Monday, July 07, 2008

Arrggggg! No clothes does not equal porn

What the hell is wrong with adults? This is just utterly ridiculous. Why are naked photos of small children regarded as sexual? Unless sexual content is actually evident, kids without clothes have nothing to do with pornography, regardless of what the image is used for. As and for this quote
We have seen these sort of cases in the [United] States and elsewhere, where a person in their 30s or their 40s decides that they want to be the President of the United States or they want to be a teacher or anything, they want to take up a public role, and those photos come back to haunt them.
from Joe Tucci from the Australian Childhood Foundation - only a very sick society thinks a naked photo of a six year old can haunt someone in their 30s or 40s. Address the real problem - that adults impose their sexuality on kids - not ban perfectly reasonable nudey shots of kids.

I accept that there is a grey area for kids between the ages of gaining modesty and sixteen, in which there is a question about whether informed consent is plausible, and I can see there is something to be giving informed consent about. I think the "Don't publish until the kid is old enough to consent" theory works well enough here. Sixteen is the obvious age for this line in the sand - clearly if you can bonk, you can decide whether or not people can see you naked. The lower age limit is open to debate, my guess is around 8 or 9 - I am not sure what the average age is, although it seems to me that parents should probably decide this for themselves. Parents should be able to sign a delayed consent document if they feel it is appropriate.

I also object to the concept that parents have no right to consent on their children's behalf. It seems ridiculous to me that parents could have the right to consent to organ transplants for their kids, but not to naked photos. This hysteria about nakedness is insane, and reflects problems in the people who see an issue. I've given up being understanding about the other side of this issue, I think it is dangerous, and contributes to the sexualisation of children, not the other way around.

Ok. Rant over.

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