Bright Futures

Making Violence Sexy? Pornography, young people and Violence Prevention

Readily available and aggressively marketed online, exposure to hardcore pornography is now mainstream. Porn has become a default sex educator for many young people, with serious implications for their capacity to negotiate free and full consent, for mutual respect, sexual health, and gender equality. There is growing concern internationally that pornography is contributing to cultural conditions that cultivate sexual assault.

Pornography has become a violence prevention issue we cannot afford to ignore.

This full day workshop will support participants to analyse pornography’s prevalence, nature and impacts, and explore how we can address pornography’s influence as part of broader efforts to prevent sexual abuse.

Presenter

Maree Crabbe
Director at It’s Time We Talked – Young people, pornography and sexuality.

Porn is not the norm: Young people, neurodivergence and the impacts of porn

Readily available and aggressively marketed online, exposure to pornography is now mainstream.

For neurodivergent young people, pornography’s influence can be even more challenging. For example, monotropism, the key characteristic of autism, can make autistic young people particularly vulnerable to the impacts of pornography. The messages conveyed by pornography can be a source of confusion and concern, and shape unrealistic and unhealthy sexual understandings and expectations. At its worst, pornography exposure can increase the likelihood of autistic young people becoming a victim or perpetrator of a sexual crime.

This full day workshop will explore pornography’s prevalence and influence, its implications for neurodivergent young people, and how we can support them to navigate respectful, consenting and safe sexuality and relationships in this new reality.

Presenters

Maree Crabbe
Director at It’s Time We Talked – Young people, pornography and sexuality

Dr Wenn Lawson
(PhD), AFBPsS. MAPs – Autistic Consultant and Independent Researcher

Preventing harmful sexual behaviours: Lessons from public health approaches to preventing child maltreatment

Daryl and Douglas will discuss how a public health approach can be used to prevent and appropriately respond to harmful sexual behaviours. As well as sharing some of the recent results from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study, Daryl will identify the core components and strategies of a public health approach to prevention of child sexual abuse and its application to addressing the problem of harmful sexual behaviour.

Douglas will discuss results from the Children and Young People’s Safety project and two systematic reviews of evidence regarding harmful sexual behaviours including what young people want in instances of experiencing HSB from others, interventions and strategies used at the primary level of a public health approach, and HSB between siblings.

Presenters

Professor Daryl Higgins
Director of ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS), and the former Deputy Director (Research) of the Australian Institute of Family Studies

Douglas Russell
Chief Investigator of ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS) Children and Young People’s Safety project

Reducing The Harm: Talking About Children, Pornography & Online Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation

This workshop will explore the way we use the Internet and more recently portable electronic devices, has transformed the way pornography is accessed and how pornography accesses children and young people. In the absence of adequate education in the home, school and wider community, pornography is the primary and in many cases the only education children and young people receive about relationships and sexuality. As the trusted adults in our children’s lives we can support them to maximise the benefits and minimise and manage the risks.

Presenter

Kayelene Kerr
Founder eSafeKids
Dip(PublicSaf), AdvDip(PublicSaf), BA(Just) Child Safety Advocate & Founder eSafeKids Body Safety, Cyber Safety and Pornography Education Specialist