Special Article: Adverse effects of hysteria

Maintaining conditions of moral panic pertaining to children, sexuality and minor-attracted persons has many adverse consequences for society, especially minor children. This page uses just a few news sources to verify its claims. The sources used are by no means the only ones confirming our ideas.

Abuse of Authority

We have listed examples of this consequence on a separate page.

False Accusations: Worship of Satan, Blood Libel, "Recovered Memory"

This is a particularly insidious form of moral panic. NewsStand has a lot of articles on "Satanic Panic".

Sexism

"My friend, a Latin woman, has such fear of pedophiles that she will not let any teacher help out in the bathroom at day care with her toddler girls. No change of diapers, no change of clothing, and no help with toilet visits. It must be a woman, otherwise inappropriate things could happen. Apparently, any male might be a pedophile. Every other parent is fine with the male employees helping out but she refuses to change her mind."

BlogFathers - "Dealing With (Irrational?) Fear Of Pedophiles" - Aug 14, 2008

Unconstitutionality

"Residency restrictions, unconstitutional laws that bar sex offenders from living in a specified area, are on the rise [...] Twenty-two states have prohibited sex offenders from living within a minimum distance of family facilities, such as schools and day-care centers. The distance ranges from 500 feet to five times that. And further restrictions are on the way. [...] The more crucial problem, though, is that residency restrictions clearly violate the constitutional limits on statutory law. Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution reads in part: "No bill, or attainder, or ex post facto law shall be passed." The Latin phrase "ex post facto" literally translates as "from after the fact." The Founding Fathers wisely realized that law must not be retroactive. [...] Most state laws require their state to build schools and family facilities according to the population of a constituency. Therefore, inevitably a case arises when changes in demographics require construction of a school within the restricted range of a convicted child sex offender. We may feel no sympathy when an ex-convict is forced to sell his home because of it, but this practice is retroactive punishment."

C. Alexander Evans in Christian Science Monitor, August 14, 2008 - "Protecting our kids – or jeopardizing everyone's freedom?"

Unenforcible and expensive new laws

" By now it should be apparent that California voters made a serious mistake when they passed Proposition 83, the 2006 ballot initiative popularly known as Jessica's law. The law requires lifetime monitoring of sex offenders -- not only those charged with child sexual abuse and rapists whose victims were adults, but also those convicted of consensual sex with a teenager and even misdemeanor indecent exposure. It bars offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. By the end of 2007, it was obvious that the law was a failure. Almost no local police agencies in California were enforcing it, partly because it was unenforceable and partly because even trying to enforce it proved prohibitively expensive. [...] In practice, as the Times reported, it has led to the state contracting with 79 psychologists and psychiatrists to do the evaluations. Last year, 14 of them billed the state more than a half-million dollars apiece for those services. One billed the state for more than $1.5 million in 2007. Such payments to contractors might be worthwhile if the evaluations were producing clear benefits. But it isn't. The evaluations were supposed to be used to determine if sex offenders should be committed to a mental hospital after serving their sentences. But the Times found that the number of commitments was essentially the same for the 18-month periods before and after voters approved the law."

Merced Sun-Star, "Our View: Time to repeal Jessica's law", Aug. 14, 2008

Psychic Intervention

It is an unfortunate truth that in an area of life often ridden with superstition, coercive "recovery" of traumatic memories and iatrogenesis profiteers, psychic mediums have been allowed to gain ground.

"A psychic who called upon the dead to expose a paedophile who preyed on girls as young as nine today said: "Justice has been done." Using his mystic powers Patrick Hutchinson sensed a 20-year-old woman's demons from her childhood and helped her confront her abuser for the first time. After a five-and-a-half-day trial a Leeds Crown Court jury yesterday convicted her tormentor Terrance Dunstan, 61, of five charges of indecently assaulting three girls aged from nine to 11 between 1997 and 2001. CLICK PLAY TO SEE VIDEO OF TERRANCE DUNSTAN LEAVE LEEDS CROWN COURT YESTERDAY ON BAIL AHEAD OF SENTENCING."

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"A Barrie mother of an autistic girl is considering legal action against her local school board after a psychic's prediction to a special educational assistant sparked a sexual abuse report to the Children's Aid Society. "I'm in shock," said Colleen Leduc, 38. "They reported me to Children's Aid because of a psychic. Can you imagine?" The damaging allegations were resolved by child welfare authorities relatively quickly, but the case highlights the difficult and sometimes clumsy outcome of zero-tolerance policies and mandatory reporting regulations regarding child sexual abuse."

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Banning of Children & Child Photography

This can be seen in multiple news stories, e.g.

"Children could be barred from joining sports and hobby clubs because of the increasing burden of red tape, campaigners fear. Organisations which run activities for youngsters are already struggling to recruit volunteers because they must undergo criminal records checks. But when a new child protection database is introduced next year - which one in four adults will have to sign at a cost of £64 each - it is feared that many groups which admit members of all ages will decide it is cheaper and simpler to exclude children. Campaigners say this will leave teenagers unable to take part in activities which are good for their development, and makes a mockery of Government attempts to crack down on youth obesity and anti-social behaviour [...] "Some clubs have closed their doors to children, and that's a real shame."

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"FEAR of paedophiles on the internet has prompted Scots sports chiefs to warn parents and coaches not to photograph young athletes in their gym gear. Controversial new advice from governing body Scottish Gymnastics says photographs of youngsters should only be taken if they are wearing tracksuits."

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"Netball, basketball, rugby league, AFL, cricket, soccer and baseball clubs have imposed rules to prevent photos of young players being taken without the consent of all parents and coaches. NSW's Macarthur junior baseball league president Maud Goldfinch said parents had to sign a form confirming they would not take photographs without permission. Ms Goldfinch said that as a parent, she did not agree with the policy, which deprived children of happy sporting memories. "

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" Parents are now banned from taking photographs of their own children at most family venues across Lincolnshire, new research has revealed. There are picture bans in places ranging from North Kesteven Sports Centre in North Hykeham to Crazee Bongos indoor play area in Sleaford. An Echo survey shows that even Superbowl bowling alley in Lincoln stops parents from capturing magical childhood moments."

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"When Gary Crutchley started taking pictures of his children playing on an inflatable slide he thought they would be happy reminders of a family day out. But the innocent snaps of seven-year-old Cory, and Miles, five, led to him being called a ‘pervert’. The woman running the slide at Wolverhampton Show asked him what he was doing and other families waiting in the queue demanded that he stop. One even accused him of photographing youngsters to put the pictures on the internet."

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Banning of Contact

"Tough new guidelines on "good" touching and "bad" touching are now in place for anyone who has contact with children within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. For example, "side hugs" are allowed but "bear hugs" are considered prohibited physical contact." [...] "It is really sad, but it’s necessary in the culture in which we're living," said Andriacco. [...] "The decree prohibits physical contact that is considered "inappropriate." Any form of unwanted affection [...] Inappropriate, forceful or lengthy embraces and/or "bear hugs" [...] Kisses [...] Lap-sitting [...] Touching buttocks, chest, knees, thighs or genital areas [...] Placing hands in the pockets of al child [...] Showing affection in isolated areas such as bedrooms, closets, adult-only or staff-only areas [...] Laying down, cuddling or sleeping near a child [...] Being in bed with a child [...] Wrestling [...] Tickling [...] Piggyback rides [...] Massage given by an adult to a child [...] Massage given by a child to an adult"

"Archdiocese Enacts New "Touching" Guidelines", kypost.com, 11/08/08

"LIBRARY staff have been warned not to put children on their knees during story times for fear they will be branded paedophiles. Staff have also been told not to "lead a child by the hand" out of the library to look for a missing parent under a new policy introduced by education chiefs. As well as protecting employees from "vulnerable situations", the policy also warns librarians to keep an eye out for potential paedophiles and to ask adults acting suspiciously near a children's area or activity to move on or leave. Library staff will be told to refrain from physical contact where possible, even when they are trying to comfort a distressed or injured child."

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"It's an everyday drama at primary schools up and down the country - but according to London teacher Kate Abley, a child wetting himself in the classroom is no longer a molehill, it's a mountain. "One male teacher refused to change children - he'd get other teachers to do it," says Abley. "Another teacher would call the child's mother to come in and deal with it." Those teachers who were prepared to change a child's wet pants were supposed to take another adult into the changing rooms, to keep an eye on them. "The whole thing was completely impractical." There's a growing panic among childcare professionals about touching young children in their care which, says a group of academics at Manchester Metropolitan University's Institute of Education, is causing concern and uncertainty about what's OK and what's not when it comes to innocent physical contact with youngsters. In research they are planning to publish later this year, academics Heather Piper, John Powell and Hannah Smith describe how some child carers are reluctant even to put a plaster on a child's scraped knee. Very young children have to treat their injuries themselves - with the nursery worker or teacher giving instructions on how to open the box, take out a plaster and stick it on. If a child's parent is nearby, he or she is summoned to deal with the injury. Piper describes it as a crazy situation. "Many people are behaving in completely ludicrous ways. What is cast into doubt is the process of normal nurturing - the way adults are with children." Comforting a child when they're upset, putting a plaster on them, changing their wet pants - all these everyday ways in which adults care for young children are now seen as suspect. "Children are used to being cared for by adults, being picked up and having somebody put their plasters on. If they go to places where adults don't touch them, this must be quite horrifying," says Piper - she cited the example from one playgroup in her research where there was "no touch that was caring at all"."

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"Many adults are afraid to interact with children for fear of being labelled as paedophiles, a report has claimed. Think-tank Civitas said the "escalation of child protection measures" had made everyone from sports coaches to Santas seem like "potential child abusers". The Home Office said there was no evidence that vetting had deterred volunteers or eroded trust. It plans to tighten the rules further, so all parents hosting foreign exchange students will face background checks. In its report, Licensed to Hug, Civitas said that child protection regulations had "succeeded in poisoning the relationship between the generations". While in the past, adults would have helped children in distress or rebuked those misbehaving, there was now "a feeling that it is best not to become involved", it said. Report author Prof Frank Furedi, of Kent University, said: "From Girl Guiders to football coaches, from Christmas-time Santas to parents helping out in schools, volunteers - once regarded as pillars of the community - have been transformed in the regulatory and public imagination into potential child abusers, barred from any contact with children until the database gives them the green light."

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Confinement and Obesity

"Last week I wrote a column for my newspaper, The New York Sun, titled, "Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride The Subway." It basically said that I let him do this because he wanted to take a trip solo, he knew how to read the map, and I had every confidence that he could find his way home. Two days later, said son and I found ourselves on the Today Show, MSNBC and FoxNews [...] My vision of the world, especially childrearing, turns out to be starkly at odds with the mainstream one, which believes that the world (especially New York) is chock-a-block with extras from "Saw III." [...] Okay, so it happened several time zones away and the station has been flogging this same awful story for three months. Does it occur to most viewers that a crime like this must be pretty rare, if the station has to talk about one as far away as, say, Portugal? Or Aruba? No! [...] I met a guy at a party last week who makes his daughter phone home after walking one block to her friend's house. And he's in a suburb. The leafy kind! [...] The fact that a child is literally forty times more likely to die in a car accident than at a stranger's hands makes no difference. Driving is seen as safe. Freedom - once a right of childhood -- is seen as suicidal."

Lenore Skenazy, More From America's Worst Mom: 9-Year-Old On The Subway, Continued, Huffington Post, April 10, 2008

Suicide & Murder

"In the Bay Area alone, five defendants facing child-porn charges have committed suicide over the past two years. This year, on the eve of a court appearance on child-porn charges in the spring, one of the defendants, Los Gatos businessman George Halldin was found dead in his car inside a burning warehouse. Authorities ruled it a suicide."

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"A RESPECTED Perth school-teacher committed suicide within hours of being charged with child sex offences. Jeff Cahill, 48, was the head of science at Carmel School, a Jewish college in Dianella. He was a finalist last year for the esteemed $50,000 Premier's Prize for Excellence in Secondary Science Teaching. Mr Cahill took his life on Friday, June 6, after detectives searched his home the previous day and charged him with child sex offences. Police were investigating allegations about sexual activities with a 15-year-old boy he met on the internet [...] Mr Cahill was well-respected in education circles and had written papers used to develop WA's high school science curriculum. A police source told The Sunday Times the boy went to Mr Cahill's Mt Lawley home on Sunday, May 11, where they engaged in sex. [...] It is alleged that though the sex was agreed to by both parties, it was illegal because the boy was under the age of consent."

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"A QUEENSLAND teacher has committed suicide and another was taken to hospital after they were charged as part of Australia's largest anti-pedophile investigation. More than 90 men across Australia have been arrested or summonsed to court over the child porn sweep, including an Australian Federal Police officer, four teachers, youth workers, bankers and company directors, The Australian reports."

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"VICTORIA -- The sexual touching allegations that provoked the beating death of a Courtenay man this week lacked credibility and may have been fabricated, police said yesterday. Comox RCMP Inspector Tom Gray said a follow-up investigation of the allegations, made by two girls aged 13 and 15 who had been "hanging out" at the victim's house, found no evidence of any wrongdoing. "We're not so sure the people [the teenage girls] making these allegations are credible," said Insp. Gray, noting that RCMP detectives had interviewed the girls at length. "The issue, in my view, was somewhat consensual and in any event it didn't go very far. I just don't want anyone in the public to think the [slaying] victim did anything bad or anything to deserve this.""

Brennan Clarke, Slaying provoked by false accusation, police say, Globeandmail.com, October 2, 2008

"A convicted pedophile represented everyone who had ever abused the young Adelaide man who killed him in a primal rage, a court was told today. Timothy Hemi Schaefer, 19, went to the home of Jeffrey Edwin Payne, 56, in Adelaide in April 2007, called him a "pedo", punched him and stabbed him in the leg. [...] "In fact, during his interview with police he referred to Mr Payne as a sack of shit," Ms Powell said. "He would have had to hear and feel the sounds of the bones fracturing under foot.""

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Vigilante Justice and Rage

The Newshound category "Vigilantism" is far more comprehensive.

"A BLIND man who once acted as a lookout for a robbery yesterday walked from court after pleading guilty to stabbing a confessed pedophile. Raymond Cox - who has a list of criminal convictions 10 pages long - stabbed his neighbour after discovering he was a convicted child sex offender. The pair were drinking together when the neighbour confessed he had served time in prison for having sex with minors."

Georgie Pilcher, Man walks free after stabbing pedophile, AdelaideNow, October 04, 2008

"LEAFLETS naming a convicted sex offender and his victims have been distributed in Booragoon, prompting police to warn people against vigilante action. [...] The pamphlets were designed to look like official documentation with the WA Police and Neighbourhood Watch logos printed on them. [...] "We are concerned about this vigilante type action, said Senior Sergeant Paul van Noort, officer-in-charge of Palmyra police station. ``Quite clearly, it's not an official document but somebody has been distributing information about a potential sex offender and unfortunately it also lists names of innocent parties as well. ``That can be very distressing for the victim and also the families as well"

Nicole Cox, Perth Now, September 30, 2008

"Reputation is a hard thing to restore. One Puebloan is trying, however, after his neighborhood was plastered with fliers last week falsely stating he was a child sex offender. "I was very fortunate that most of my neighbors that I talked to thought it was a bunch of crap," the 67-year-old man who preferred not to be identified said Friday. "My wife and I went door-to-door to tell people that I am not a sexual offender. I wanted to make sure that people who have children in the neighborhood knew it was a bunch of crap." As many as 25 fliers were distributed in the victim's neighborhood between midnight Oct. 6 and 4:30 a.m. Oct. 7, according to police. The fliers were distributed under the guise of a neighborhood watch group. It stated that the victim was charged with sexual assault on a child and stressed children's safety. "Remember there is no cure for these people," the flier said. "Help each other by watching your neighbor's children . . . Protect the Children!"

NICK BONHAM, THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN October 18, 2008

Criminalisation of Youth

Society both infantilises and criminalises minors, making them easy prey for the criminal system. Youthful relationships involving small age differences are often persecuted - leading to a lifelong criminal record, or worse - if the country has a sex-offender's register.

"They were neighbors, aged 13 and 10, who played together in a toy fort at the older boy's home. But one summer afternoon, the teen began talking about masturbation, then performed oral sex on the younger boy. He said they should do it again the next day. And they did [...] Since 1997, more than 3,500 children in the state -- some as young as 10, though on average about 14 -- have been charged and convicted as felony sex offenders, a mark that remains on their records forever, barring them from careers in medicine, teaching or a host of other professions that serve the vulnerable. It also frightens many into under-the-radar housing arrangements to avoid landlords who require background checks [...] Now a student at the University of Washington, Tyler has a girlfriend and tries to live as normally as possible. But the childhood record has scuttled his hopes of becoming a doctor and, by alienating him from peers who might ask too many questions, paralyzed much of his social development."

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"Each [16 and 17] was charged with producing, directing or promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of a child. Based on the contents of his e-mail account, Jeremy was charged with an extra count of possession of child pornography." [...] Cmt: "It's a strange anomaly. They're charged for making child pornography and tried as adults. However, the law calls the pictures they produced child pornography, so they should be trying them as minors. Anything less than this is hypocrisy."[16]

"Providence, RI -- Two teenage girls face child pornography charges after posting sexually explicit photographs of themselves on the Internet. The pornographic pictures of Elizabeth Muller, 19, of North Smithfield, and an unidentified 16-year-old Lincoln girl were discovered on MySpace.com, a social networking Web site, said a spokesman for the attorney general's office."[17]

"NEWARK, Ohio - Police in Newark, Ohio, have arrested a 15-year-old girl on juvenile child pornography charges for allegedly sending nude cell phone photos of herself to classmates. The girl was arrested Friday and held over the weekend. Her defense filed denials in court Monday."[18]

Thoughtcrime and Newspeak

"A MAN who downloaded “Tomb Raider”-style pictures of computer-generated child pornography has been convicted by a Teesside jury. Robul Hoque had sophisticated realistic images of children on his hard drive seized by police in October 2006. The unusual case involving computer graphics is thought to be the first of its type and an important test case. Hoque, 32, told the Gazette: “I haven’t set out to break the law in any way, shape or form. “If I’d had any sort of inkling these were illegal, I would have told the police about them myself. I don’t go looking for child porn. I’m not attracted to kids. I’m not interested in kids.” [...] Jurors were told they should convict if they concluded that a picture looked like a photo. “It is about child pornography,” prosecutor David Brooke told the court [...] “Though no actual child has been abused, it helps to feed the demand.”"

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"A PAEDOPHILE tried to gag and tie up a man while he slept in his flat, a court heard. Vincent Burns, 69, invited his 26-year-old victim back to his home after drinking together in a city centre pub." [At no other place in this article is a justification given for labeling this man a pedophile]

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Trojan Horse Censorship

• "Finnish police are blocking more than 1,000 legal websites, including one belonging to a well-known internet activist, under a secretive system designed to prevent access to foreign sites that contain child pornography, according to a group that advocates for individual rights online. [...] Of the 700 or sites that have been tested, only two are known to contain inappropriate images of children, said Tapani Tarvainen chairman of the Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI). The remainder tend to be sites with adult-oriented themes, such as those offering legal porn, and forums for gay sex. In some cases, the sites - which include an online doll store, a Thai Windows advice forum and a computer repair service - have no visible link to porn or sex at all."

Dan Goodin, Finland censors anti-censorship site, The Register, February 18 2008

• "The police posted information that they would put TPB on the Swedish childporn filter. They never contacted us about the alleged child porn (which nobody found when looking for such content) and after heavy media critique the police caved in and said that TPB did not - any longer - have child porn on the site. Which of course, there was none to start with. Charges was filed about slander and for abusing the childporn filter for political means to JO but he decided that the police probably did their job and ‘had no reason not to trust the police officers testimony’. The police put the TPB associated website Kopimi.com in the child porn filter prior to this. Kopimi.com is of course not child porn either. After over 6 months in the filter a prosecutor stated that kopimi.com of course did not have any child porn (nor had ever had) and demanded that the filter was to be altered. The Swedish police had of course copied it’s filter to Norway and Denmark, aka rendering the site still filtered there after the Swedish filter was altered. It took another 3 months to get that sorted out, all the work we had to do. And no, we didn’t get an apology."

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