Sophia Worringer, a parliamentary researcher, claims that pornography is harmful and must be treated with a public health approach. She asks the question, if pornography was not harmful as some people claim, why then did the Parish incident (Member of Parliament watching porn) spark such a public outpouring. Many women feel threatened when hearing that pornography has been viewed in their presence because they know the degrading and damaging nature of its essence. It is also difficult to separate the expansion of the multi-billion dollar pornography industry from the trafficking of young women and children around the world. Pornographic online videos open the door for exploitation and abuse. Pornography is not passive. It changes expectations of sex, removes sex from consenting loving relationships, and rewires your brain meaning you are always wanting more.
LIFEAlerts
Assisted suicide laws increase suicide rates, especially among women (UK)
Posner argued: People who have no immediate wish to die by suicide get reassurance from knowing that they can exercise the option of suicide at some point in the future. The study used data from ten US states that implemented an assisted suicide law up to the end of 2019. Assisted suicide laws increase overall suicide rates by about 18% and for women the increase is 40%. Assisted suicide results in an increase in unassisted suicides by about 6% and amongst women there is a 13% increase in unassisted suicides. Some argue that these results show assisted suicide empowers women to take control over end-of-life decisions. However, the alternative view is that they are disempowered and become more vulnerable to social pressures and therefore opt for suicide.
Assisted suicide bill rejected in Connecticut (USA)
Assisted suicide has been rejected in Connecticut for the tenth time, after a close vote by senators on the State General Assembly’s judiciary committee. The disability rights group Second Thoughts Connecticut and The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA strongly opposed the plans. They warned “offering suicide prevention to most people while offering suicide assistance to an ever-widening subset of disabled people is lethal disability discrimination”.
Application in the South Gauteng High Court to legalise euthanasia (South Africa)
Palliative care doctor, Suzanne Walter, and her patient, Diethelm Harck, started a court case to legalise euthanasia in South Africa. Walter was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2017, while Harck was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 2013. Both wish to have the option to end their lives when they feel they cannot handle their illness any more. Due to their medical conditions, special arrangements were made in March for the evidence of Harck and Walter to be heard first via a commission headed by Judge Neels Claassen. Their application for an order directing the government to enact legislation which will allow for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, is due to proceed in the South Gauteng High Court for six weeks from May 3.
Prostitution in Israel on decline, study finds
The consumption of prostitution in Israel is on the decline, while the number of Israelis who perceive the profession in a negative light has increased, according to a new study published. The study, conducted by the Brookdale Institute for the Welfare and Interior ministries, found that about 84% of all Israelis consider prostitution a harmful and degrading social phenomenon that serves to damage the person’s honour, while 23% believe that “prostitution is a legitimate profession.” The study also found that 45% believe that women have every right to sell their body for sex and that those soliciting to prostitution come from all walks of life, ages, education levels and marital status i.e. both married and single. Overall, about 20% of all men who took part in the study admitted they had paid for sex at least once. Among men who paid for sex in the five years prior to the study, 68% testified that they had solicited to prostitution more than once. In addition, the study also found that the number of men who had said that they paid for sex dropped from 11% before the 2018 law, to 7% in 2019 and 5% in 2020, the year the law went into effect, while 18% said that they had stopped their solicitation altogether due to the law.
New law to fully prosecute child sex offenders (USA)
A new law signed by Governor Brian Kemp will put more measures in place to prosecute child sex offenders to the fullest. This law received support from democrats and republicans. They’re hitting our kids in vulnerable spots, according to Rose Grant-Wiseman, the Executive Director of the Coastal Child Advocacy Centre. The bill treats each act of child molestation as a separate offense and makes each image or video of child pornography a separate offense. For each thing that you have done or committed, that could be five years, that could be ten years, that could be fifteen. It could be a life sentence,” Grant-Wiseman stated. Someone who has thousands of images would have a stronger punishment then someone with a few.
Portland sees rise in sextortion schemes amongst teens (USA)
As the internet and social media have evolved, so have the dangers that come with it, especially amongst youth. The level of integration of the internet with our society has given rise to cyberbullying, a form of bullying explicitly done online which uses hateful, abusive or threatening messages and media content. With the lack of regulations among tech companies and inadequate tools for parents to protect their children, the internet has also given rise to a much more dangerous threat: sextortion. Sextortion is defined as scamming victims, who are often underage, typically ranging between 14 and 17 years, to send explicit photos and content to predators. Once the scammers have acquired the photos, they typically threaten or blackmail the victim. It’s a dark but sadly real form of abuse that can be more common than people think.
Companies to ask for ID before giving access to pornography (USA)
The Louisiana Legislature is trying to protect children from porn and they’re asking for adults to present their ID when trying to access it. Children have much easier access to pornography than they used to have. According to Dr. Gail Dines, an anti-porn advocate, children under the age of 10 now account for 22 percent of underage online porn consumption. While 10-14-year-olds make up 36%. The average age of first exposure to pornography is 11 years old. The Representative pushing the bill, Laurie Schlegel, stated that the bill would make it so that the verification would only reveal if the user is over 18. Unlimited access to pornography on the internet is causing a public health crisis for our children, Schlegel affirmed. The law passed out of the committee without any opposition.
Commission proposes tightening laws to protect child pornography victims (South Africa)
Jody Kollapen South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) chairperson proposed new laws on child pornography that will expand definitions of the crime and tighten existing regulations to protect child victims.
Kollapen’s report deals with the production of pornographic material involving children and the dissemination of that material. In a growing age of the ease of technology, one sees the impact that this could have on broader society but also on the interests and rights of children, Kollapen stated. Our Constitution carries within it the paramount principle that the best interests of the child matter — and matter significantly. It’s an important area for us to consider in the context of our society. The SALRC also proposed that the database be linked to Interpol’s international child sexual exploitation image database.
Child safety groups call on porn sites to voluntarily introduce age verification (Scotland)
Child safety groups urged pornography websites to introduce age verification tools as quickly as possible to better protect children from harmful content and to bring them in line with the British Board of Film Classification ratings. Video works that are given ratings of between 12, 15, 18, or R18 certificates are legally restricted, and it is against the law for anybody underage to obtain such material. They argue that many porn sites feature depictions of practices that meet the definition of criminal standards for sexual violence.