cases of separation and divorce, the law was
changed. The present crime of abduction includes parents,
who cannot be classified as strangers. However, if every
one of the convictions or cautions for abduction in 1992,
for example, were against strangers, 54 out of nearly
12,000,000 children is still an extremely low risk.
Restricted Iives
On the whole parents take very little comfort from these
facts and figures. They know that the risk is small but the
fear remains - `it could be my child who gets snatched' .
[Parent cited from `Paranoid parents' , research conducted
by Families for Freedom in June 1998). As a result they are
in danger of fencing in their children into an increasingly
limited experience of life. More and more children are
being cocooned at home and denied the experiences that
their parents had, in terms of exploring and interacting
with their peers.
Many parents do not allow their children out to play
without supervision. In the research paper `Stranger
Danger: parents' fears and restrictions on children's use
of space'. Dr Gill Valentine found that 95% of the parents
she surveyed impose restrictions on their children's play
in order to keep them safe. They often established the
restrictions collectively in local areas and parents felt
`a strong pressure to live up to these local norms '. Even
if parents did not personally believe their children to be
at risk they felt they had to conform to other parents'
rules. As a mother interviewed said, `I mean we all get
together... and I think sometimes when we get together... and I
think sometimes when we hear that some parents have allowed
their children to go various places, you know, eyebrows are
raised' (Valentine 1996).
As result of these restrictions vital experiences that
children need in order to develop into independent and
confident adults are being denied them. A report published
in 1990 showed just how quickly children have lost their
freedom. In 1971 80% of English seven and eight- year olds
were allowed to travel to school on their own or with other
children. By 1990 it was down to 10 per cent. Dr Valentine
found that 23% of parents described their children as
'outdoors children' compared to 60% of parents in study
done in the early `70s. In contrast their childhood 'they
felt that children spent more time playing indoors or
`being chaperoned to clubs, societies and leisure centres'.
The Barnardo's report, `Playing it safe', indicates that
parents are organising their lives around the fear of
strangers or feel they ought to be. Mothers in particular
bear a great burden of being constantly on call to ensure
that their children get to and from school and activities
safely. They find they have less time for themselves or
their partners and that not only are they limiting the
range of experiences their children have, they are also
restricting their own lives to a tedious and mind- numbing
daily routine of supervising and ferrying children.
Everybody's a stranger
Finally, the consequences of `stranger danger' fear are
damaging to the relationships between children and adults,
creating a society based on fear rather than trust.
Interviews conducted by FfF in early 1998 provide a vivid
example of this:
Linda: "I took James to Tesco's [supermarket] this morning
and a man about 50 years oId was talking to him. The first
thought that came into my head was "get away from my child"
and, of course, he was probably only being nice. I hate it,
but I can't let anyone touch him or talk to him without
getting suspicious'."
As does this interview conducted by Gill Valentine: "We
went to this show... and this little kiddie came wandering
up... and he's crying "Where's my mummy?" And my immediate
reaction was 'God, you know, keep the kid here where he's
safe, don't let him go wandering round', but at the same
time it was' God, I hope nobody thinks I'm taking this
kid'. And I was terrified to actually hold on to the child
in case somebody thought I was taking him. ' (Valentine
1996).
Many adults are now reticent about talking to children they
do not know, even when they are in the company of their
parents or carers. People have changed their behaviour in
the park and on the street and steer clear of children so
as not to arouse suspicion. This creates a vicious circle
with people becoming less trusting of other adults and less
open to new experiences. It also means that children do not
learn to interact with adults - how to talk to them and
make an assessment of them as people they can trust, like,
or not. It seems ironic that in a time when politicians are
descrying a loss of community spirit they are supporting
campaigns that teach children to `Run, Yell, Tell'
(Kidscape) when they don't like the look of somebody.
Fear of strangers thus poses a danger to children's early
experience of life, undermining their development as
independent individuals, and to parents who are
increasingly putting the rest of their life on hold while
they devote themselves to protecting their children from
non-existent risks.
References
Barnardo's, 1995: "Playing It Safe - today's children at play"
Families for Freedom 1998, "Paranoid Parents"
Hillman M, 1991, "One False Move - a study of children's independent
mobility" PSI Publishers.
Dr Gill Valentine - 1996 Children should be seen and not heard:
The transgression of adult's public space Dept of Geography,
Sheffield University.
Morgan and Zedner, 1992. Child Victims of Crime; Impact and
Criminal Justice. Open University Press.
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ends