Television, Advertising, The Internet: What Is the Influence on Our Children?

In 2007, as it has done each year since 2000 on the occasion of the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse (November 19), the Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF) held a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, to review progress in preventing child abuse. In 2007, WWSF chose to focus on protecting children from violence in the media. To that end, WWSF Executive Director Elly Pradervand opened the dialogue by providing some context: "[M]ore than one million images of children being sexually abused are posted on the Internet, more than 50% of the United Nations Member States in 138 countries do not have legal protection for children portrayed in pornography, and possession of pornographic material involving children is not a crime."

WWSF Children's Section Coordinator next reported on the scope of the campaign (i.e., 786 organisations in 2007, as compared to 149 in 2001), and emphasised the importance of the materials WWSF creates and disseminates around the world that include highlights of these partners' work ("giving them visibility, recognition, and legitimacy for their activities and fundraising"). She also mentioned the winners of the WWSF Prize for Prevention of Child Abuse. A judge from a Geneva-based juvenile court concluded her discussion with a call to action: "We have to try hard to aim at an harmonious development of minors and to consider all the aspects that can influence their evolution so as to influence States' policies for the youth, to sensitize the public, and to organize events such as this conference today in order to fight against violence." Her reflections on her own experience were complemented by those of the Vice-president of the UN [United Nations] Committee on the Rights of the Child and Director of the International Institute for the Rights of the Child. Although he is not a fierce opponent of new technologies, Jean Zermatten admitted that intrinsically they present risks, especially when children are left to themselves.

Following summaries of these introductory remarks, the remainder of the 13-page report proceeds to provide highlights from the core conference sessions. Here are some snippets:

• Francine Ulmer of the Bureau de l'Informatique Scolaire (BIS) described a project being carried out in the Canton of Neuchâtel entitled, "How to transform a sensitive education into an educational act?" Motivated by the conviction that education about the new media is the best preventive measure, BIS has introduced computers with an internet connection in all classes of primary and secondary schools to give educational and preventive tools to school directors, teachers, students, and parents. Regarding the latter group, Ulmer stresses that even if parents do not know how to use a computer, they have to control, supervise, and look at what the child is doing. To that end, it is necessary, she argues, to provide online paedalogical tools as well as protection software such as that provided by the Réseau Pédagogique Neuchâtelois. She suggests that parents create very simple but effective rules, such as when and how long can a child use the computer, and place the computer where it can be can supervised (in a place of frequent passage). Adults need to teach children to not to provide any personal information or photographs.
• Pierre Maudet, Geneva City Council Member and as President of the Swiss Federal Commission on Childhood and Youth, lamented the failure of efforts to sensitise the media to the development of pedocriminality and cybercriminality. He cites several trends, such as the finding that children are abused, are victims, or, paradoxically, are offenders at a younger and younger age. Maudet also underlined "a certain trivialization of some acts", pointing to a study revealing that repetitive messages tend to become banal, producing a daily vision of women or relations with women that create confusion between pornography and eroticism. He then discussed several solutions to fight this problem, such as limiting access, raising awareness on the part of political leaders, and addressing social competences in families and schools.
• Olivier Guéniat, Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department - Neuchâtel Cantonal Police, described the Swiss Office for Criminality Prevention campaign "Stop-Child-Pornography-on-Internet". Implemented in Neuchâtel, the aim of the campaign is to arouse parents' vigilance and to bridge the gap between parents' knowledge and children's practices. Children have been trained from a young age and have mastered new technologies better than adults. He then raised the problem of the confusion between what is real and what is virtual, which is complicated by the fact that "[w]e moved from an age when we had to go to a sex shop to have pornography, where children had no access, to an age where pornography takes root in families, with the birth of video cassettes, video tape recorders, mail orders, CDs, and DVDs. Today, with the Internet, we have access to millions of pornographic pages in 0.28 seconds free. There is over-consumption and overabundance." In short, pornographic films are downloaded without their parents' knowledge; they then "watch them, absorb them, and modify their behavior according to what they have seen."
• Guy Mettan, Executive Director of the Geneva Press Club, focused on "classic media": press, radio, and television. He "stressed that we must not be afraid of reminding journalists and editors of their duty, even if we have to be deprived of channels, articles, and television in the following weeks or months. This is worthwhile. According to him, this fight must go on, at the risk of being called old fashioned or of wanting to restore censorship."
• Lawyer Sara Giardina focused on the internet, and the ways in which the interactivity made possible by new technologies has enabled children to go further in their communications - providing personal information about themselves or others, committing offenses linked to copyright, and so on. Legally, she explains, it is difficult to protect children because of the internet's ubiquity, legislative diversity between States, and connectivity that can be intra- or extra- national. She weighed in on one legal question recently addressed by the Federal Court: Does the simple act of chatting with a minor about sexual matters constitute a preparatory act (not punishable) or an offense (punishable)? Giardina offered the reasons for her disagreement with the court's decision, arguing that (as in France), Switzerland should send a clear message by deeming such behaviour an offense. She concluded by describing some of the specific solutions - e.g., internet filter software - made possible by new technologies.
• Martine Libertino drew upon her experience as a consultant and trainer to describe the cause and effect relationship between adult behaviour, the media, and violence against children. Libertino directs the conversation to why pornographic/violent images exist in the first place, noting that by allowing them to exist (and by themselves viewing them), adults are at fault. Libertino explains that the problem cannot be traced to a desire of parents to not take care of their children. Rather, the central problem is a lack of self-knowledge. As adults, she contends, parents have emotional problems linked to conflicts, problems of communication during childhood, taboo subjects like sexuality, and so on. (Libertino sees a paradox here: We speak a lot about sexuality, we openly exhibit sexuality, but the subject of sex remains taboo within the family.) She concludes that parents should be able to speak about sex in a simple manner. "We need sufficient discernment, sufficient knowledge of ourselves and of our children so as to be role models our children will one day wish to imitate."
• Journalist Christian Campiche emphasised the responsibility of his colleagues regarding the information they disseminate, as articulated in the Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists. Even so, he says, youth are a direct target for those media which more and more look up to advertising as a source of inspiration. "Those who wish to infiltrate the young [i.e., enter their milieu so as to understand their values and their behavior so that they may become levers for change] are not the parents but the marketing specialists who would like to sell their products." He notes that the Swiss Press Council (the body for examining journalists) is supposed to be a press watchdog, but its positions are rarely enforced. Thus, he emphasises the importance of other actors (the public authorities, the education sector) in helping foster the work of those newspapers that offer an alternative to the press dominated by advertising. "It ultimately belongs to journalists themselves to undertake the housecleaning," he concluded.
• Claire de Lavernette, the Representative of the World Movement of Mothers to the United Nations, emphasised the importance of the family and the environment surrounding the child in the prevention of child abuse. Focusing on the role of the mother (typically the primary caregiver), she stresses the competence of mothers in media management, but cited the need to help them fulfil their preventive roles. These roles involve acting as the filter for images at the cinema and at home, inculcating the right values in their children, giving them a sense of judgment and a critical spirit, and so on. This task can not only demand patience, but can be complicated by the fact that many mothers are the heads of singe-parent households and/or are juggling professional and family responsibilities. To that end, the World Movement of Mothers puts in place various forms of support to help mothers. In France, for example, there are mothers' groups with mothers from numerous cultures who meet and exchange their knowledge and ideas on themes related to education, like training to listen and mutual respect. "...[T]hrough mothers, the pillars of the family...we can win the fight against pornography and shocking images", she concluded.