Having a 13 year old daughter myself I couldn’t help but get involved with this debate.
In case you missed it, this debate has just exploded here in Australia. A prominent nude photographer, Bill Henson, has had his latest creation, a nude photo of a vulnerable looking 13 year old girl, published in the local news papers. The public outcry has been very loud indeed. See Local News Report YouTube. The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, added his voice calling the pictures “revolting”. Artists and personalities such as Cate Blanchett have spoken out against Rudd’s strong remarks. There has been a clamp down on art galleries as other photos of nude children are being taken down from display. The police are also involved attempting to track down the parents of the children in these photos.
You can see the actual photo in The Age newpaper. The photo is not explicit in anyway. Its really quite beautiful. This type of artistic nude has been around for a long time. What many do find troublesome is that a 13 year olds parents have approved their daughter to pose nude and have the photos published.
Actually the real problem (and why we are having this debate) is that times have changed. Once Upon A Time photos of nude children were tolerated because they were confined to the pages of art books & small art galleries. Those enjoying this type of art were a minority. But now thanks to the modern computer and the Internet, an image can be duplicated and spread around the world in the blink of an eye.
The unsavoury side of the Internet is that it allows the many porn addicted users to emass huge pornographic image libraries. Pedifile rings use the Internet to collect nude images of young children. The police around the world are working hard to put these people behind bars. If you own a computer containing nude photos of young children, and are caught, then chances are you are on your way to jail. The community has become hyper sensitive (if not outraged) by this explosion of porn and the new problems associated with protecting our children.
In a sense we now know that Bill Henson’s work is now fuelling the porn libraries of pedifiles. Of course this was not what Bill Henson intended. But… welcome to the new world.
Conclusion
It’s far more important to protected the lives of our little ones, than it is to gratify our desire for fine art.
A photo is very different from brushed artwork. It’s very personal. That image is now permanently archived on the Internet. It will literally follow this woman for the rest of her teenage years (if not her life). It will be added to porn sites. Stupid young men, some from her school, will now share this image using their cell phones and computers. She may now be stalked, or sent lewd emails. So.. did her parents do the right thing? Did they protect her as they should?
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