Consuming Innocence

Pornography and the

Sexualisation of Children
Debate
Bill Henson
“We have made the child we are protecting from
sexual horrors into a being defined exclusively
by sexual images and terms: the child is
defined as the sexual lure, the one in danger,
the one capable of attracting nothing but
sexual thoughts”.
“The child was figured as free of adult
corruptions; mortality and sexuality; …
Childhood, to a large extent, came to be in our
culture a coordinate set of have nots, of
negations; the child was the one who did not
have. Its liberty was a negative attribute”.
 Issues conflated in the
debate
1. That children are being depicted in
ways that suggest they have an adult
understanding of self and sexuality
2.That children are being encouraged
to behave in an adult sexual manner
3. That popular images of children are
fuelling child sexual abuse
4.That children are being exposed to
adult sexual material
 Lumby and Albury
recommendations
• More transparent complaints process
with government and industry working
together
• Educational resources for parents and
young people re media consumption
• More research into what meanings
children take from popular culture
around gender and sexuality
• National sex education curriculum that
includes popular culture and takes an