Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc.

P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville

Media Release 13 August

Call for PM to deal with Internet Porn

Given the A$189 million package announced by the Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday night last week 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 Society is calling on the Prime Minister Helen Clark's Government to take similar urgent action. It most recently raised its serious concerns with the Minister of Justice, the Hon. Mark Burton, in a letter dated 1 June 2007, and has received no response to questions it has raised about Government policies and apparent inaction over the problem.

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.

The Society is asking the Prime Minister why Cabinet Minister Mark Burton has failed to respond to questions it has raised with him and his colleagues about her Government's failure to deal with the internet problem: the ready availability of, and corrupting impact, of hardcore porn and gratuitous images of sexual violence, on children and young persons, in particular. The PM will be aware that such images have now entered NZ mainstream 'arthouse' film cinemas as a regular feature - R18 films such as "Baise-Moi" featuring a four minute rape and sodomising of a woman, and others containing gratuitous sexual violence like "Irreversible" - both hailed by the Chief Censor Bill Hastings, who passed them both for public screening, as a terrific antidotes to the problem of sexual violence in our country. The Society wrote to the Minister of Communications, the Hon. David Cunliffe, on the 1st of June 2007, about its serious concerns. Mr Cunliffe referred the enquiry on to the Minister of Justice Hon Mark Burton, who has yet to respond to the Society's concerns and questions.

The Society's unanswered letter is available on its website (www.spcs.org.nz) and is copied below. The Society has raised concerns with Mr Burton's Office about this unanswered correspondence, on a number of occasions over the last month.

The Society is particularly concerned about the corrosive and toxic nature of much Internet porn and sexual violence and its addictive impact (see Sydney Morning Herald article: http://www.stuffco.nz/print/4075846a19716.html ).

APPENDIX

Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc.

P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville

1 June 2007

Questions for Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Hon. David Cunliffe

cc. Minister of Justice, Hon. Mark Burton

1. Has anything been done by the Minister or his government to ensure that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ensure that NZ and/or overseas websites that feature "objectionable" content for viewing/download and purchase (e.g. hard-core porn); are black-listed and blocked to prevent injury to the "public good", especially in relation to protecting children and young persons from accessing such sites?

2. If so, what legislative changes have been made, or are before select committees, that are designed to safeguard the public from access to such "objectionable" content?

3. Have such matters been considered within the scope of the Crimes Amendment Act (No 6)? If not why not?

4. Does the Minister personally think it is needful for NZ ISPs to be required by law to filter out all known NZ and overseas websites that contain images of hard-core pornography, degrading, dehumanising and demeaning sexual content, and content matter that falls within s. 3(2) of the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 (bestiality, paedophilia etc)?

5. If so why and how does he propose this can be achieved?

6. If not, why not?

7. Has the government passed any legislation that specifically addresses the problem of Internet pornography that is wrecking many relationships?

8. What role, if any, is the Ministry of Social Development and the Families Commission having in this problem that involves the Minister's sphere of IT (in particular the internet)?

(see Sydney Morning Herald article: http://www.stuffco.nz/print/4075846a19716.html )

ENDS

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