Press Release 26 July 2005
Order Sought to Halt Sale of Children’s Porn Game

The Society has made an application for an interim restriction order to stop all further "supply" to the public of a controversial computer game that allows thousands of children to practice interactive pornography. The game which the society does not wish to identify by name (it does not wish to assist sales of state-sanctioned "smut") has been widely promoted and sold through leading retail stores in New Zealand. It teaches players to take on the persona of a well known promiscuous and geriatric male pornographer in order to set up a porn empire, by learning to recruit "sexy" women for nude centre-fold photo-shoots, arranging multiple "sexual" encounters in party environments where semi-nude female models and their clients get drunk, and selecting the locations where "sex" is to take place. The player can manipulate the environment to ensure that certain types of "sexual" encounters can take place.

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Press Release No 2: 25 July 2005
CleanFeed Child Porn Block Applauded

Society president Mike Petrus says "the Society is delighted to read a report that Internet industry groups are teaming up with the Government to test a system to filter online child pornography." The Censorship Compliance officials in the Department of Internal Affairs will be testing the British CleanFeed systems, which block access to sites that have been blacklisted for hosting such material. (DominionPost 25 July).

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The Society commends Stephen Franks, ACT MP, for raising serious concerns in parliament on the 15th of February 2005 over clauses in a Government Bill – the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Amendment Bill – during its crucial third reading stage. It commends him for submitting during the committee stages of the third reading, six key amendments seeking to: protect the right of free speech, prevent key findings in a unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal in the Living Word case being rendered obsolete, and safeguarding the real intent of the principal Act to only deal with material that the “overwhelming majority of the public” find offensive “by use of offensive expression,” rather than “by reason of disagreement with the subject matter or argument or propositions expressed.” (The Court’s decision in Living Word led to the un-banning of two Christian opinion-piece videos critical of the promiscuous homosexual lifestyle and the aggressive homosexual political agenda).

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Media Release 13 May 2004

The Society presented its concerns today to the Government and Administration Committee over the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Amendment Bill – a Government Bill. Society president Mike Petrus, who attended, says:

"The Society has consistently opposed moves to alter the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act ("the Act") in any way that would allow so-called "hate speech" to be smuggled into censorship law as an additional jurisdictional "gateway" in s. 3(1) of the Act. We are concerned that this option, which is opposed by the Ministry of Justice, could open up the censorship laws as a potential vehicle to suppress the dissemination of information and opinion.

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Press Release 5 August 2005

Campaign to Change TV Adult Only "Watershed" to 9.30 p.m.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0508/S00073.htm

The Society is supporting a national Campaign to have the "watershed" time for the broadcasting of Adults Only (AO) television programmes moved from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. It is calling on the public to make this an election issue by contacting their local MPs and urging them to get their respective parties to make a public commitment to the time change, as part of their election policy.

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