benk:"What is less extreme child porn?"

From the Reasons for Judgement:

"17. The facts to which the father admitted a plea of guilty to involved a video tape which the father had filmed from web pages. The video tape was a recording of various young girls, aged approximately 10 to 14 years, some were naked and some were in bikinis, which the father had downloaded from child pornographic web sites."

I have a couple of books by David Hamilton, which I inherited from my mother. She thought the nude photography of the young girls who were Hamilton's subjects was very beautiful and often spoke of Hamilton in glowing terms. Hamilton's books were not hidden away, but displayed in the lounge room.

I suspect that if a police officer with an axe to grind wanted to, he could claim that I have child pornography in my possession. He may well be right, given that pictures of young girls in bikinis can now be regarded that way. Runaway Wowserism has taken hold of the Western world.

While I admit that in the case offerred, I would agree with the poster, however, there are also many cases where the mother is unfit due to substance abuse, mental illness etc where the courts take no action.

For example recently, a father wanted custody of his 12 yr old daughter because his wife was letting her sleep with her 18 yr old boy friend. (I might be hazy on some of the details)

Even when a pregnancy resulted, the court took no action.

What's good for the gander is good for the goose.

What a lot of ... I don't know what you'd call this ranting.

The only useful comments are...

'Many people are hardline on protecting kids for as long as it appears that men will pay most of the cost. Once men start talking about how we could look at the risks of having kids with single mums and stepdads, it is amazing how quickly this hardline stance seems to disappear.'

Very apt with some of the comments on here.

Stev, Saturday, 27 March 2010 9:10:54 PM

The whole post identifies the issue 'fathers' groups have with the attempt to disslove 50/50 parenting. I haven't seen it affectively countered.

Vanna,

'Go to any woman who has been to a family law solicitor, and ask them if they were asked by their solicitor if they had been abused.

What? Every one of them.'

Exactly, Even at the Early Childhood centre, my partner was asked (routine y'know!) if she was scared of me and if I was violent. I wonder if I had turned up with our child if I'd have been asked that question. Maybe they'd ask me if my partner was absent because she was in the boot of my car?

CJ,

'Clearly, the Family Court got it wrong in this case. It seems to me that the question is whether it did so because of political pressure to go easier on fathers'

Succinct and accurate. The affirmative to that question by the author is not proven in any way, no matter how the author wants to 'relate Iraq and WMD'

Anti

It isn't wowserism to view the father's collection of porn as highly innappropriate.

It is wowserism to view the risk of sexual abuse as automatically more dangerous than the risk of other abuse. From the depiction of mum as a dangerous alcoholic, it appears that both parents are equally dangerous to these poor children. At least they have each parent watching the other.

It is now abundantly clear from comments here and by their spokesmen in the media that Father's Rights groups are defending fathers who are paedophiles and violent abusers of their wives and to excuse their conduct. Their arguments invariably are to blame anyone else "Mother's boyfriends and live-in lovers are worse child abusers than us", "Mothers are worse abusers than us". Or when they are losing a debate to launch personal abusive attacks. It is time they cast out the abusers and violent males in their midst, condemned the abusers such as the Tasmanian paedophile, and took responsibility for their actions.

There`s a type of person ,a narcissistic stand over bully that when confronted with the truth or made accountable for their actions, starts to deny,fabricate minimize,call names, blame others, use blackmail and other forms of emotional abuse to brow beat anyone who has the audacity to question their importance..Sound familiar..Anger management groups can help but you need at least some insight into your behaviour and a willingness to change..Mostly these deluded ,self righteous misandrists join left wing,,emotionally bankrupt womens right groups so they can be coached in false accusations, denial,how to continue to have control over their x spouse ,to use the children as weapons,how to manipulate the family law system ,avoid paying child support and all the while enjoy the support of other fractured sisters in the fight to make the bastard pay...sounds very familiar doesn`t it