The criteria for judging porn

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 24

The criteria for judging porn

THE seven criteria that the new classifying group will use to assess whether a work is likely to be injurious to the public health are:

a. The dominant effect of the work as a whole.

b. The extent and way in which it depicts, or treats “antisocial behaviour, cruelty, violence, crime, horror, sex or offensive language or behavious.

c. The extent and way it demeans any particular class of the public by reference to the

colour, race, ethnic or national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability or religious belief of that class. d. The extent and way the work depends on the demeaning portrayal of anyone. e. The extent to which the work has “merit” — in terms of social, cultural, scientific, educational, artistic, or literary matters. f. The persons or age-groups of persons that the work is likely to be made available to. g. The impact of the medium

in which the work is presented. Among the report’s other recommendations are:

• That pool members of the classification body .be appointed for three years only and have an “appropriate” mix of gender, ethnicity, and experience.

• That these decision-makers be sacked for unsatisfactory performance and anti-social acts.

• Setting up a formal complaints system, including a review board with community participation.

• Heavier penalties for systematic offences against classification laws, rather than casual offences. • Half of all primary school principals should be women. < • Corporal punishment should be illegal, but. sexuality should be part of school human development programmes. • The Human Rights Commission should get more money for education and for possible extension of its jurisdiction to include pornography as sex discrimination.