Australia Continues to Lead the World in Self-Demolition

In retrospect, I think that there may have been some subtext behind the idea of setting the post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” series in Australia. The Aussies have been known to be hearty, jovial, and brave. But starting with the draconian police-state tactics during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Land Down Under seems to be going under at a startling rate.

The latest thing to indicate that Australia will be in for a rough time of it for some time to come is a children’s book called “Welcome to Sex” by Dr. Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes. The pair, who hosts the podcast “Ladies, We Need to Talk,” have also collaborated on “Welcome to Your Period” and “Welcome to Consent.” The Epoch Times reports that “Welcome to Sex” is a graphically illustrated book aimed at children ages ten to fifteen. Among the advice offered in the book is guidance on the correct way to take nude selfies. I’ll give you a second to get over that. But once you have recovered your breath, you can take some comfort in the fact that the authors instruct kids to take care not to show their faces. Well, that’s good. And here we were, worried about ten to fifteen-year-olds being taught how to take naked pictures of themselves. Just don’t show your faces, kids! That’s a load off of our minds.

Of course, any detective, road cop, or person even slightly familiar with the issues of cybercrime and child exploitation knows that this is a monumentally bad idea and the purveyors of it should probably be given an appointment to talk with their local law enforcement at the earliest possible time. But then, this is the 21st Century and any parent knows that all of the smart people are throwing their children into the furnaces of Molech.

The internet is, of course, forever, and once a picture has been committed to the mercies of the web, there is no telling where and with whom it will end up. And since internet privacy is by and large a thing of the past, the practice of naked selfies leaves children vulnerable to all sorts of nightmarish scenarios. This includes blackmail, trafficking, and sexual abuse. The Epoch Times noted:

Cyber safety expert and former police officer Susan McLean, along with child psychiatrist Dr. Jillian Spencer, both condemned the advice as dangerous and warned that it could facilitate criminal activity like child exploitation, while also impacting the child’s self-worth.

Ms. Maclean said that the authors of the book, Yumi Styles and Dr. Melissa Kang, had no clue about the reality of the digital world kids faced today.

“They are encouraging behaviour that is likely to cause a young person to be arrested and charged, and that is not okay,” she said in a statement.

“The head is not the important part; you are still creating child abuse material which is a very serious offence.”

“I have seen children become blackmailed at school. It became a competition among the boys of, ‘Guess the body from the headless nude photo.’ I’ve seen paedophiles tell children to just cut their heads off [initially], and eventually, they get a full nude photo. ”

“Welcome to Sex” is pitched as “a frank, age-appropriate introductory guide to sex and sexuality.” It teaches children how to have sex, and also discusses several related topics, including transgenderism. Fortunately, this reckless effort has not gone unnoticed, the backlash is growing, and the push is on to ban the book across the nation. Rachel Wong, the CEO of Women’s Forum Australia is leading the fight and rightly labeled the advice on naked selfies as unacceptable. She commented, “For those saying ‘the book is sex education’—there is a huge difference between giving children age-appropriate information and prematurely exposing them to graphic, highly sexualised material.” She added:

The age of consent in Australia is between 16-17, depending on the state or territory (there are also exceptions which can raise the age of consent to 18 years where a person under 18 is under the ‘special care’ of an adult). This book should not be available for purchase by, or targeted at, children below this age. There is no reason children need a how-to manual for any of the sexually explicit acts included in the book…Even social media platforms have been censoring posts about the book because the content is deemed to be too explicit. It is ludicrous that a book deemed too explicit for adults online is considered appropriate for children.

Big W, the store that is selling the book, is limiting its sales to online purchases after claiming that staff members had been subjected to abuse by irate people. Kate Brown, managing director of the publisher, Hardie Grant, told The Epoch Times:

Welcome to Sex was developed in response to genuine questions about sex from adolescents to [online teen magazine] Dolly Doctor over a 20-year period, as well as comprehensive interviews with young people and adolescent experts about issues they are facing, particularly in an online world. Every young person develops at their own rate, and parents and caregivers are encouraged to make their own decisions about what is appropriate to share with their family.

Stay vigilant, Australia. That line you see on the horizon isn’t the ocean. It’s a cliff.