SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.
What’s wrong with our rape laws? OPINION by Andrea Vance:
Amid the national moral panic stemming from the Roast Busters sex scandal, politicians were grappling with one challenging question: What’s wrong with our rape laws?
What is it about our justice system that makes more than 90 per cent of victims unwilling to report incidents of sexual violation to the police?
Why is it that sexual violence is the fifth most common offence but the least reported to police? [Read more…]
Easy access to increasingly hardcore pornography and the sexualisation of childhood are being blamed for a rise in the number of children sexually abusing each other.
Growing numbers of children and teenagers are committing acts of sexual abuse against other children every year, with some as young as 11 being prosecuted for sexual offences.
Experts are calling for compulsory cyber-education programmes in all schools from primary level to stem the impact of explicit material.
Ministry of Justice figures received under the Official Information Act show that, since 2008, there have been 1299 prosecutions for sexual offences brought against young people under the age of 18.
This has risen steadily over the past five years, with 314 prosecutions last year compared to 204 in 2008. These are for offences ranging from rape to indecent assault and sexual grooming, with victims, both male and female, under the age of 16.
The youngest offender was 11. Only one of the offenders was a girl. Police say the jump in prosecutions was due to better knowledge and increased reporting of sexual abuse, rather than a rise in incidents.
To read full story go to:
More Kids Committing Sexcual Abuse – Story by Michelle Duff
8 July 2013
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/8889144/More-kids-committing-sexual-abuse
Internet search companies such as Google have come under pressure to block child pornography after a children’s charity said that the sites “fuel the fantasies” of paedophiles who then sexually assault children.
As Mark Bridger was jailed for life for the abduction and murder of 5-year-old April Jones, the NSPCC said there was a “worrying link” between his looking at indecent images online and the crime he went on to commit.
Bridger’s laptop contained a cache of images of children being raped and abused. Police found a horror film in his video recorder paused at a violent rape.
Last month, Stuart Hazell was jailed for the murder of Tia Sharpe, his partner’s 12-year-old granddaughter. During his trial the Old Bailey heard that he had used his computer to search for terms including “violent forced rape” and “incest”.
Bridger, like Hazell, had no previous convictions for sexual offences. Both went from viewing indecent images straight to the worst class of offending.
With no gradual escalation in behaviour, there was nothing to suggest they were a threat to children and to alert police.
Child protection charities say web companies could introduce online warnings, threatening possible prosecution when users attempt to access explicit sites.
There have been calls for Google to introduce their “safe search” option as a default setting, which would automatically block hard-core pornography and make it far more difficult for children to access accidentally.
John Carr, the British Government’s adviser on internet safety and secretary of a children’s charities coalition on the subject, has said: “Google can do more and should do more.”
Scott Rubin, Google’s director of communications and public affairs, said: “Google has a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse content. When we discover child abuse imagery or are made aware of it, we respond quickly to remove and report it to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”
Story By Martin Evans. The New Zealand Herald. Saturday 1 June 2013
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/article.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=10887728
Source: Daily Telegraph UK