In 1996, California enacted Megan’s Law, which informed communities of people who were convicted of a sex offense. As a new mom, I wanted to prevent my child from being...
Category: Criminal justice
The Invest in Child Safety Act: what you need to know
With the Senate back in session this week, today saw the introduction of a new law dedicated towards addressing child sexual exploitation: the Invest in Child Safety Act....
Criminalizing art and fiction is a bridge too far for the United Nations
In February 2019 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child released a draft set of Guidelines for the implementation of an existing international treaty on...
Review: The War on Whores
Prostitution, the oldest profession, whoring, sex work, whatever you call it, it’s a cold, hard, delightful fact of reality. The War on Whores asks the...
FOSTA: you’re hurting the people you want to help
On
paper, FOSTA was supposed to be about protecting people like me.
During 2017, when the proposed law was still called SESTA (Stop
Enabling Sex Traffickers Act), I was 17...
Want to build safer online communities? Drop the ban.
Creating safer and more equitable communities — both in real life, and online — is an important undertaking. Undoubtedly we are in agreement that those who...
Experts to United Nations: hentai ban would be a mistake
A United Nations committee is circulating a draft document that could bring in a global ban on the sexual depiction of minors in drawings and cartoons, including lolicon...
Defending Lolita from censorship
Lolita was never officially banned in the United States, although it was banned in France where it was first published in 1955, and in several other countries. Yet today, although the novel...
The intersection of civil rights and child protection
Prostasia is a child protection organization that seeks to harmonize the tension that is often perceived between effective public policy and constitutional rights. When informed by evidence, the...
How the politics of child protection gives us laws that harm children
As a child, I remember how terrified I was by a rerun of the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which the lead character attempts to...