Cornflower:”First, 'anti' didn't answer you, I did.”

It was too – sorry about that. Spooky though huh?

She wasn’t immediately believed was she? I think at 12 – 14 and consensual it is sex, well acknowledged, know what they’re doing, sex. No playing doctors and nurses just hormones doing what hormones do. If society didn’t blast it from every movie theatre, radio show and magazine it might still be a kind of taboo. Sex is cool, boys are called players, 12 year old girls sit around having conversations more likely to be found in a club with male strippers.

Our boys and girls are more developed young. Hormones in chicken?
“It is the parent/s' role to advise, set realistic and meaningful boundaries, monitor and take corrective action. I don't know what the solution is for kids who keep on falling through the gaps (especially in education) but extra funding for alternative programs could certainly help.”

Fully agree. And fathers should go back to owning shotguns.

“What do you think about the show's solution? Although they would have riding instructions to leave minors alone - regarding sex anyhow.”

What was the solution?

Anti:“As soon as the State intervenes to stop average people doing what average people want to do because there are some people who are not average we have authoritarianism and the end of personal freedom.”

Average people not underage people. Comes natural to 10 years too, like overeating, not considering consequences for actions, wanting to leave school. Lots of rules for our kids – just the way it has to be.

"ISTM"?

PP and others
Why should I be there?....did you want someone to hold the dart board with the pictures of the managers stuck to it....Ouch ...I don't look my best, laying on the floor...I faint at the site of blood particularly mine.... or cringing in a corner whimpering... No physical heroes here...then again I am male. :-(

Seriously though we do have problems with sex generally culturally we (manipulative advertisers/capitalists) have conditioned humans to imbue sex with unrealistic importance to whereby it is arguable that we are all tending to miss the real issues.

I would challenge Antiseptic to examine his assumptions 'average people'...
What does he mean by average? Close analysis of the facts would suggest that the people who need protection aren't average.
The same analysis would also indicate the issue has many causes.
The most likely are substandard education, lack of opportunities, subcultural conditioning etc.

A thumbnail is that about 1-1.5 million per day listen to shock jocks etc but there are 20 million people in Aust how is this the mean average?

I would suggest that birds of a feather...these people are the most susceptible to advertising hyperbole and the psychological manipulation hence the media focuses on them.
e.g. apart from Media Watch I don't know anyone who actually heard the program at the time...and that includes our children and friends etc.

I'm sure PP and other “coal facers” would support most of what I say here. Such generalised notions of 'average Aussie' with average traits are selectively biased to the perceptions of the individual making the judgement and unhelpful. For all practical 'coal face' reasons each case IS essentially different and must be treated as such....one size fits no one.

Average Aussie is creation of a predatory capitalist system that bunches a several emotive triggers together in order to mass consumer market.
In reality Most Aussie may have some of the triggers but the combinations are never identical among the targets hence the attacks are multi pronged.

Sex is just one target but what is missed are the DIFFERENT motivations.

I'd like to see less intrusion of the State into our private lives not more.

There are many people who might not be the sharpest pencil in the box but they nonetheless manage to lead productive, happy lives and are assets to the local communities. Then there are others. Personal choice makes the difference - some choose to take drugs, create uproar, have domestic disturbances and generally occupy a lot of the time of police, ambos and so on.

The baby bonus was a ridiculous idea. The money should have been put into outreach services for maternal and child welfare, and drop in centres for youth.

I'd like to see grey (and many of them are not so grey) volunteers used to help the many troubled but good kids who need someone outside of parents and teachers to relate to. There are many young people who fall through the gaps of the counselling (where) provided by schools. Many sad and depressed children need someone just to be with them, not to 'sort' them - a reliable human who has been around for a while and is mature and patient enough not to always expect a lot in return.

Government should recruit volunteer seniors with a blue card and pay car mileage and a small amount for lunches and sundries. There is an army of potential helpers going to waste out there.

Hey Cornflower

Pretty much agree with you on your last post.

That's made my day.

Examinator:"Close analysis of the facts would suggest that the people who need protection aren't average."

So why does our nation seek to treat average people as though we're all in need of protection?

Examinator:"1-1.5 million per day listen to shock jocks etc but there are 20 million people in Aust "

Given the number of workplaces I visit that have those shows playing at full volume, I'd reckon your estimate is way low. But let's take it as read. How many listen to ABC Radio National, do you reckon?

Which do you listen to?

<"Such generalised notions of 'average Aussie' with average traits are selectively biased to the perceptions of the individual making the judgement and unhelpful. For all practical 'coal face' reasons each case IS essentially different and must be treated as such....one size fits no one.

Average Aussie is creation of a predatory capitalist system that bunches a several emotive triggers together in order to mass consumer market.">

I agree, and I think one of the manifestations that we try to cope with in the human services industry is the focus on one-off and short term interventions that are pushed by accountants trying to quantify and dictate how human misery should be assisted (or more often; ignored). People who have no idea of the range of contributing factors and possible solutions - ardent capitalists making decisions over therapy etc.

Cornflower: That is probably the most sensible thing I have seen you write. All good ideas - I agree. When my children were quite little we ensured that they had an adult outside the immediate family in whom they could confide and who would stand with them (against us, if necessary) as supports and advisers. We nominated people who shared similar world views to us - but our children could always turn to them and know they were safe. Fortunately they never had to face us with anything remarkable; but they did build lovely relationships with these older folk who cared about them. The knowledge and skills of our older generation are vastly underused and wasted.