Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is brilliant to see the Acting Leader in the seat today and I hope that she will be there many more times.

I wish that leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled Child Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation Material (Amendment) Bill 2022. I am delighted to introduce my very first Private Members' Bill, which I believe addresses a very important language issue in our legislation. I will start by introducing the Bill and will outline what it proposes to do. I will explain why the Bill is necessary and what it aims to achieve.

The Bill aims to substitute the term "child pornography" with "child sexual exploitation material".The Bill will amend the language of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998, the Child Trafficking and Pornography (Amendment) Act 2004 and the references to child pornography contained in Irish legislation. If the Bill is successful the legislation will be renamed the child trafficking and child sexual exploitation material Act 1998 and the child trafficking and child exploitation material (amendment) Act 2004. Any reference to child pornography in legislation will be replaced with the term "child sexual exploitation". It is not only important, but necessary. The issue is that the language currently being used has been found to be harmful.

With regard to child abuse, child trafficking and child sexual exploitation material, the Luxembourg Guidelines provide a comprehensive and detailed breakdown of the importance of language. According to a report conducted with the aid of a number of international bodies, including the UN, the term "child pornography" is not only incorrect, but dangerous. Why is that? One hears the term "child pornography" and understands what it means. Why is it dangerous when our laws already provide for measures against it? The reason is that what is happening in these awful incidents is not pornography. It is abuse. In the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act legislators were careful not to employ the term "revenge pornography". While that term is widely used and understood, the term "image-based sexual assault" not only better reflects the nature of the abuse and the crime but also shifts the focus to the perpetrator, not the victim. I wish to do the same. Language is important and powerful. What we say spreads throughout our community, country and globally. Language shapes and defines our understanding. It is not pornography; it is abuse.