Cutting off the porn industry’s money trail is one measure Government could employ to protect young people from the harm it is doing, according to Minister for Children Tracey Martin
Mrs Martin, who also works with the chief censor as the Minister for Internal Affairs, said the story by TVNZ’s Sunday program showed pornography was not sex and had nothing to do with reality.
Pornography is teaching Kiwi kids about sex – and it’s not pretty. Sunday investigates the rise of online porn and the impact it’s having.
“I think that’s what’s so brave about the producers of that show last night, I want to acknowledge them for doing this.”
"What we saw from both of the parties inside the filming of the video they were making, this is not sex, this has nothing to do with reality.”
The content of these videos shifted the expectations of young people to the point “where it starts to harm their real life, and also we are seeing huge amounts of violence and aggression against women inside this industry,” Mrs Martin said.
Sunday investigates the rise of online porn and the impact it’s having on young people in New Zealand.
Mrs Martin said she would work with the chief censor while scouring the world for measures to combat pornography.
“I’m going to be working with the chief censor, he’s got a piece of research that will be coming out towards the end of November," she said.
"First of all, you could try the money stream, so if we actually started to put into place the censorship rules we’ve had before that something would be R18 or whatever and if companies did not start put in barriers in place that they could recognise the age of individuals seeking to watch that of view that."
“Maybe we could start to cut off their money trail.”
Drop down screens attempting to redirect people could be another option, Mrs Martin said.
TVNZ is looking in-depth at the porn issue throughout this week – see all the coverage at www.tvnz.co.nz/the-porn-problem
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