Porn, and the way it is shaping our individual and collective cultural mindset, has moved on dramatically since I last wrote on the subject for this title six years ago. Sexually explicit material is no longer on the fringes of our culture; it’s in the mainstream. Yet while the ‘dirty secret’ about porn is well Read more
US Catholic leaders working with youth have developed an app to help young people battling with an addiction to pornography. The app, named “Victory”, is based on a calendar system, where the user can mark with colours the days they were victorious over porn or had a setback. White means they were victorious, grey means Read more
A young woman stands in a room with several men around her. She tells the men that she is taking women’s studies at university. They respond by grabbing her throat to silence her. They move onto slapping her and pulling off her clothes. The scene that follows is too graphic to recount. After the men Read more
I’ve recently discovered that a pornography addiction is now becoming as popular in our modern society as the common cold. It never ceases to swarm around, mercilessly infecting unsuspecting victims. A couple of weeks ago I had a good friend of mine confide in me about her and her boyfriend’s current battles with long term Read more
Nauru’s Justice Minister, David Adeang, has issued a press release defending, on moral and religious grounds, his government’s decision to control access to the internet. However some are claiming the social media blackout was directed by the Australian government to assist its Cambodian resettlement policy. The Nauru government says it is restricting internet access to block Read more
How do you solve a problem like Patricia Bartlett? The Lower Hutt morals campaigner was ejected from her nunnery in 1969 for her too-vocal convictions, and became a thorn in the side of politicians and film censors for 25 years. Establishing the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards in 1970, the diminuitive Bartlett made Read more
Maybe we should ask the experts–those seeking help. There is much debate about whether or not pornography is addictive. Pornography addiction is controversial even among professional therapists. This debate heated up when the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Disorders (DSM-V) for therapists did not include sexual addiction as a clinical diagnosis. Read more
Although they have been common throughout history, prohibitions against incest (sexual relations between blood relatives) have become increasingly difficult to understand and defend. In part, this is a result of a misunderstanding. We often think that the primary reason to ban incest is to prevent genetic abnormalities or other harm to children who might be Read more
A Papua New Guinea lawyer says the influence of fundamentalist Christians from oversees is partly to blame for a proposed crackdown on sexting in PNG. Constitutional lawyer Tiffany Twivey-Nongorr has called the proposed PNG ban an outrageous breach of human rights. As part of a review of the Censorship Act, PNG’s Censorhip Board is considering Read more
A study of what teenagers really want to know about sex has revealed anxiety about being “normal”, and the clear influence of internet pornography. Researchers from Family Planning put question boxes in sex education classes at five high schools across New Zealand last year. Students from years 9 to 12 were able to post their Read more