Be adult about porn, pleads industryCaroline Overington February...

Be adult about porn, pleads industry
Caroline Overington
February 28, 2007

THE pornographic film industry will tomorrow begin a creative Federal Court action to have adult films that depict actual sex between consenting adults stripped of their X-rating.
The industry argues that such films should be rated R18+, meaning they could legally be sold in all Australian states and shown in cinemas.
Lawyers for AdultShop.com will argue that the federal Government's Classification Review Board routinely applies an X-rating to sex films that would not offend a "reasonable adult".

The review board is required to take "community standards" into account when classifying films.

The review board classifies most sex films as X18+, meaning they can be sold only in the ACT and Northern Territory and shown only in licensed premises in those territories.

Adultshop.com CEO Malcolm Day, whose publicly listed company is valued at $9 million, said standards had changed since the guidelines were drafted in 1984.

"Most reasonable adults would not regard an adult film, depicting sex between two consenting adults, with no violence, as offensive," Mr Day said.

The test case is the decision in November by the review board to give an X18+ rating to the film Viva Erotica, which contains close-ups of sex between men and women and between two women, but no violence or fetishes.

Mr Day said an AC Nielsen survey conducted on Adultshop.com's behalf in September showed that 70 per cent of adults were not offended by explicit sex films. But the review board said in its Viva Erotica decision that "many would be offended by even the most fleeting of sexually explicit scenes".

"If a film like Viva Erotica was classified R, then the X classification would have very little work to do," it said. The board rejected the survey on the grounds the respondents had not been shown Viva Erotica. Nor was there evidence they had ever watched an explicit film.

AdultShop.com will present the court with an opinion from University of Sydney media academic Catharine Lumby, who argues "most Australians are more concerned about violence than about sex".

It will also call on Alan McKee from the Queensland University of Technology to argue consumers of sexually explicit materials in Australia can fairly be described as reasonable adults.

"A film involving various forms of actual sexual activity, including close-ups, but with no violence would be unlikely to cause offence," he argues.

The Australian Family Association, which has been accorded friend-of-the-court status, will submit that a legal victory by AdultShop would "render the X classification meaningless. Straight pornography would be classified R. Porn would be able to be sold through ordinary video outlets and adult shops."

Review board spokesman Brinsley Marlay said the classification code "specifies what X-material is and, at present, it's adult films" - non-violent sex films.

Films depicting sexual violence, bestiality, child pornography or crime are refused classification and banned.



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