Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

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chapter
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There is already some evidence that the distinction between these traditional forms and
commercial sexual exploitation is increasingly murky (See O'Grady, 1994, p89).
Defining pornography, prostitution and trafficking beyond the above caveats is also
fraught with problems. Pornography includes magazines, films, videos, computer
material and still photography. The argument has frequently been made that during the
1970s and 1980s the commercial child pornography sector declined, due to both
legislative and enforcement responses, but that 'home' produced material is more
widespread. Keith Driver (1995) of the Obscene Publications Squad referred to it as
primarily a 'cottage industry', This distinction turns on a particular definition of
'commercial' - as intentionally produced for sale/profit. But once material is reproduced
and distributed or exchanged it ceases to be private. Once it enters the public sphere the
potential for it to become 'commercialised' exists, either in terms of personal gain, or
being passed on to someone else who chooses to use it for monetary profit. The
technology which is now available to individuals is sophisticated, and 'cottage industry'
suggests using now out dated methods. Perhaps the better analogy is to illegal drugs,
where an informal and unregulated market exists, making accurate assessments of the
extent of production, exchange and sale extremely difficult. Whilst we are not in a
position to compare the relative sizes of the two informal markets, it is likely that the
extent of, and revenue from, sale of illegal drugs exceeds that of sexual exploitation of
children.
Also at issue here, as with adult pornography, is whether sexualised images of children,
or 'innocent' pictures with sexually suggestive captions/words, used in mainstream
media should be included. Additionally the ways in which more mainstream media and
so called 'soft core' adult pornography deliberately 'childify' adult women needs to be
addressed. Part of the appeal of the 'topless' models on Page 3 of the British tabloid
The Sun 10 is that the pictures are of young women, and a number of the mainstream
newspapers which publish such pictures tantalise their male readers with promises of
'future attractions' - Le. young women they cannot show topless as they are not yet 16.
Playboy developed a particularly devious way of publishing pictures of children:
including photos of the centrefold 'Playmate' as a child, with captions like 'Age one -
Playboy material already', 'Age two - boy chasing already', 'Age three - any time Dad'
(Reisman, 1986). Another study analyzed all cartoons in Playboy in 1985, and found that
child like naivete of women was a key theme (Matacin and Burger, 1987).
At both seminars which informed this document Cathy Itzin (1995) presented the harmbased
definition of pornography developed by the British Campaign Against
Pornography and Censorship. In the case of child pornography, however, it is not
necessary currently to prove harm in the same way that it is for material which uses
adults. To adopt this definition in relation to children would in the current
circumstances confuse rather than enlighten, but having a harm-based definition which
replaced the current 'obscenity' test for all pornography would shift the focus of
legislation and enforcement in a positive direction. Osanka and Johann (1989, p451)
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10 In the late 1980s, Page 3 of The Sun, a British daily tabloid newspaper, became a focus for feminist campaigning, when Clare
Short MP put forward a private members bill to ban 'photographs of naked or semi-naked women in national newspapers'
(1987) and received a great deal of popular support as a result. A feminist anti-pornography campaign was launched from the
momentum gained during this period, although the bill was eventually talked out
"