Posted on 08/25/2006 5:21:41 PM PDT by wagglebee
BERLIN, August 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Germany has accepted child-pornography in its mainstream culture, and even celebrates it as Deutsche-Welle, a German media source, reveals today in its culture and lifestyle section.
In a column entitled “Germany’s Teen Sex Doctor”, Deutsche-Welle unabashedly reports, “Generations of confused German teenagers have turned to Dr. Sommer for honesty -- and explicit photos.”
The column continues, “Sandra, 16, looks up coyly from the pages of Bravo, wearing a black choker and nothing else. Boyfriend Elias, 18, grins from the opposite page, also in his natural state.
“‘Tell me, why do you love each other?’ reads the headline. And the young couple tells why -- and exactly how.”
The news source goes on to report that “Each weekly issue of Bravo now features photos of two teenagers, generally between 16 and 20, in the nude, with interviews about their bodies and experiences.”
A news caption reads, “Nude pictures are intended to reassure nervous teens.”
Deutsch-Welle says, “Sell this in America, and risk prison time for child pornography” adding, “But in Germany, this is nothing tawdry. It's the country's most popular teenage magazine, and it turns 50 on Saturday.”
The upcoming 50th anniversary of Bravo, a German magazine, includes the celebration of a regular pornographic sex-column by “Dr. Sommer”. Deutsch-Welle mentions, “A German institution since 1969, Dr. Sommer combines no-holds-barred sex advice with full-frontal photos.”
"It is not pornography," says Bravo's deputy editor, Alex Gernandt according to Deutsch-Welle. "It deals with naked people, but in a very sensitive way. We try to portray young people to tell readers, 'You are not too fat, not too thin. You are OK the way you are.”
“Bravo's Web site even features explicit petting and positions photo galleries that wouldn't last a day in other countries,” reveals Deutsch-Welle, quite aware that most civilized nations consider child-pornography a crime against children.
The media source reports that those under 18, like Sandra, are required to have parental permission before they pose completely nude for a price of 400 euros (more than 500 USD) and lost dignity.
Bravo’s current “Dr. Sommer” for the past three years, Eveline von Arx, told Deutsch-Welle that back in 1969 it was “spectacular to do something like that," however she added "It's not that spectacular anymore. People are used to it. Everybody knows it."
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This should serve as a preview of what the left will allow in the United States if they get their way.
That makes two of us.
Three of us.
I've always expected/feared America would follow the trajectory of ancient Rome, but it never occurred to me that the whole world would do it. I guess I just wasn't thinking it through.
L
"I am sickened beyond words."
The article clearly states age 16 to 20. Hardly child porn.
I wonder how sickened you are at God, who made humans that married in many cultures long before age 16?
So much for the sophisticated tastes and culture of Europe. They rank on America because we have outdated ideas about such things as "indecent exposure" yet all the while they slip ever further into a cesspit of morality as defined by individual choice.
That makes at least four of us. This isn't right.
Didn't Playboy used to show girls as young as 16?
Tell that to the poor kid Austria who was kidnapped at age ten and held in basement prison for eight years by a psycho child-porn-molester. Let's see if she "celebrates it."
Not that I am aware of.
Germans have been relaxed about nudity for a very long time. Also teenagers - especially those 16-19 - are not children. Claiming that they are trivializes a very serious problem.
"Didn't Playboy used to show girls as young as 16?"
No, I don't think so. On the other hand, ages of consent vary widely in other countries. Here in the USA, they range from 16 to 18, pretty much. However, since standards vary from state to state, and since the federal standard is 18, you won't find nudity or sexual stuff with people under 18.
That may be different in other countries. For example Germany's age of consent is 16, if the sex is between a 16 year old and someone over 21. It is 14 if the age of the other is closer. I'm not certain of the year, but I think it is anyone under 18.
So, in this article, the 16 year old is perfectly legal to give consent to have sex, as is the case in several states in the US. However, the publication has to get parental permisson for photographs.
It's not really child pornography, since the 16 year old can legally consent to sex. Since the magazine gets the parent's permission for photography, it is not child pornography, either, since the laws of Germany allow that.
Not every place has the same laws.
I am reminded that Germany has 3 ages of maturation.
1: Drinking Age - 16
2: Sexual age - 18
3: Voting age - 21
It seems that they have gone lenient on the sexual age.
Must be all those "Love in the ....." movies made in Bavaria (fill in the blank).
Raise the voting age to 35 and they'll have my respect.
I'm not particularly bothered by it any more than any of the other stupid Euro cultural stupidities. This isn't "child porn", and the difference between a naked 16 year old and a naked 18 year old is rather arbitrary, and the vast majority of people couldn't tell the difference; some people are more developed at 16 than others are at 20.
Child porn is prepubescent children, not near-adults. If they were dealing in 12 and 13 year olds, or younger, that would be child porn.
You are right, I just checked. They did once show one wo was 17, though.
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