Resources for parents to help children/adolescents navigate a sexualised world
BOOKS
How to Talk to Your Kids About Pornography (Educate and Empower Kids, 2016)
Exposure to pornography is inevitable. Because you care about the healthy sexual
development of your child, you need to alert them to porn’s dangers and how they should
respond if they see it. Full of practical tips, advice and discussion questions that will foster
productive and meaningful conversations between you and your kids.
Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-proofing today’s young kids (Kirsten Jensen and
Gail Poyner, Glen Cove Press, 2014). Best seller internationally, Good Pictures Bad
Pictures is an illustrated book you can read with your child. For kids 5-10, this book gives
children practical steps to take if they are confronted with porn on-line.
Getting Real: Challenging the sexualisation of girls: (Melinda Tankard Reist, Spinifex
Press, 2009) Spinifex Press biggest selling title, Getting Real puts the spotlight on the
sexualisation and objectification of girls and women in media, popular culture and society
generally. Getting Real brings together for the first time, some of the most vocal critics of the
widespread pornification of culture. Academics, psychologists, authors and activists, they
call corporations, the media and the sex industry to account for creating this toxic
environment.
Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Eds. Melinda
Tankard Reist, Abigail Bray, Spinifex Press, 2011) The unprecedented mainstreaming of the
global pornography industry is transforming the sexual politics of intimate and public life,
popularising new forms of hardcore misogyny, and strongly contributing to the sexualisation
of children. Yet challenges to the pornography industry continue to be dismissed as uncool,
anti-sex and moral panics. Unmasking the lies behind the selling of porn as ‘just a bit of
fun’ Big Porn Inc reveals the shocking truths of an industry that trades in violence, crime and
degradation. This fearless book will change the way you think about pornography.
Sexts, Texts and Selfies: how to keep your children safe in the digital space (Susan
McLean, Penguin 2014). This book helps you understand and connect with your child’s
online world and guide them safely through it. Widely regarded as Australia’s first cyber cop,
cyber-safety expert Susan McLean shows you how to establish good online habits, set time
restrictions and boundaries, identify good apps and bad apps, deal with cyber bullying, work
out who to ‘friend’ and ‘unfriend’, and manage your child’s digital reputation.
These books and others are available at http://melindatankardreist.com/products-page/
Online
https://endsexualexploitation.org/resources-parents/ (USA) The National Center on Sexual
Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national organization exposing the links between all
forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and
the public health crisis of pornography. As the threat of pornography in the web of sexual
exploitation is systemically overlooked by society, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation
has advanced this issue as a central pillar of its projects in order to promote more holistic
solutions.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ Common Sense Media is the leading independent
nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology.
Empowering parents, teachers, and policymakers by providing unbiased information, trusted
advice, and innovative tools to help them harness the power of media and technology as a
positive force in all kids’ lives.
https://fightthenewdrug.org/ Fight the New Drug provides individuals the opportunity to
make informed decisions regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects
through science, research, and personal accounts. Especially popular with young people.
https://resistporn.org/ Resist Porn offers resources to help Church leaders, parents, couples
and schools resist pornography. Highly recommended tips for parents.
http://lovegoodbadugly.com/ Love: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly has been produced
by the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria. Dating and being in love can be exciting
– but at times it can be totally confusing. This site helps you work out where your relationship
is at – whether it’s good, bad, or ugly.
https://esafety.gov.au/ The Office of the eSafety Commissioner helps young
people have safe, positive experiences online.
http://www.itstimewetalked.com.au/ It’s Time We Talked is the website of several programs.
Reality & Risk is a violence prevention project that supports young people, parents, schools,
government and the community sector to understand and address the influence of
pornography. In The Picture is a DVD resource that supports secondary schools to address
the influence of explicit sexual imagery. And in the film Love and Sex in an Age of
Pornography, we follow a group of young people who, with unflinching honesty and realism,
reflect on the influence of porn on their lives.
Get involved!
www.collectiveshout.org Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation – join the cause to
fight for a world free of sexploitation in all its forms.
www.melindatankardreist.com Website of Melinda Tankard Reist for blogs, articles,
research, resources on sexualisation of children, objectification of women, violence against
women and girls, trafficking and the sex industry.