Mr G.

DAVIES (United Kingdom) We are facing a social time bomb across Europe, with children
weaned on a diet of sexual violence that, if left unchecked, will breed further escalation in rape and
violence against women. Politicians across Europe have consistently understated the problem and
continue in a shocking complacency, with obsolete measures that are incapable of addressing new
problems.
Television watersheds, voluntary use of filters and raising awareness of online risks are woefully
inadequate responses. The average age of a child encountering pornography is now just 11. Children see
pornography on smartphones before they have sex education at school. A report to the Childrens
Commissioner in England found that girls and boys now have their sexual expectations created by
pornography. Many boys now believe that they have an absolute entitlement to sex at any time, in any
place and in any way, and girls often feel that they have no alternative but to submit to the boys
demands. Explicit, violent, non-consenting sex glorifying rape is just a few clicks away. Sexual bullying
through sending intimate images is now widespread. The problem is so deep-rooted that, according to
the NSPCC in Britain, one in two boys and one in three girls now believe that there are circumstances in
which forced sex is okay.
Meanwhile, music videos are corrupting behaviour: the hit single Blurred Lines repeated the line I
know you want it, words spoken by actual rapists, together with Do it like it hurts and much worse as
topless women strutted around male singers. However, the state does nothing to protect women from
being routinely depicted as highly sexualised, passive objects. This is no surprise. The media industry is
male dominated and intrinsically sexist. Males outnumber females by three to one in family films and
men outnumber women by five to one as producers, directors and writers. Revenge porn, in which
intimate images from former relationships are posted online, is now a common form of sexual violence,
which should be criminalised immediately.
Death threats on Twitter against campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez and Stella Creasy, MP in Britain may
be just the tip of the iceberg. People will know that JK Rowling, who wrote Harry Potter, was called a
bitch, a bastard and a cow just for opposing Scottish independence, while no such assaults
occurred against men. Meanwhile, the British press the Daily Mail described the gang rape by six
footballers of a group of 12-year-old girls as a midnight orgy and the victims as Lolitas. Of course,
most rapes are not reported or charged and do not result in conviction.
We need action beyond the proposals here today. We need smartphones and computers with a non-porn
default position. We need sex education to start much earlier and to include No means no. We also
need a media industry that reflects the population it serves. Otherwise, we will continue to feed the
beast that threatens to devour our very civilisation.