The End of Innocence

In Texas two parents have been charged with the felony of "sexual performance of a child" simply for taking a photograph of the mother breastfeeding the child (click here).

There was no evidence other than the photograph and although the courts are still deciding, the parents could both face up to 20 years in jail and their children have been taken away from them while the decision is being made.

When will the insanity stop!?! I detest this culture of fear and paranoia where innocence has been lost and absolutely everything to do with children must make the adult involved a paedophile. Men who like children, instead of being 'fatherly' and providing a masculine role model are though of as child abusers. Breastfeeding pictures have been taken down from Facebook as 'porn' and parents have removed their children from sleepover parties because the host girl's father was in the house overnight!

Of course, there can be a fine line, and I'm still not sure what I think about the issue that was recently raised in Sydney, Australia over some photographic exhibitions that were taken down under suspicion of child porn. They were later returned and no charges laid.

But when we can't take innocent pictures of babies breastfeeding something is wrong with the world and something needs to do be done to fix it. The Madonna and Child photos are often shown breastfeeding and no one is closing the art galleries or claiming that Mary and Jesus were involved in paedophilia. Let's work together to restore some of the innocence to childhood because I'm sure children do not want to be seen as sexual beings any more than adults want them to be.