Pornography The Root Of Sexual Violence
Document Title: Pornography The Root Of Sexual
Violence
Document Ref No: R9501221
First Published: Reflections - Philippine Daily Inquirer
Publication Date: 22nd January 1995
Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC
A few years ago I was in Oslo Norway for the premier on national television
of "Throwaway Children" a documentary that traced the sexual abuse
of children in many countries including the Philippines.
It so happened that same week two Norwegians were under investigation in
an Oslo court for sexually abusing small boys in the Philippines.
The magistrate dismissed the charges saying that the evidence was lacking
and besides sex with children was a common practice in the Philippines.
Many were outraged as I was and during a press conference pointed out that
such utterly false perceptions by prosecutors and magistrates contributed
to the spread of child abuse .
The local police with whom I was coordinating on other cases of Filipino
children abducted to Oslo by Paedophile vowed to keep the suspects under
surveillance. One year later I received a phone call from my Oslo police
contact who reported the surveillance had paid off and the two tourists
had been convicted to eleven years each.
They had mailed a video tape to a third companion serving a sentence in
an Norwegian jail. It was examined and showed the two performing vile sexual
acts on the children in a Manila Hotel.
They had videotaped themselves in their pernicious acts to show their paedophile
friends and this was enough to convict them.
Child pornography is a multi-million dollar criminal run business today
and the Philippines and other Asian countries where law enforcement is lax,
bribery of some prosecutors and police is as easy as buying candy and public
awareness is still in black shrouds of ignorance and denial.
The international conference on pornography held in Manila last week called
for committed and effective law enforcement to combat this growing abuse
and exploitation of children and the pornography that is a integral part
of it.
It is .." a vile commerce which subjects its victims to the most degrading
oppression, and reduces its promoters and consumers to desecrators of their
fellow human beings" said Pope John Paul in a message from Manila to
the conference.
"We are taking about the ruthless exploitation of children who have
become the sexual prey of choice in our generation " said Eileen Lindmet,
general secretary of the US national Council of Churches.
Pornographic material has only one aim and that is to arouse sexual appetite
and the spread of rape, violence against women and child sex abuse can be
directly attributed to it.
The killing of children in the womb and out of it, the killing of their
innocence and their personality by sexual violence and pornography is an
outrage against the sanctity of life.
There has been much uproar about the spiraling crime rate but the media
and public has yet to make the connection between the shocking number of
hideous crimes like multiple incest and violent sexual attacks on children
to the spread of corrupting pornography ignored by a acquiescent police
and government officials.
300 Asian Bishops have recently said; " Our streets have become zones
of danger, our children are brutally abused and while the value of our property
increases that of human life is diminished."
In their proclamation they declared that "Media's glorification of
violence, the alliance of criminality and politics and promotion of abortion
in the name of selfish prosperity " were .."increasing signs of
practices hostile to life."
The depiction of aggressive sexual acts against women and children in comics,
videos, movies and the worst of the tabloids leaves mutilated and savagely
beaten children in their wake. These putrid materials are easily available
'under-the-counter' in sleazy outlets and video shops.
While it is a criminal offense to have child pornography hardly a report
of prosecution is seen in the newspapers. Unkind critics of the law enforcement
officials claim that is because they enjoy them so much and confiscate the
material for their own titillation.
But on the other hand the lack of political and moral will on behalf of
those mandated to protect the community has to be part of it too.
That is why hand-wringing lamentations are far from enough. What is needed
is public enlightenment and moral convictions to combat this insidious crime
that destroys the innocence of young people.
In the list of concerns affecting young people in the Philippines as contained
in the Philippine report to the UN committee overseeing the compliance of
countries with their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Children
present in Geneva last week no explicit mention was made of the plight of
child prostitutes, sexually abused children or child pornography.
However the closest the report came to dealing with the problem was contained
in the section dealing with Special Protection Measures for children in
situation of war and natural calamity.
Child battering, sexual abuse and child prostitution fanned by pornography
are the unpleasant realities of many societies including the Philippines.
It is only when we accept the truth for what it is and turn our religious
fervor and faith into action will be be able to protect our children.