1. Residents Win Brilliant Victory Over Brothel
Family First Media Release 5 March 09

Family First NZ is congratulating the Mt Victoria Residents Association (Wellington) for being successful in their legal action against both a brothel in their street and the Wellington City Council who allowed the brothel to operate there. “ This is a victory for families who have been victimised by the effects of the decriminalisation of prostitution — including street prostitution, residential brothels, and brothels located near schools and pre-schools ,” say Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. “In this particular case, residents complained of illegally parked cars, intimidating men, a client sleeping in his car, and the brothel being busiest during the middle of the day. The brothel was located close to a children’s playground, kindergarten, and primary school, and on a major walking route for children to two secondary schools in the area.” READ MORE
Victory for residents over brothel TV3 News / Dominion Post 05 Mar 2009 READ MORE
READ Full Court Decision

2. Chief Censor Wins “Hypocrisy Award”!

Call to jail parents who break video game age limits
Dominion Post 06 March 2009
Parents who give their underage children access to violent video games should be prosecuted to serve as “shock value” to other families, says chief censor Bill Hastings. …Mr Hastings said studies had shown that repeated exposure to violence and sexual violence had an adverse effect on attitude, and it was important that parents realised some games were created for adults not children. READ MORE

Family First Comment : While the Chief Censor is pointing the finger at parents, he needs to observe the three fingers pointing back at him! The Chief and Deputy Censor have been responsible for the release of brutal rape and sexually violent films all at a time in which domestic violence, demand for Women’s Refuges, and violent and sexual crime is on the increase. There are also a huge numbers of hard core obscene DVDs that are cleared for adult (R18) home viewing ‘entertainment’ every month which are easily accessible to young people, as evidenced by the number of teenagers who have played Grant Theft Auto, despite its R18 status.
Also, children as young as 14 have been subjected to footage of rape, sadism and domestic violence as part of research by his office.
“Repeated exposure to the violence and sexual content” that the Chief Censor is releasing into NZ is not only affecting teenagers but also adults.
In 2006, the Labour Minister of Internal Affairs, in response to a call for the replacing of the Board, said in Parliament that we must “accept that the standards of what are acceptable and objectionable today differ from those when I was growing up in the 1960’s”. We totally disagree. Rape, necrophilia, violence and sexual violence and degrading treatment of women are, and will always be, wrong! We need Censors and a Censorship Board who will act in the best interests of all NZ’ers and families and not pander to the minority who demand freedom of speech at any cost.
READ Standards? What Standards? by Bob McCoskrie

3. U-turn on cervical cancer tests for young women (UK)
Independent Online March 8, 2009

Cancer tests that could save the lives of scores of young women are set to return, five years after they were cut amid controversy, health chiefs confirmed yesterday. Ministers are considering the return of cervical cancer screening for women under 25, after having restricted the tests to older women. …Details of the rethink were revealed as it emerged that hundreds of 12- and 13-year-old girls have reported debilitating side-effects after receiving the new vaccination against cervical cancer . Doctors have confirmed that almost 1,300 British schoolgirls suffered reactions, from alleged paralysis to facial bloating, fainting, skin discoloration and rashes after taking part in a mass vaccination programme launched last year. READ MORE

Family First Comment : This is what we’ve been saying all along — you can’t beat routine smear tests. But the message that teenage girls seem to be receiving (based on reports back from schools) is that “once we get the (gardasil) jabs, we won’t need those yucky smear tests!” Exactly the wrong message!

4. ADULT STEM CELL Success Stories
Family Research Council (US)

Research using adult stem cells continues to yield successful treatments for many human diseases and injuries. READ MORE

Family First Comment : After years and millions of dollars in research, no patient has been successfully treated with human embryonic stem cells . Research and therapies using “adult” stem cells (such as from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood), are not ethically problematic and have already resulted in useful therapies in human patients. Good science is also ethical science.
READ Obama Creates Incentive to Destroy Tiny Human Embryos

5. Call for TV ban on alcohol advertising
The Age (Australia) March 6, 2009

A GROUP of experts has called for alcohol advertising to be banned on television, particularly during sport, after research showed it encouraged young people to drink. READ MORE

6. EU fights huge increase in web child abuse
The Guardian (UK) 4 March 2009

The number of child sex abuse websites in Europe has soared and the violence shown has become more extreme READ MORE
Family First Comment : If they’re available on the internet, it doesn’t matter what country they’re produced or marketed in. They’ll be a concern for any country and any parent.

7. Kids grow up ‘surrounded by porn’ (Australia)
news.co.au March 02, 2009

Young Australians will likely see pornography before they are legally allowed because of a proliferation of easily available x-rated material, a study says. READ MORE