Australian Federation for the Family founder Jack Sonnemann talks on Vision Radio about the use of social media to groom and de-sensitise our kids with pornography skyrocketing during the lockdown.
TRANSCRIPT
Neil Johnson:
Life culture and current events from a biblical perspective, 2020 on vision. There has been real concern that during the current pandemic, there's been an explosion in child exploitation and abuse. Predator use of social media to groom and de-sensitise, our kids with pornography has skyrocketed during the lockdown. Internet sex trafficking has increased exponentially in just these past few months. Well, it's a grim warning for parents about another deep side effect of the coronavirus pandemic that doesn't get enough air time. Jack Sonnemann is a longtime campaigner. He leads the Australian Federation for the Family and is joining us today. Jack Sonnemann, welcome back to 2020.
Jack:
Great to be with you again, Neil
Neil Johnson:
Jack, let me ask you about the leaders in our nation. People who make legislation to protect families. There's some suggestion that they've lost control and that it's pornographers who rule, what are your thoughts?
Jack:
Well, Neil, you have to ask our legislators what are they doing to better protect our children? Should we not have some kind of provision whereby internet pornographers can no longer get into the minds of four year olds, five year olds, six year olds, seven year olds? All the pornography that they're sending to them is teaching our children that perverted sexual activity is normal and natural. So I think our legislators maybe need to lift their game and, and step up and do a better job
Neil Johnson:
Lifting their game. And this might be a criticism that is generally right across the board, because it seems to be that legislators are afraid to actually tackle pornography. What are your thoughts here?
Jack:
Yes, that would seem to be the case, Neil. I mean, why, if it's it that the present government won't even mention abortion when it's our most common elective surgical procedure and even deems it an "essential service" during this pandemic and forces all of us to subsidise it with our taxes. I mean, they're kind of scared to take a stand on these moral issues. When I think they're some of the most important issues of the day. I mean, what could be more important than protecting our little children from being raped and it is going on now with children sexually assaulting other children all across the nation. And this is learned behaviour that they are learning from pornography.
Neil Johnson:
Now, big pornography, it blankets the world. There's just a huge uptake on pornography. And when you say that child ripe those sorts of images of being depicted in child pornography, and they're actually freely coming into our Australian shores, that should cause us to be alarmed.
Jack:
Well, it's certainly should Neil. In fact, we should wonder whether or not our own Prime Minister and Police Minister and members of parliament have more authority or whether foreign internet porn providers have more authority here in Australia. As an example, there's a Canadian internet giant called PornHub. That is right now today, legally sending images into Australia of underage girls being raped on film. That is illegal. Why is the Prime Minister allowing illegal pornography to permeate this nation? All pornography is teaching children. It's all educational. Its teaching children that perverted sexual activity is normal, natural, healthy, and safe. And that's why we have such an exponential rise in children, sexually assaulting other children. And we do think that the prime minister should exert some more authority than he does in this instance.
Neil Johnson:
Jack, the government is investigating right now, even as we speak. And it'll be later this year, they'll introduce what their findings might be. But they're talking about age verification around wagering and also pornography. What are you expecting that they are going to come out with having done the investigation and asking the questions that they are now?
Jack:
Uh, Neil, that's a good question. And I, I have been very disappointed in many, many actions that this government has taken and the eSafety commissioner and this age verification system are both a disappointment. I may just explain. Children's devices, their internet devices, their phones, their tablets are all linked to their parents' accounts. They cannot have a credit account. A child in Australia can't get a credit account. It just doesn't work that way. So there's this newly popular age verification proposal that will never work because the parents of course are old enough to get a age verification, get their age verified and they'll have the device. What we want to see happen is that the government initiate Opt-in in legislation. And I would suggest just like what happened to the Dial-a-Porn industry, that people would not opt into it. Most sensible humans do not want their children accessing pornography. And I don't think that the internet porn would be opted in for the way that it is now because you can't stop it now. And this would be a way to put a massive curb on it.
Neil Johnson:
So age verification you're saying is a step in the right direction, but it's way, way short of a gold standard. You're saying that the opt in way of legislating would be more of a gold standard to protect children.
Jack:
What kind of standards should you and I embrace as Christians? You know, as a Christian, the good is the enemy of the better and the better is the enemy of the best. C S Lewis said, "Reach for the heavens, we get the earth thrown in, reach for the earth and we get neither." We need to latch onto the best. The gold standard is the Opt-in legislation. That's what we need to strive for. Imagine our Olympic athletes not striving for the best? Imagine our sporting teams not striving to win the game? We need to latch on to the gold standard. We need to accept nothing less than the gold standard. And we need to recognise in the perfect prayer that we're to help establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, not the kingdom of Norway or anywhere else, but the kingdom of God. And that is the gold standard. And that is what we should do, which is probably what young shepherd boy David was doing when he slew Goliath. That was the gold standard. That was impossible, but he did it.
Neil Johnson:
In Australia, Jack, we have an eSafety commissioner. And I wonder whether you've got any thoughts around the role of an eSafety commissioner, because that perhaps is not really on the cutting edge where legislation needs to be. You're thinking it's a bit more of an afterthought or a try and fix things after the horse has bolted. What are your thoughts here around an eSafety commissioner?
Jack:
Yeah. You know, Neil, it could be well meaning, but in reality, if after a child has been exposed, and this is happening in school yards and playgrounds across the nation, after the child has been exposed and after the child has been sexually assaulted. And then if someone maybe gets a hold of that image and somehow it gets sent to the eSafety commissioner, and if then the eSafety commissioner looks at the image, and then if the eSafety commissioner decides it is either good or bad then the image may or may not be taken down. That's the way the eSafety commissioner works. How does this protect that sexually abused child who has been scarred for life? I think with the money we spend for our politicians, that they can certainly come up with a better way. And I think the gold standard is the way,
Neil Johnson:
Okay, there's a battle going on when it comes to this issue of pornography, not everybody's able or happy to put their hand up and say, I'm going to be in the battle. I'm going in there to advocate for these sorts of issues, whether it is along the lines of the Opt-in that you're calling a gold standard or on the other things like age verification, a lot of people are not putting their hand up to be getting into the battle, but your encouragement is that really every parent needs to be into this.
Jack:
You know, I've had Neal most parents. In fact, all parents I've talked to are very concerned about this imagery that's getting into the minds of their children. And well they should be! Now, it should not be up to me to try to take protective measures against some internet service provider sending stuff to my computer that I don't want, need or can accept. It should be up to them to not send it to me unless I ask for it. That's how the Opt-in works and it can work. And it will work. I mean, have we have banned snuff films we've even banned terror videos, even a terrorist video from New Zealand is banned from coming into Australia. So don't tell me it can't be done. It can be done. It's just, someone needs to step up and do something. Now, how can this eSafety commissioner work when an entire town in Western Australia, 90% of their school-age children are sexually abused. An entire town in WA. In the Northern territory, a child is abused or neglected every 21 minutes. Yet we have an eSafety commissioner. In Queensland, a five year old boy was just recently pack raped by 5 children, all younger than 13, but don't worry because we have an eSafety commissioner? This learned behaviour is going on. And this eSafety commissioner, I think, is a typical, big government idea that maybe is not looking after the children in the best way.
Neil Johnson:
What action would you like to see Jack Sonnemann and, uh, from your role there with the Australian Federation for the Family you've been doing this for decades, mobilising people to take action. What sort of action do you hope that listeners to our conversation today might take when it comes to these issues around the exploitation material and rape material appearing in big pornography sites, what do you think people ought to do?
Jack:
You know, they can go to my website, Neil, and they can click a couple of clicks and go right to the Prime Minister's page and ask him to ban PornHub. Ask him who has more authority here in Australia, the Canadian pornographer, PornHub, or him as Prime Minister? Who has more authority? We can ask him maybe to quit funding some of the programmes of the UN and the World Health Organisation that are reprehensible. If people want to know more about that, just click on my newsletter at the website. And you'll see some current policies that we're financing with our tax money like teaching four year olds that masturbation is good. Like changing the definition of child porn to where it can only be considered child porn if the actual child is being molested. In other words, soft porn type material, showing children acting out, being molested, isn't really child porn. That's what the UN is now saying. We have a lot of this going on and we're financing it with our taxpayer's money. We want to see our representatives be more responsible with the money. So people can take action. They can speak into the situation. And we have had national laws change. We've had prostitution laws changed. We've had abortion laws changed and all kinds of things happen because people like your listeners, Neil are getting involved with us in what we have always called a Winnable War!
Neil Johnson:
Well, every parent would no doubt be alongside you in this because we want to protect children from these sorts of materials coming into our homes. Jack Sonnemann leads the Australian Federation for the Family. I want to give the Australian Federation for the Family website, where you can get some tips on what sort of action you can take, where you can find out how you can inform the Prime Minister of your own thoughts. It's ausfamily.org, that's ausfamily.org. It's the website for the Australian Federation for the Family. Jack Sonnemann is the leader of the Australian Federation for the Family. Jack, thanks so much for your update today on 20Twenty.