ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland, April 24, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Premier of Newfoundland offered some unusually strong comments against pornography last week after she was caught up in a minor social media flap.
Kathy Dunderdale, who heads the province’s Progressive Conservative government, deleted her Twitter account Thursday after discovering that it was linked to an X-rated profile.
Explaining the move, she said: “I particularly understand how pornography contributes to violence against women and the degradation of women, and let me tell you, I am not going to be associated with anything that promotes that kind of behaviour.”
“When I found that somebody had attached disturbing material to my account, I dissassociated myself with it immediately and took it down immediately,” she told reporters.
Some observers said Dunderdale’s decision was overkill because she could have simply blocked the porn account, but the Premier also noted that she had not used Twitter in the last year.
Porn critics often note that the depiction of violence and abuse in pornography, generally against the women, desensitizes viewers to sexual violence and fosters attitudes more accepting of such practices. Numerous studies have shown that pornography viewers frequently attempt to enact in real life what they have seen on the screen.
In March 2012 a 13-year-old Calgary boy was found guilty after admitting to raping a four-year-old boy in his foster home repeatedly over the course of a year. He says he got the idea from watching “gay porn” on his foster parents’ home computer.
Last month, a UK-based child welfare charity said they believed pornography had turned 4,500 British children into sex offenders after conducting a freedom of information request that revealed 5,028 sexual offenses by 4,562 minors from 2009-2012.
The same month, a police chief in Scotland warned that sex crimes would rise if pornography use is not checked. “There is academic evidence coming out to suggest [pornography] is having an impact on how young men in particular perceive relationships and women,” said Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham. If pornography’s effect on the culture are not curbed, he said, it will “result in a higher number of victims of serious sexual crime.”
Gwen Landolt, national vice-president of REAL Women Canada, said Dunderdale is “dead-on right.”
“Study after study has shown that pornography is detrimental to women, they become objects, and detrimental to family life because the man spends his time watching pornography and then expects his wife to perform what he sees,” she said.
“It’s good to see someone raising this issue, even if it’s affected her personally,” Landolt added. “It’s good to see someone saying frankly the truth on the issue.”