Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Kid's Photos

Taking photos of children might seem a harmless activity. Parents are doing it all the time with their own kids.
But we now know that there are people around the world who get a vicarious sexual thrill from taking such photos and videos. Seen in this light, taking photos can become a more serious activity. Lewis Carroll was apparently a fanatical photographer of children and the story goes that when he died (unmarried), his nearest relative was so embarrassed by the collection of photographs that he burned the lot.
Today we know more about the habits of child sex abusers and it seems clear that photos and videos play a large part in their obsessive behaviour. Surveys of paedophiles in the United States showed that their favourite TV viewing was the programmes which showed young girls in brief costumes doing gymnastics.

So what do we do now about Jack McClellan. A self-confessed American paedophile who has no convictions against his name but is obsessed with taking photos of young children. He even has a website listing the best public areas to view little girls.
His behaviour brought a huge public response last month when he turned up at a performance of the popular children’s programme Wiggles but ignored the actors and instead took masses of photos of the young spectators. Irate parents chased him off the set and the Wiggles producers expressed their deep concern at such activities. How can this be stopped they asked? McClennan’s actions were distasteful and offensive but he did not break any laws.
Well, when there are no laws you have to make them. Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Melvin Sandvig made a landmark decision when he placed a restraining order on Jack McClellan which makes it almost impossible for the 45-year-old American to continue to live in California. It is now illegal for McClellan to go within 10 yards of a child in California.
This is no final solution but if it is not effective the legal system will have to find a better way to protect children’s right to privacy.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Strange Cults

Sometimes you think the world is full of weird cults. Ambitious individuals with a big ego latch on to an ideology or religious belief and promote it through some form of unusual activity until it gains a cult following. History is littered with the wreckage of such movements. Nor do we learn from experience or from the record of such experiences.

Two deaths in the past week made me reflect on this strange phenomena.

In Australia the controversial Ken Dyers took his own life rather than face a barrage of criminal charges brought against him by girls who had been child victims of his sexual attacks while members of his Kenja Communications organisation. 25 years ago Dyers founded a movement which used a form of meditation which he called “energy conversion”. It was well-promoted and hundreds of people parted with thousands of dollars to attend these sessions which allegedly sometimes included one-on-one nude sessions with women and children.
Many wealthy supporters gave public support to Dyers but in the end the inevitability of his conviction for child sex abuse drove him to shoot himself in the head ten days ago.

A second death last week, that of Tammy Faye Bakker will hopefully spell the end of one of those strange “christian” movements so popular in the United States. Known as PTL (Praise the Lord) and based on saturation TV it had a cult following and was the creation of the ambitious couple Jim and Tammy Bakker. Their network programme was so popular that at its peak in the 1980’s it reached 13 million households. Every session included a hard sell call for financial donations. Hugely wealthy the Bakkers did everything with extravagance. Tammy had a drug problem and Jim enjoyed sex with young people. When he drugged and raped a young girl called Jessica Hahn he tried to bribe her with a gift of over US$250,000. It didin't work and he ended up in prison where he died a broken man. Tammy divorced him and re-built the PTL empire. She died last week of a debilitating cancer.

There are dozens of stories similar to these two.
Why should we care about such gossipy nonsense?
We care because cult and cult-like movements leave a trail of victims behind.
In many such organisations the practice of child sex abuse is quite common. It represents a form of power and control which is often the dominant drive of cult leaders and helps to reinforce their rule. Of course all people have the right to form new organisations and explore new frontiers. But when such developments are controlled by autocratic rulers without proper checks and balances we do well to examine the movement with suspicion.