Poirot high lighted Harris's use of child porn. Thats been mentioned earlier as well and is the subject of strong views by some.

There is too much we don't know to be certain in Harris case but one aspect I wonder about in this issue generally is the role of access to child porn. Some are adamant that access to porn contributes to the problem, I suspect it may give an outlet to divert the problem away from physical contact with children.

All of the known offences in Harris's case occurred prior to the type of ready access to porn that the internet made possible. In this instance Harris's known abuses according to the sentencing notes seemed to have ceased a few years before the internet became popular (mid 1990's).

Its been covered previously but there is some evidence that internet takeup has some correlation with reduction in sexual assault rates.

I'm of the view that the majority of church workers who have sexually abused children would not have had much access to porn during the era when the abuses seemed to have mostly occurred.

Its possible that porn plays a similar role to that played by nicotene substitutes for people with nicotene addictions in diverting the cravings for the real thing.

Clearly the later view still has the massive problem that porn is based around images of real people, that some of it involves high level abuse of real children. Even if access to child porn does reduce the incidence of fresh offences the source of those images does not appear to have leave an ethical way to allow such access.

I think there is a good case for more open investigation of ways of dealing with the issue, that paedophiles are people with mental health problem's which they have to deal with constantly seemingly with few options for support to deal with it.

Sometimes the level of disgust at a problem is so high it hinders societies constructive dealing with it to then point that does more to perpetuate the problem than reduce it.

R0bert

INDY.KINDY\QUOTE..<<>.This[?]..all makes me wonder/why those\who are (rightly) so against/this kind of behaviour,/are so quiet about Australian/sex tourists..going to Asia/callously exploit\the poverty of families there.>>

govts/are\formed/by loyalty/ties
having the 'dirt'..on your man[oe woman]//ensures they rise/to the top/or else/we do a roffle*harris..[a/to ya[..get-it

Adult/sex\by..choice[with/or\without/cash/
or gift;..SUPPLEMENTAL ADVANTAGE\payment/ETC..IS FINE?
[ITS/JUST\THE AGE/OR THEIR/POVERTY?]

we judge/the beast/as just/more baser/than/us
if its some-supreemist/or cult/thing..regardless of informed concent/ite vile.

KIDS/LIKE FEELING GOOD/all the things that parents love/kids love
kids/smoke/have erections/act girlly/but its the despoiling of innocence/thATS really a sin.

'sex/with children/is perfectly/fine[in hell]
infact/the first impression/of hell/is usually/noting all the ugly kids/the second usually/is realisation/your body has reverted/to its child[new-incarnated/form/AGAIN NOTICING/THE CHANGE/CAN TAKE DECADES

BUT ARROUND/you are infinite perverse evil lives/realised/now in hell
[we become/that we love/insatiable sex addicts/come back as say rabbits/and as humans need submerge/this baser urge[look arroud/you/all life=is equal/before god/but for your tiny/goodnes/your body could have been anyone/of them

like dogs/think/nothing\of\age/relation/but
the urge for mating[in in/is\season]even dogs get a break/till they men0*sterate

<<>>There are Australians/own child sex network>>

yes/run/by//the public-service\actualy deliverd/in come car\
i have met two/and they loved it/grew up with the power people[they love them tiny people[not darwfs]both i met/were under 5 foot/croan-up

butjudges/policelawyers/the public sevants/its 24/7
but they do get a taste/for the good-life
[sp[iritualy/its measured/by\its fruits

<<>no-one seems to think/anything of it.>>

thats/unfair/many/OF-us/came\here/to end/the delusions/but we so love our material peversionillusion[delusions]..that we became as lost as the rest of us

our cries attract/do-gooder spirits
just trying to help our cries/end the lies
they come/into the honey trap/as helpless as our cries

so i refuse to cry/to trick/yet another spirit/to help the karma/we live-out..in this satans/realm

<<>.nyone see the TV show/what really happens..in Bali?>>

yes/the system/recrutes/kids/with-lost/minds
to blackmail\into corrupting their spirit[karma]

<<>Well,./they conveniently/forgot/about the australian perverts latching..onto the/poor kids..in poor families>>.

TAKE-AWAY/THE ROLE/MODEL[A WORKING/INVOLVED FATHER]
CREATE A DEPENDANT WOUMB/dumb dowN-THE KID/WITH HEAVEY METAL/IN VACINE/AND POISEN LIGHT ETAL/IN OUR FOOD/FEED A CHEMICAL COCKTAIL/OF FRUICTOSE/TRANSFATS/DENATURED/powders

damm caps

RObert,

I wasn't aware of any particular predilection regarding Harris and porn until I read that article about him sourcing it on the internet after his conviction.

He seems to have been particularly attracted to young pubescent girls.

Whether his perusing of those sites occurred simply because he could do it with relative ease - as opposed to getting hold of hard copy which would have been a risk with his renown.

I'm more inclined to think it had less to do with porn and more to do with the fact he just decided he fancied young girls and was going to allow himself to indulge his appetite whenever it was possible.

I will say that reading the judges remarks on his abuse of his daughter's friend, that Harris's actions displayed classic abuse behaviour - a man of fifty targeting for sexual activity a 13-15 year old family friend over many years...really is the most damning of all the evidence.

Like most people, I was shocked about the allegations firstly and then the conviction of Rolf Harris. Hard to believe and I do not have any idea what an appropriate punishment should be. I feel let down, I suppose like finding a trusted friend or employee has been lying or stealing from you. Or your partner has been unfaithful. There are many questions of why and how could it be. No answers are readily available.

Having said that, I do also think that the affect on the victims is exaggerated in most. I think kids are far more resilient than many adults acknowledge. While such has an affect at the time, like many other adverse experiences, kids deal with it generally over time.

There have been millions of kids subjected to pedophillia and incest since the beginning of time. Did all have their life 'ruined'? What about the horrible things kids see in war zones or in other aspects of life. Only a day ago there were press pictures of a bloke in Syria or Iraq being crucified and a heap of kids looking on. I have seen videos of a kid being shown how to cut a persons throat. As a kid I saw and learnt about slaughtering animals for food and hunting. What about the girls that suffer FGM by the very ones they trusted to care and protect them. How could they inflict so much pain if they loved them? But they get over it and inflict the same pain to their own daughters, which is hard to believe.

So I take the claims of 'ruined' their lives with a pinch of salt, or does that only apply to us in the modern western world as incest and pedophillia is still part of society and culturally acceptable in many societies.

I think kids learn to deal with many unpleasant experiences they encounter in life, far more than many adults give them credit for. We cannot shield our kids from every thing, as much as we would like to, but kids do learn from experiences.

Thanks for all those responses since my teary crack-up yesterday morning. Much appreciated.

<< I am of the opinion the hurt you are feeling possibly has you reacting to this news in a manner you might not have otherwise countenanced. >>

Fair enough, Steele.

But I’m sure the opposite is true for many, including several respondents on this thread. They have been too ready to take a very harsh line, without having sufficient knowledge, having relied only on the often very sensationalist media coverage.

Now, having read the sentencing remarks of Justice Sweeney (thanks for the link Poirot), I can at last have a high degree of confidence in the nature and magnitude of the offences. But up until that point, I was not willing to accept what I was hearing in the media to any more than a general extent, while considering the possibility that it was being beat up out of all proportion. I think that was a wise thing to do.

Consider this story (again, thanks Poirot): http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/04/rolf-harris-websites-indecent-images-children?CMP=soc_568

< Harris was charged with four counts of making indecent images of children – the notion of "making" an image, based on a 1978 law, also includes viewing them on a computer >

Who would ever have thought that making an image included simply viewing an image on your computer?

Obviously without that explanation, everyone would have thought that Rolf had been right into some really hard-core child porn activity, rather than just viewing images (which incidentally are absolutely borderline at being interpreted as child porn). We have to be so careful about what we read. There is so much scope for us to be wildly misled.

I’m not trying to downplay Rolf’s activities here, just trying to elucidate an accurate perspective.

I think we now have an accurate overall perspective of this issue. It would seem to me that a jail term of two years, five and a half months (half of what he was sentenced to… the judge saying that he will serve half of his sentence in jail), is all considered quite reasonable.

Yeah, Banjo...I dunno.

The girl who was Bindy's friend who endured years of abuse followed by years of alcoholism...before she could even bring herself to tell her family, is a case where a life was ruined.

What we have to keep in mind is that in our culture there is a"huge taboo" on sexually interfering with a minor. Minor's themselves are well aware of it, and anybody whose raised children knows that at around ten years of age, kids generally start to become more private regarding their bodies. They start to cover up and seek privacy for their hygiene issues.

They become aware of the taboo.

So when an adult comes along and violates it, they feel the weight of societal mores - they feel violated and grubby. That's quite a big psychological load to take on, especially when it all rests on the actions of an adult who decided to help themselves to someone's body by taking advantage of trust.

I mentioned earlier my own experience (one which individual chose to ridicule) It was no laughing matter - and even though I stopped the next attempt, it did leave me scarred. The thing is that there is no way I would have dreamed of telling an adult. I don't know why that is, but a psychologist could probably tell me. It was my own private shame that this man had done that. It was "taboo" and I was left feeling shame, confusion and powerlessness.

Strangely enough, I appear to have processed it quite healthily, as I'm now waffling about it on this forum...but for most of the years of my life I kept it private, told no-one....it was a significant scar on my psyche.