Australia rocked by child porn scandal
Date: October 12, 2004Source: Mid Day
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Sydney: A worldwide crackdown on child pornography has led Australian police to investigate 700 people in this country, whose arrest is imminent.
The police reportedly raided 400 premises across Australia last week and made 200 arrests in connection with the scandal, which has shocked people all over the country.
Last Sunday the popular 60 Minutes programme revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in America, where the racket is said to have originated, has given to the Australian authorities a list of 907 people, who downloaded child porn.
The list was one of many compiled during a year-long, 120-nation investigation by American government agencies, codenamed Operation Falcon.
American police used credit card transactions to compile dossiers for each country involved.
The investigation by Operation Falcon in mid-2003 resulted in a trail of credit cards to a Minsk (Belarus) trading company under the name Regpay Ltd, which operated 50 websites and provided 95,000 leads.
The FBI list is said to include names, addresses and credit card details of suspects all over Australia.
Oz teens sexually active by 13
To continue on the subject of sex, a soon-to-be released report prepared in Victoria shows that up to two per cent of Australian boys and girls have had sexual intercourse before the age of 13.
According to a high-powered team from Family Planning Victoria, the Centre for Adolescent Health and the Royal Women’s Hospital, up to 2 per cent have engaged in oral sex and up to 20 per cent in “deep kissing” by the age of 13.
The report is expected to become the blueprint for the sexual and reproductive health of Victoria’s adolescents.
According to the report, which will be presented soon to the government, there were 2,150 abortions in 2001 and 2002, a rate of 13 per cent, among Victorians aged 15 to 19.
The report says the figures “indicate that the social world of young Australians is sexualised before they hit their teen years and underlines the need for sex education through the entire curriculum”.
Bali anniversary
More than 100 Australians are headed for Bali, Indonesia for today’s second anniversary of the bombings which claimed over 200 innocent lives.
The victims’ families will gather at the site of the tragedy at the precise time – 11:08 pm.
A permanent memorial, made from sandstone and marble, with the names of the bombing victims engraved in gold, and a new water fountain, will be officially opened in the morning.
Aga Khan, wife to end marriage
Followers of the Aga Khan in Australia have been saddened at recent reports in the news media that their spiritual head and his wife Begum Inaara Aga Khan have decided to end their marriage after being separated for a year.
Australian newspapers have reported that the Aga Khan, said to be one of the world’s richest men, and the Begum have filed for divorce in the London High Court claiming the relationship had “irretrievably broken down.”
The couple married in 1998 and have a four-year-old son Prince Aly.
Forty-four old Begum Inaara is a German citizen and was known as Princess Gabriele zu Leiningen before the marriage.
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