Sentencing In Internet Child Abuse Case

The sentencing of Stephen Karl Foster in the Blenheim District Court today on charges of distributing and collecting electronic child sex abuse images highlights a disturbing form of child abuse, which some people perceive to be acceptable.

Acting General Manager, Social Work Operations, Child, Youth and Family Shannon Pakura says this conviction is not about pictures on a computer, it is about protecting children from abuse.

“Using the Internet to access pictures of babies and children being raped and violently abused is not a victimless crime. Children are abused to create these images, abused by adults who should be protecting and nurturing them,” said Ms Pakura.

“Child abuse in any form must not be tolerated.”

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>