Beatrice

The document focuses on four central areas: making sure children are protected from when the artwork is created until when it is shown; how to relate the nature and content of the material to viewers; protecting children from being exploited; and creating guidelines while maintaining the council’s support of artists and artistic freedom.

Respondents included academics, community and government bodies, and children’s right activists. According to the document, many people expressed genuine concern for the rights of the artists: “Upholding the freedom of practice and expression in the arts was a key consideration raised by many stakeholders,” it says.

The respondents were generally divided between those in favor of the protocols and those who fear that their creation will lead to the censorship of artists.

[From Australia Council Releases Children-in-Art Protocols Document – ARTINFO.com]

I am uncertain on how I feel about this. I don’t object to there being regulations to protect children, definitely not on a general scale. I do however object to there being regulations surrounding art. art is about breaking boundaries and rules, to broadening people’s minds and to extending their worlds. art should be challenging and at times uncomfortable. it should be without rules by it’s very nature.

I also believe that parents should be responsible for their children, that it is up to them to ensure they are not exploited or mistreated. and yes, I know sometimes it can happen regardless, but I resent the government saying that parents have no rights over their children – what? and no, hovering anxiously over children isn’t the answer either. I’m sure there must be a happy medium in which children grow up at the proper time, dress their age and avoid miscreants and ne’er-do-wells. (and I realize that I have no say as someone who is not yet a parent, but as I intend to be one day and am an insane planner you better believe I have given these areas much thought.)

again I ask what is being done about the children who are really in need? Obviously not enough, and yet more time and effort is being funneled into these less important issues. yes children need protecting, but not necessarily from artists.