Children ‘exposed’

Reps to mitigate impacts of pornography

REPS from 17 organisations will be part of a taskforce that will be established to understand and mitigate the impacts of pornography and illegal content on Fiji’s communities.

In a post-Cabinet statement, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka confirmed that Cabinet approved the establishment of a taskforce to undertake public consultations, to better understand root causes and formulate evidence-based recommendations to mitigate these impacts.

The Prime Minister said the terms of reference for the taskforce included: to better understand the root causes in the prevalence of pornography use and illegal content in Fiji, to explore the potential relationship between compulsive use of pornography and sexual aggression and violence, negative mental health, and unhealthy attitudes towards sex. In addition, the taskforce will undertake multi-stakeholder and nationwide consultations and propose recommendations to address the root causes of pornography use.

This week, Minister for Women Lynda Tabuya also spoke on the effects of pornography and the impact it has on children.

“We are hurting our children,” she said.

“If there is violence against a child there is a history of sexual violence too. They are going together. What are we doing to protect them from online violence and child pornography?

“Us as adults, we are not monitoring them. They are exposed to this, and this is what can hurt them. It justifies that women are submissive, and men are stronger.

“That is what pornography does and this is what our children are learning. We must re-look at pornography and its harmful effects on our nation, especially on our children.”