MPs baulk at rules on sexualisation

CHILDREN are increasingly exposed to highly sexualised images, a Senate committee has found - but it has stopped short of calling for tougher government regulation, which has angered parent groups.

The issue has been thrown into the spotlight by controversies such as the publication of photos of the 15-year-old Disney star Miley Cyrus topless in the magazine Vanity Fair.

Although the committee rejected tighter standards on what television and advertisers can show, it recommended a national sex education program as a way to teach children about healthy relationships and to help them "deconstruct" sexualised images.

It singled out raunchy music videos and toys such as Bratz dolls, but said "it is the primary responsibility of parents to make decisions about what their children see, hear, read or purchase.

"These parental decisions can have a significant impact on the market for sexualising products and services."

The committee has also suggested that television networks consider a dedicated children's channel and that publishers of magazines such as Dolly and Girlfriend investigate putting content warnings on covers.

Parenting groups were angry the committee did not take a tougher position.

"The reliance on industry bodies to fix most of the issues is misplaced. If these bodies were willing to take effective steps to address the issues they would have done so by now," the vice-president of Young Media Australia, Elizabeth Handsley, said.

The professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, Clive Hamilton, said: "The report fails to understand or reflect the level of community concern about the ways in which children are being sexualised by the media and advertisers and has largely ignored the evidence of harm presented to the inquiry by psychologists and other experts working with children."

More than a third of the people who made private submissions to the inquiry identified themselves as parents or grandparents who were concerned that their children and grandchildren were being subject to sexualisation by the media.

The Democrats senator Lyn Allison, who instigated the inquiry, denied the committee had failed to take the issue seriously. "This is a call to industry to shape up or we'll get tougher," she said.

A national sex education program would help children make sense of the images they saw, she said.

"People link the resilience of children to their education about relationships and sex. It's not saying education would fix exposure to images, but it would give help kids deal with them."

The advertising and media industry largely welcomed the report.

Helen Willoughby, the chief executive of the Outdoor Media Association, said: "We are yet to see the detail but we have been speaking with the Advertising Standards Bureau to look at ways to address issues over the past six months about addressing content issues as they relate specifically to the outdoor medium."

A spokesman for PBL Media, the owner of ACP Magazines, the publisher of Dolly, said: "We will have a look at whether we put any age-appropriate information on the covers." The peak body for commercial broadcasters, Free TV Australia, said in a statement that it believed there were already "clear protections" in place for both content and advertising. "We are confident that these are in line with community standards and do not sexualise children," it said.

Corby case exploited by Channel Nine

Exploited by Channel Nine ... Schapelle Corby.

DRUG runner Schapelle Corby is on suicide watch in hospital. The 30-year-old lost 12kilograms in four weeks and suffered hallucinations and paranoia following the failure of her final appeal, doctors and her mother revealed yesterday.

Corby had to be taken from Bali's Kerobokan jail on Friday to the international wing of Sanglah hospital in Denpasar suffering depression.

Kerobokan prison doctor Agus Hartawan said: "We are concerned about her condition. She has deteriorated in the past few days, she gets depressed and depressed.

"She is losing weight. She is experiencing hallucinations and paranoia. Not because she is consuming any drug, but because of her emotional state - it's nothing physical."

Her mother, Rosleigh Rose, said: "It's depression. Everything has caught up with her."

Corby's father, Michael, died from cancer in January; her step-father, Greg, died from the same disease last year; she lost her final appeal in March; and her sister, Mercedes, was unable to visit while contesting her defamation case against Channel Seven.

"I don't know if she has lost any more weight but she is very thin - she is five feet, two inches [157centimetres] tall and she weighs 45kilograms," Ms Rose said.

"She has lost hope. She asks me how I can still have hope but I have to believe that there will be justice."

Corby was placed on anti-depressants two weeks ago. The paranoia and hallucinations had since worsened, prompting Dr Hartawan to bring in psychiatrist Lely Setyawati, who ordered the high-profile prisoner be hospitalised.

Dr Setyawati was concerned Corby would attempt suicide. She said her condition was "dangerous to her and to others" and recommended she be hospitalised indefinitely.

"There are many conditions, many stresses in her environment. It is serious," Dr Setyawati said yesterday.

Two police guards and two police officers are taking shifts guarding her in hospital.

Corby had been medicated since her hospital admission. It could take weeks for her condition to improve enough for her to be released from hospital.

Corby's lawyer, Erwin Siregar, believed she was depressed following the failure in March of her challenge in Indonesia's supreme court to her 20-year sentence for drug smuggling.

Kerobokan prison head of security Maliki said: "Erwin Siregar has told her about the judicial review rejection. Since then she's had trouble sleeping and didn't want to eat. That condition has made her very stressed."

Corby's elder sister, Mercedes, was by her side yesterday in the new hospital wing.

"When Mercedes was [in Australia] Schapelle deteriorated so much, but the Australian consulate didn't even tell me," Ms Rose said. "I had to fly in to get her a medical check. I also told the Australian consul that 'you are here to look after Australians, so do your effing job, mate'.

"She had lost 12kilos in four weeks and was just so depressed and no one gave me a call."

Ms Rose plans to fly to Bali this week.

Corby's hospitalisation comes as Channel Nine screens the first of a two-part, four-hour documentary tonight called Schapelle Corby: The Hidden Truth which the network claims will "challenge, indeed explode" the myths of her case.

Ms Rose was not worried about missing the documentary.

"I don't know if I'll watch it," she said. "I mean … what's it going to do? We'll just sit around the table and talk while all the current affairs shows are on … it's just all rubbish."

The program's creator Janine Hosking said she was disappointed by reports Corby family lawyers were considering legal action once Hidden Truth goes to air. "I admire many aspects of them actually, but I can't make the film that only the Corbys want you to see."

Quote: The low life vultures at Channel Nine have chosen to exploit prisoners' overseas just like the low life vultures at Channel Seven. If Channel Nine should defame Schapelle's family, lie or even make it worse for Schapelle then they should be sued for defamation. When are these public broadcasters to have their licences reviewed? Not satisfied to convict people using trial by media tactics but now endless lies and exploitation of these prisoners' suffering. Yet the true story written by Schapelle Corby herself cannot be sold. It is obviously a symptom of the broken down system that these corporate media vultures are then allowed to prey on the downtrodden and manipulate these people better because their story is hidden and so the rummers overtake the real truth. How much money do corporations want to make because of someone's misery? Does that make it worse for the prisoner? Why should prisoners' pay corporations?

Related:

Corbys' mother gets defamation payout
The mother of Schapelle and Mercedes Corby, Roseleigh Rose, has received a confidential payout from Channel Seven in settlement of her complaint she was defamed by its Today Tonight program.

Channel Seven guilty in Corby defamation
A Supreme Court jury has found Channel Seven guilty of defamation against Mercedes Corby.

Corby informant paid $120,000 cash, court told
A former friend of Schapelle Corby was paid "something like" $120,000 in cash by Today Tonight for a fabricated story, a defamation jury heard today.

Corby loses sentence appeal
Convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has lost a final appeal to have her jail sentence reduced.

Corby may serve 9 more years before transfer: Indonesia
Convicted cannabis smuggler Corby has served less than four years of a 20-year sentence.

Jail work could cut Corby's sentence
THE convicted drug trafficker Schapelle Corby may be eligible for a prison job that could shave years off the 20-year sentence she is serving in an Indonesian jail.