DNA
1.2.2010

For Australian students, oral sex 'has become the new kissing

Melbourne: Teachers at a primary school in Tasmania, Australia are worried over students talking about having oral sex.
Roz Madsen from the Australian Education Union said that the teachers are increasingly overhearing kids in grades as low as 4 and 5 boast about having oral sex, using explicit language.
Madsen added that teachers "felt helpless" at how to deal with the problem, The Mercury reported.
"The students are talking about what they have done on the weekend, sexual experiences that they are having. It seems to be happening at earlier ages," News.com.au quoted her as saying.
She added: "They are talking about oral sex and saying they are doing it. Who knows if they are or are just boasting, I hope they are not.
"And the language as well, it's quite explicit, nothing is left to the imagination."
Also, Family Planning Tasmania's chief executive Sue Williams, said: "Oral sex has become the new kissing. It's easy and you don't get pregnant."
Family Planning, the AEU and other groups including Parents and Friends and Relationships Australia will voice for sex and relationship education to be part of the


DNA
1.2.2010

Beauty guru Leslie Kenton was raped at 11 by her dad, says memoir

London, Jan 31 (IANS) Beauty guru Leslie Kenton has revealed in her new memoir “Love Affair” for the first time that she was raped by her own father when she was 11 and that the secret incest lasted until she was 13.
It was June, four years ago, when Kenton first contemplated writing about her childhood and “Love Affair” gives full extent of the horrors and the secret incest at its heart, dailymial.co.uk reports.
“My friend Gail Rebuck, who was my first editor and is now the chairman of Random House, told me, ‘You need to write a memoir.’ I said, ‘Gail, I can’t. No one would believe it, and the tabloids would go wild.’ And Gail said, ‘Who cares? This book will be the bridge between what you have done before and the work you will do afterwards.’”
For decades, there have been hints that the woman known as the high priestess of the real beauty movement – she advocated high-raw, high-vegetable diets and detoxifying way back in the 70s, created the Origins range and imported the skincare tablet Imedeen to Britain – had built her luminous present from a murkier past.
Talking about the book, Kenton said: “It ripped me to shreds”.
The book reveals that during the summer of 1952, Kenton met her father Stanley on tour, sharing his hotel room, sleeping back to back. While touring with his dance band, he was drinking heavily and Kenton who was just 10 was trying to police her dad. He was, in many ways, treating her as a substitute for his wife Violet. One night the final boundary was crossed and he raped his daughter. It was the beginning of an incestuous relationship that lasted until she was 13.
During visits, the days were as sunny as ever. They shared a unique exhilaration when together. Some nights he left her alone.
“I believe he tried his best to resist touching me. Then, drowning in a sea of alcohol, he would come to my bed, only to deny the next morning that he’d been there. This was not cynical. Stanley had become so skilled in keeping secrets he could hide his guiltiest one even from himself.
“He was born into guilt. As a child, he was taught by his mother, ‘There’s something wrong with you, Stanley.’ From talking to relatives, Leslie has learnt of a highly dysfunctional family with a history of manipulation, neglect and bizarre cult-like rituals.
“I do not know how to express the damage that a family like this does. This is a disease that’s passed on. Some people survive it and others are deeply damaged.”
Kenton thinks her father experienced a condition known as dissociative identity disorder, involving selective amnesia, which she also developed as she blocked out the incest.
While working on the book, Kenton retreated to her rambling house perched atop an extinct volcano on New Zealand’s South Island.
“Love Affair” is dedicated to her father – ‘For Stanley, with all my love’ – a tribute as startling as it is sincere.

4.2.2010
DNA / Times of India

Victim of child porn goes after viewers for damages

When Amy was a little girl, her uncle made her famous in the worst way: as a star in the netherworld of child pornography. Photographs and videos
known as “the Misty series” depicting her abuse have circulated on the internet for more than 10 years, and often turn up in the collections of those arrested for possession of illegal images.

Now, with the help of an inventive lawyer, the young woman known as Amy — real name changed — is fighting back. She is demanding that everyone convicted of possessing even a single Misty image pay her damages until her total claim of $3.4 million has been met.

Some experts argue that forcing payment from people who do not produce such images but only possess them goes too far. The issue is part of a larger debate over fairness in sentencing sex offenders. For years, lawmakers have reasoned that virtually no punishment was too severe for such criminals; even statutory limits on sentencing were often exceeded.

Now some courts have begun to push back, saying these heavy sentences are improper, and a new emphasis has arisen on making sex offenders pay monetary damages for their crimes.

Amy’s uncle is now in prison, but she is regularly reminded of his abuse whenever the government notifies her that her photos have turned up in yet another prosecution. Over 800 of the notices have arrived at Amy’s home since 2005.

Those notices disturb Amy when they arrive, but Marsh saw an opportunity: he could demand restitution. He had Amy write a victim-impact statement and hired a psychologist to evaluate her. Economists developed a tally of damages and the total came to $3,367,854.

Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the criminal division at the Justice Department urged judges not to let “practical and administrative challenges” to the restitution issue “drive a policy position that directly or indirectly suggests that possession of child porn is a victimless crime


DNA
2.2.2010

One in four kids sends or receives porn via email

One in four children receives or sends explicit material over the Internet, says a survey.

The research by broadband provider TalkTalk found that out of 500 kids quizzed, one in 20, aged between six and 15, had contacted a stranger via webcam and one in 50 had met a stranger they first contacted online.
More than six out of 10 said they misled their parents into believing they were doing something else online and over half said they deleted the history of their visited websites to keep their family in the dark, reports The Telegraph.
Prof Tanya Byron, child psychologist and broadcaster, oversaw the TalkTalk research which also discovered that one in nine children had either bullied someone online or been bullied themselves.


Prof Byron said: "It's crucial that parents educate themselves about what's going on online and what their kids are doing there