Children have a right to be children, away from harms that can be inflicted on them by being exposed to pornography.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference made this assertion in a submission published last week by the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications.
“We live in a sexualised culture where pornography has been mainstreamed. There is significant use of sexualised images in areas of advertising, music videos and computer games. Many of the images that confront children in day-to-day life are based on poses used in pornography. The reach of pornography through the Internet and particularly mobile devices has led to the sexualisation of our community,” said Bishop Peter Comensoli, acting chair of the Bishops Commission for Family, Youth and Life.