The decriminalisation of pornography has opened a serious loophole allowing pornographers to market hardcore porn to indiscriminate audiences, including children of any age, provided the advertisement is not pornographic in itself. (Advertising Standards Authority decision 08/034 re. Vixen Direct promotional vehicle.)
While "objectionable" material remains prohibited under the law, other pornography has been decriminalised. The outcome is that pornographers can now legitimately advertise their businesses to the public. So, pornographers can aggressively market pornography in outdoor, live performance, promotional vehicle, printed, and broadcast formats — ie, they can advertise outdoors, in public places, and directly into our homes through radio, TV, and our letterboxes.
PALMERSTON NORTH 2007: Protesting against Erotica Expo billboard on Centerpoint Theatre building. The billboard was eventually removed.
We organised a protest against Erotica Expo advertising in Palmerston North (November 2007) after realising that all the advertising for Erotica Expo, and in the Boobs on Bikes parade, display website addresses which either hosted, or lead to, hardcore online pornography.
For more information on the nature of the advertising, read All-Pervasive Advertising.
This is direct marketing of internet pornography to the general public. The all-pervasive nature of this advertising — including outdoors and through our letterboxes — means this advertising will be seen by children.
Children could access these websites as a direct result of seeing the Expo billboards, or watching the 'boobs on bikes' parade.
Children who access these websites, particularly the Vixen Direct website, will be immediately exposed to images of men and women engaged in vaginal, anal, and oral sex.
(See Effects of Sexualisation & Pornography on Girls.)
The Erotica Expo site currently (March 2010) links to hardcore porn websites that would allow children to access a plethora of hardcore pornographic images and explicit movies, including "Extreme Fetish - BDSM". It would be illegal for parents to show this material to their own under-aged children, but pornographers can market such websites to anyone, including children of any age.
It also published contacts for commercial sex, and pornographic magazines.
Parents are having a hard enough time trying to keep their kids safe online without Erotica Expo and its parade grooming them as future porn consumers.
There are restrictions on where pornographic magazines may legally be displayed, and stringent regulations around advertising for commercial sex.
Legislation, consistent with these restrictions, needs to be introduced to prohibit the direct marketing of pornography to children.
Please consider joining us in addressing this issue for the protection of children.
Last reviewed 24 Mar 2010.
Our website is a porn-free zone, but PLEASE ask an adult if it's OK to check it out.
