Henson Images Cleared

And So They Should
The Classification Board turned the case around quickly as they declared most of the images as having a 'G' rating or 'Very mild' for some others.
Here's the report.

Late last week the Classification Board swiftly assessed five Henson images taken from media websites and rated them all "G" or "very mild". Some or all of the images are partly censored with black bars covering nipples and genitals. The assessment followed a complaint about images on media websites after NSW police closed his Sydney exhibition on May 23. The main complaint is said to involve a slide show of seized photographs on The Daily Telegraph's website.

Last Thursday, the Minister for Home Affairs, Bob Debus, said images from media websites has been referred to the Classification Board. They were cleared the same day. An internet censorship expert Irene Graham told the Herald: "The fact that the Classification Board has become involved in this and then worked so quickly to reach its verdict is a sign of just how politically sensitive the Henson issue has become."

Responsibility for policing the net was given to the Australian Communications and Media Authority in 2006. Since then, it has referred less than a dozen complaints to the Classification Board. The Henson complaint is the first to be cleared absolutely by the board, which is is expected to release a full report on each of the five images today.

So the bad news is, they're covering up the genitals with black markers and spots. Talk about unable to leave well enough alone, but I'm guessing this is more of a compromise in order not to politicise the Board itself. It sucks that the compromise is the very execution of the sort of compromise you wouldn't want to make, but such is life. It's better that Mr. Henson gets cleared of Pedophilia suggestions quickly than have to face 15 rounds in the court against the aesthetically challenged and morally infantile.

It's amazing just how much the forces of wowserdom has gained power in the last 15 years. Back when Wade Fankum went psycho and spree-killed in Strathfield Shopping Centre, calls were made to ban 'American Psycho' because it was one of the books found in his keeping after his death. Nobody mentioned that he also owned Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'. Nobody called to ban that book. It's surprising how selective wowserdom morality can be if it's sensational enough.

The fact of the matter is, books don't kill people, psychos with guns do. Equally, depictions of teen sexuality does not cause pedophiles to go out and do stuff - Pedophiles do what they do for their own reasons. The woswers of this world wish there was some real-world connection but the truth is it's only in their dirty little minds.