Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to fire of a letter to the editor of our local free tabloid

43 replies

LynetteScavo · 02/12/2008 17:25

DS1 (9)has just picked the free newspaper up of the door mat and read the front page article, with the head line "Child pervert is sent to jail" which incldes the sentence

"Most photographs showed children posing naked, but 60 showed adults having sex with children and two pictures were defined as acts of sadism or beastiality."

I'm sure you can guess which words he asked for the definitions of.

OP posts:
DorisIsAPinkDragon · 02/12/2008 17:32

YABU

Not sure what you have to complain about really, yes it is a difficult subject to discuss with your son but not sure that prevents an editior using these words.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 02/12/2008 17:34

Give your DS1 a dictionary for Christmas.

TheProvincialLady · 02/12/2008 17:35

YABU. There is nothing illegal or unsuitable about those words, used in context. If your DS is old enough to read and ask about the words, you should be able to explain if necessary. Not pleasant, but then child pornography isn't is it?

bollockbrain · 02/12/2008 17:35

YANBU - The usually use it as 'category 1,2,3,4,5' photos, which then readers can know the severity of the pictures without actually spelling it out. We do not need to know the grim details of these poor children, just that the pervert is off the street.

TheCrackFox · 02/12/2008 17:36

OldLady, you have brought back happy memories of looking up all the pervy words in the dictionary.

OP YABU Can you really expect a newspaper not to report this kind of story.

Tanee58 · 02/12/2008 17:37

Sadly, these days, most 9 years olds have a pretty fair knowledge of these things anyway (and he will probably have or be about to get some sex education classes in school). Can you explain them in terms he can understand? Sadism and bestiality, for instance, being people treating each other cruelly? Keep it simple. If he's old enough to ask, he's old enough to deserve an answer - but without too much technical detail, obviously. Unfortunately, firing off a letter to one newspaper editor will not protect your DS from all the publicity of inappropriate behaviour that he will see/hear/read elsewhere.

mysterymoniker · 02/12/2008 17:37

heh

don't know why I'm laughing as would not relish having that conversation with my 9 year old

TheFalconInThePearTree · 02/12/2008 17:38

YABU.

tiredsville · 02/12/2008 17:39

YABU, like Provincial said if your son is old enough to read and actually take an interest in the paper, then explaining tactfully isn't a bad thing.

lalalonglegs · 02/12/2008 17:40

So should just have pictures of fluffy kittens on the front of newspapers then?

bahcornsilk · 02/12/2008 17:41

I agree with Lynette. The description in that article is very explicit.

Tanee58 · 02/12/2008 17:41

When I was 10 I came across the word 'bastard' in a newspaper. Asked my mum, got no explanation, all she had to say was, it's a nasty, unkind word for a person whose parents aren't married. What she did was say in no uncertain terms that it was a BAD word and I must NEVER EVER use it!!!!! Left me none the wiser and very scared.

And now I use it all the time (sorry DP )

mysterymoniker · 02/12/2008 17:42

yes lala, there is nothing in between fluffy kittens and paedophilia . . . I'd prefer it if the details were tucked away inside the newspaper, this should be possible

put a sign on your door that says 'no free papers' maybe?

Original poster
LynetteScavo · 02/12/2008 17:46

I wouldn't have minded so much if the details were tucked away inside the newspaper. Our other free newspaper is generally very good - it will be interesting to see how they report the detail.

OP posts:
mysterymoniker · 02/12/2008 17:49

yeah, write to them - I'd have been pretty annoyed too, maybe it is the norm for 9 year olds to be conversant with a range of deviant sexual behaviours but I've neglected that aspect of my daughter's education thus far

lalalonglegs · 02/12/2008 17:49

It's a newspaper. A big trial is news therefore... Oh, I don't know why I bother. Surprised no one has posted: "It's all made up anyway..."

mysterymoniker · 02/12/2008 17:50

well there are a number of ways of reporting that sort of news aren't there? wouldn't you be upset if your child had read that?

bahcornsilk · 02/12/2008 17:54

I've never read details of a case like that reported in such graphic detail lalalonglegs.

lalalonglegs · 02/12/2008 18:01

a) it's a newspaper,it's not aimed at children or should everything be censored on the off-chance a minor will read it?
b) explanation of sadism and bestiality suitable for 9yo's (for those too overcome by the vapours to think it up themselves) "being nasty to people/being nasty to animals".

Please get over yourselves.

tiredsville · 02/12/2008 18:05

Im amazed yor DS was even intrested in reading the paper. My DC would have picked it up and flung it at me, whilst moaning 'what we having for dinner?'

2AdventSevenfoldShoes · 02/12/2008 18:09

yabu

motherinferior · 02/12/2008 18:13

So what do you do about coverage of the Mumbai bombings, or of baby P? Ban newspapers from your home altogether?

We get a paper delivered. There are stories in it which I would rather my children, aged five and seven, didn't read. But I don't, actually, feel the urge to write to the editor of the Guardian about them.

StewieGriffinsMom · 02/12/2008 18:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

motherinferior · 02/12/2008 18:24

Poor sods at the local freesheet are slavering over the fact they've finally got some Proper News to report as well, of course. You can't expect them to downplay it - it's probably the highlight of their year.

AllFallDown · 02/12/2008 18:37

I don't see how the sentence OP has quoted is "graphic detail" - it's the basic detail, and sounds like it's second or third par, not top of the story. It's a newspaper. It reports news. This is news. It hasn't been put in the paper to titilate.