Warwick, despite some of the emotive and religious language, and disagreement with your views on homosexuality, you will get no argument from me.

As a mother I have witnessed the effect of hyper-sexualisation of a whole generation (or more) of children and the burden on parents to enforce a sense of self worth and confidence to stand up to those pressures.

It can be done but it is made much harder by changing societal norms and apathy.

It is interesting that the Prime Minister acknowledges Bonhoeffer yet continues to foster an economic situation that reduces chances of parents being able to choose to stay at home to raise their children and continues to be pressured by business groups whether it be on grocery prices and competition or lack of boundaries for business when it comes to media exploitation and sexualisation of children.

It is an emotive issue on both sides of the debate. The trouble is that often people like yourself or Melinda Reist who come out fighting on these matters, turns those with a more secular or liberal ideology off because of broader ideological differences.

It is difficult to separate the person from the idea sometimes but I do wish you some success in raising awareness and hopefully action on this issue. It is complicated because it is not just about the media and profit before values mindset, there are many contributing factors and pulling them all together will be difficult.

Your theme is important Warwick. The s*xualisation of children concerns many parents, and some men are speaking out about it.
In Adelaide on Monday Nov 23, noted Australian author Steve Biddulph will be addressing the "Bratz, Britney and bralettes: the s*xualisation of childhood" seminar, along with the redoubtable Julie Gale of Kids Free 2B Kids.
As Steve says "From tiny tots to late teens, girls are being preyed on, and damaged by, s*xualisation and media messages about weight, looks, clothes and behaviour. The messages they are getting are wrong. And the harm is real. And not just to girls." For more information about the event see www.youngmedia.org.au

Warwick,
I tried to raise my son allowing him to have his innocence and for 31/2 years that was being achieved
The thing was though I have a pretty rough past and my wife and now ex partner was involved with the people that I slowly tried to distance myself from
With my times in gaol and the rules that apply to the hurting of children I would think that each time I came home things would change but they didn't so I would pack a swag and roam hoping once more that when I went back to the town it would change but it never did
I have fought for over 12 years to break the stranglehold over the illegal removal of my son and to try to get him from the very people that allowed the things that you speak of but nobody would listen
The innocence of my son is now gone as well as my capacity to even talk to him and now I have to fight for my own freedom against they that would and have allowed the innocence of my son to be stolen

I wish you well and hope that you are successful in your crusade but bloke I am just a bloke that has to rough of a past to be much help I hope you can find those that can

Innocence of the children must and should be preserved

A quote from Nelson Mandela, "Any nation that does not care for and protect All its children does not deserve to be called a nation"

Best wishes
From Dave

As a counsellor who deals with the flood of men addicted to porn, I've watched this problem escalate from the relatively marginal to now quite literally epidemic proportions worldwide.

Warwick's last statistic, that the # of chidren needing protection has tripled over the past ten years, should surely shake us out of our slumber. Trust me, it will triple again if we stand idle doing nothing.

You might respond by distancing ourselves from Warwick's moral framework. Before you do, be sure that you have a solid moral framework upon which to take action yourself - it is the dismantling of moral frameworks that has led us to this juncture in the first place.

Regrets and hand wringing are no longer enough - our children and grandchildren are suffering unspeakably.

Men, write to your local MP - doesn't matter if your letter is not a masterpiece, just write, or ring him/her up. you will be amazed at the power that lies in your hands - history is filled with men who fought solitary battles against slavery and oppression and won.

'It is interesting that the Prime Minister acknowledges Bonhoeffer yet continues to foster an economic situation that reduces chances of parents being able to choose to stay at home to raise their children and continues to be pressured by business groups whether it be on grocery prices and competition or lack of boundaries for business when it comes to media exploitation and sexualisation of children.'

Not really that interesting. It's the nature of the beast.

Melinda Tankard-Reist (Give her both her both barrels please!). She's a social commentator you know.

This article shows a very simplistic understanding of sexual behaviour. Sexual behaviour is very often not about sex at all. It is not about satisfying sexual feelings but emotional ones. Sex is the place where many people try and satisfy emotional needs that cannot be met by sexual behaviour. It is common because it is private. No one likes to expose the fact that they do not know how to properly meet their emotional needs and quite often they go ‘underground’ to try and meet those needs. Sex becomes a kind of underground where people who have different emotional needs come into conflict with each other.
Pornographers, advertisers, entertainers, educators can all use sex to meet their emotional needs for power or control or influence. Sex gets used for all kinds of need. It is simplistic to say that it is just out of control testosterone and that all that is needed is some self discipline on the part of men. Likewise it is naive to say that all we need to do is ‘man-up’ and the perpetrators of sexualisation of children will disappear. That will not happen – they will simply find new outlets for their emotional immaturity that do just as much damage as sexualisation. Some may even get involved in religion and ‘religionise’ children with just as dire results as if they sexualised them.
The real problem is to educate children how to meet their emotional needs so that they do not have to go underground to satisfy that need. Many parents do not allow their children to meet those needs and force them to indulge in behaviours which are eventually destructive. Trying to blame men for a sexualised culture is very short sighted. Both men and women are equally responsible for stifling the emotional needs of children and both are equally culpable for the resulting underground behaviour of their children which carries over into their adult behaviour where they can become new ‘Hitlers’.