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australianwomensnews · 5 months ago

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One of Sydney’s top bar and restaurant groups has been hit with claims it pushed female staff out of the company after reporting sexual assaults, encouraged staff to have sex with customers and take drugs while on shift, and discriminated against women as it built up a hospitality empire that now spans six venues across the city.

Five former female staff say they were sexually assaulted and harassed by other employees across the Swillhouse group, which operates six of Sydney’s most high-profile venues, including Le Foote in The Rocks, Restaurant Hubert, the Baxter Inn and Caterpillar Club in the CBD.

In response to the allegations raised in a months-long investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Food, Swillhouse chief executive Anton Forte said the company was aware of sexual assault allegations at its venues and said it “sincerely regretted and apologised to any former employees who felt unsupported and at risk”.

One former Hubert bartender said she was raped in the restaurant toilets by a fellow staff member last year after she was given a cocktail made with 10 different gins. “I got completely blackout drunk and blacked out and came to with him raping me in the women’s bathrooms at work,” she said.

The bartender, who asked not to be identified because she is pursuing legal action, reported the incident to NSW Police.

She said she was “driven to breaking point” by the company, which initially offered her counselling but then subjected her to performance reviews. When she asked to move to another venue, Le Foote, she had to take a pay cut and then had her hours reduced after she began suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder while at work.

Internal emails reveal that one manager said her “general negativity within the workplace” was “not in line with our core values of ‘good times’ and ‘devoted hospitality’.”

A different manager said in an email that her “personal situation” could not be taken into account to give her extra hours, and that “we only take into consideration restaurant needs”.

Forte said Swillhouse provided extensive support to the employee including accompanying her to the police station and psychological assistance after she reported the allegation.

“Due to the roster in place at that restaurant, there were some discrepancies in hours, which were rectified upon being brought to our attention,” he said.

Another Hubert bartender said she was sexually assaulted by a colleague at home. She said she was told by her supervisor the next day that it was her fault for drinking and that she was a “square peg in a round hole”.

“The people that are making money are doing it off our broken bodies,” she said. “This industry that I have given so much to has completely f---ed me over.”

“They wheel you out on International Women’s Day, but you are afraid to be feminine,” said another bartender. “It was established that if you say anything, you are out.”

Forte said Swillhouse had never discriminated against an employee who raised sexual assault allegations.

“At Swillhouse, sexual assault allegations are handled with the highest level of urgency and care,” he said.

But three former staff members, who requested anonymity to protect their future employment, said the company put them in vulnerable situations as part of a wider culture that fostered a reliance on drinking and drugs for day-to-day work.

“It was like a cult,” said one bartender.

Supervisors and staff at Hubert would frequently use “the cinque room” to do lines of cocaine during and after shifts, six former bartenders said.

Forte said Swillhouse had a no-drinking and no-drugs policy on shift but did not address claims about regular cocaine use at Hubert. The Parisian bistro in the Sydney CBD has won a Good Food Guide chef’s hat for the past two years.

“There was previously one staff drink allowed after work,” said Forte. “Unfortunately, this was abused, and the privilege was removed after instances of the policy being breached.”

‘Physical intimidation’

Down the road at Swillhouse’s whisky bar, The Baxter Inn, bartenders called out “Shoes” or “Jimmy Choos” (rhyming slang for “boobs”) to alert other staff members when a woman with large breasts walked in.

The bar staff were also allowed to clock off early to have sex with customers, a male bartender said. Occasionally, they took customers to have sex on top of the washing machine in the accessible toilet or in the store room, where expensive whiskys were kept in an old bank vault.

“We don’t deny there have been some instances of juvenile and regrettable behaviour that, in hindsight, should not have occurred,” said Forte.

The bar wall had notes written on a sliding scale of attractiveness, with staff ranking each customer the bartenders had slept with.

One male bartender said the company’s policies encouraged “loose” behaviour. He said little consideration was given to how the behaviour would affect female employees, given there was a “blanket ban” on hiring women in the bar’s first years.

“It was the ‘have a beer’ policy,” the former bartender said. “They would only hire people they thought they would want to have beers with.”

Forte said the original teams at the Baxter Inn, named sixth-best bar in the world in 2015, and Shady Pines Saloon, which opened in 2010, did consist solely of men.

“At the time, there were fewer female, full-time bartenders and, as such, not many applicants. Swillhouse’s first female bartender was hired in 2012,” he said.

When women were eventually hired at the Baxter Inn in 2014, there were no sanitary bins.

“No one had ever considered that,” one male bartender said.

Two women left their bartending positions at The Baxter Inn after the company failed to act upon repeated complaints of sexual harassment made against another male colleague between 2019 and 2020, former employees said.

“It was physical intimidation,” said one of the women.

“This guy would brush up against us, he would ask us really intimate questions about our sex lives, just out of the blue and during service.”

The sexual harassment continued after meetings with a human resources representative and upper management.

“[My colleague] got to the point where she was terrified to come to work,” she said.

“She felt completely helpless because they wouldn’t give him a warning [and] there were no efforts made to investigate it.”

Forte said the incidents “should have been better handled”.

“Unfortunately, the details of the claim provided to senior management were incomplete and inaccurate, so while the bartender was relocated, the matter was not addressed as thoroughly as it should have been,” he said.

‘The Wild West’

Swillhouse’s best-known venue, Frankie’s Pizza, was also its most notorious. The bar’s merchandise sold its vision: “Get f---ed at Frankie’s,” a T-shirt read.

“It was just the Wild West,” said one bartender.

The dive bar was mourned when it shut down in 2022 with a week-long party dubbed “Frankie’s Pizza goes to hell” after a decade spent hosting celebrities including Jack Black, Cuba Gooding jnr, and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine.

But staff said it bred a misogynistic culture that denigrated women.

“I’d be taken out of the main bar there and put into the pizzeria because women didn’t know anything about beer,” said one former bartender.

When women were allowed to work at the bar, they were shown violent pornography by managers. “You’d love that,” the bartender said she was told.

“People would try to get me to have sex with customers constantly,” said the bartender. “There were multiple recordings of people having sex in the venue without their consent. There were always videos being passed around of women being filmed without their consent.”

Forte said the company had never received complaints about videos being taken of people having sex.

“We can confirm that while we want our employees to be positive and engage with our customers to give them a great experience, they have never been encouraged to have sex with customers,” he said.

One acronym was frequently plastered around the venue and on its promotional material: STC. “Suck the C--k”.

On social media, Frankie’s often pushed a hypermasculine, rock ‘n’ roll image to its customers. In one Facebook post, it “promised minimal predatory behaviour” from one of its performers who was pictured holding up a packet of “Wipe on Sex Appeal”.

Behind the bar, cocktails were made from a book known by the homophobic slur staff used to refer to it: “The faggot book of recipes”.

Forte acknowledged the terms were used at his venues, describing them now “as offensive, derogatory and juvenile”.

“We regret not stamping them out sooner than circa 2016 when we believe they were last used,” he said. “We acknowledge these examples are indicative of wider cultural issues we had at the time and have since been working to rectify these harmful behaviours.”

‘We could have done better’

Inside Swillhouse’s first bar, the Nashville-style Shady Pines Saloon in Darlinghurst, one bartender said a male co-worker sexually assaulted her.

The bartender filed a report to the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad of the State Crime Command in 2022.

“[My co-worker] was encouraging everyone to drink and then gave most of the other staff MDMA [ecstasy] to take while working,” the bartender wrote to police.

“He then started asking me what kind of underwear I was wearing that night. I refused to answer and attempted to ignore him as I kept serving. Then he started groping my ass before shoving his hand in the back of my shorts from the leg and inserting his fingers inside me.”

Swillhouse fired the male co-worker, but the bartender said he was repeatedly allowed back into the venue to drink despite being sacked. Forte said he did not believe the co-worker had returned to the venue, and if he did, the company was not aware of it.

“Every job I’ve had since then, I’ve had someone say, ‘You know, it’s okay you don’t work at Swillhouse any more’,” the bartender said.

The bartender did not want to press charges because the venue had already been hit by a police strike over an unauthorised after-hours lock-in, which saw its managers sacked.

“It could have been shut down,” she claimed.

Forte said Shady Pines was never on a “final warning” with police, and the company had never pressured anyone not to file a police report for the benefit of the business.

“In hindsight, there were areas where we could have done better,” he said.

“That is why we have comprehensive policies, training and [employment assistance program] services in place for all employees today.”

When the company began mandatory sexual harassment training in 2022, the bartender was too distressed to remain in the seminar after the host, an external consultant, claimed that sexual assault “doesn’t happen here”.

“I suffered with pretty much constant harassment, multiple sexual and physical assaults, stalking and bullying the entire time I worked for the company, it completely broke me as a person,” she wrote in an email to the human resources (HR) manager after she left the meeting early.

“As this was never taken seriously or even addressed at all, it was too hard to sit in the ‘values’ training yesterday. I’ve spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in therapy just to be able to approach being in hospitality service again.”

The HR manager offered her support and assured her they wanted to “make sure we have everything in place to ensure this would never happen again”.

But in June 2022, the bartender had a meeting with the company over her treatment.

“They brought me into a meeting; they said, ‘We didn’t know any better. We didn’t go to business school’,” she said. “They could have said sorry. They didn’t give a f---.”

Industry accolades

Swillhouse has won multiple accolades for its establishments across Sydney and is now one of the city’s largest hospitality groups. It has 334 staff across six venues that earn millions of dollars in revenue each year.

The Good Food Guide described Le Foote’s opening in The Rocks in May 2023 as “the hottest Sydney restaurant opening of the year” for its blend of Mediterranean grill with harbour views.

In 2019, after a series of incidents, Forte reminded all staff to respect their co-workers and to report incidents to their managers. In the same year, Swillhouse appointed an HR specialist and implemented policies on sexual harassment for the first time.

They also offered staff 10 free counselling sessions at the Indigo Project, began hosting a monthly diversity forum and implemented a target of 50 per cent non-male employees company-wide.

In text messages and a phone call after an employee reported sexual harassment at one of the company’s venues in 2022, Forte was empathetic and offered to talk through their concerns over lunch, but it never eventuated. There is no suggestion that Forte assaulted or harassed employees.

In an all-staff email in February last year, after other allegations were raised, Forte said employees would no longer be entitled to free drinks after their shift or a 50 per cent discount on beverages any other time.

“This email is tough to write,” he said. “Due to several incidents at our venues involving staff and alcohol, we have had to decide to no longer offer this benefit. We understand that this benefit has been part of the fabric of our business and a considerable part of our culture.

“However, our commitment to you is more significant than just offering benefits. As a business, we also need to prioritise and promote a culture of safety and well-being.”

But some employees believe the measures fail to address Swillhouse’s history as a “wild party company”. “It is still ingrained in the foundation,” said one bartender.

In public social media posts dating back to 2013, Forte is repeatedly pictured partially naked in his venues and boasts of a morning blood alcohol content of 0.07. In 2015, he captioned a photo of award-winning bartenders at The Baxter Inn with “STC”.

In one post, Swillhouse executive Toby Hilton is pictured alongside Forte who straddles the bar in his underwear. Hilton said “from memory … we were trying to recreate a photo by Jean-Claude Van Damme”.

Staff say Swillhouse’s position as one of Sydney’s most prominent hospitality groups meant they felt pressured to stay silent over fears for their economic security.

“People need jobs and if you want to earn decent money, you aren’t left with many options, it’s either Swillhouse or Merivale,” said one bartender.

“I got really depressed,” said another bartender who said she was assaulted while working at Hubert’s. “I came out of the cult world, and I could not get a job.”

The women said they were speaking out now so that younger women did not have to go through the same turmoil.

“These owner-operators in Sydney are hiring younger and younger,” one former Baxter Inn bartender said.

“It just terrifies me that they think they’ve had a culture shift and that other people will have the same experience that we did.”

#women's rights #radblr #misogyny in hospitality #workplace misogyny #sexual violence #rape culture #god this is so fucked up #long read so it's under the cut but i recommend reading the whole thing

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australianwomensnews · 5 months ago

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Widespread claims that testosterone can restore energy, reduce abdominal fat and protect the heart, brain and bones are leading Australian women in midlife to seek the primary male hormone for conditions it is unproven to treat.

Global hormone influencers and some Australian integrative practitioners are fuelling demand for testosterone, medical bodies say, heavily promoting on social media its off-label use to treat anxiety, reduce cancer and diabetes risk, boost skin collagen and improve memory.

Some Australian women in their mid-to-late 40s and older have been convinced testosterone is the “missing link” to health and are discussing how to get it in menopause support groups when their regular GPs will not prescribe it other than for low libido.

Data from a small study by Monash University professor Susan Davis, an international menopause research leader, has been misrepresented by at least one high-profile UK clinic proprietor to help promote testosterone therapy, she said.

Davis and the university have also issued legal letters to an Australian supplier of menopause-symptom antidotes for using quotations from her that made it appear she endorsed their practice and use of compounded hormone therapy. The merchandiser’s page about its compounded hormone products has been suspended.

In Australia, testosterone treatment is only approved for women with Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), which causes low sex drive, but it is being supplied by some compounding pharmacists for unsubstantiated health and wellbeing benefits.

“Women are being told testosterone is an essential hormone [to supplement during menopause] and that it improves heart function, brain fog, and it prevents bone loss, and post-menopausal women should be asking their doctors for it because they might be missing out,” said Davis, who will recruit women for three large studies to collect accurate data on the powers of testosterone.

“They’re also telling us it improves energy, is good for fatigue and protects your muscles and is associated with reduced mortality for women ... but there is no evidence for any other benefit than HSDD. All these claims are being made on thin air.”

In the nine years since a high-profile campaign for testosterone as a menopausal cure-all began in the UK, prescriptions had increased tenfold, Davis said.

“Data isn’t available for Australia, but in my clinical practice, women are increasingly asking to have their testosterone level checked, and seeking testosterone to treat fatigue and brain fog.”

On Monday, the Australasian Menopause Society issued a statement warning that spurious claims about hormone therapy were being presented as expert opinion by some health professionals. That included using hormones to prevent heart disease and dementia or to improve general wellbeing.

Davis said blood testosterone levels do not change in women when menopause occurred naturally, and claims that “testosterone deficiency” could be detected in blood tests were false.

The effects of testosterone supplementation in women can include increased body hair growth, voice changes, balding and acne. Women prescribed it for sexual issues need to have their blood levels monitored carefully to ensure they stay within the female range.

“If you use compounded doses which are not TGA regulated, or male [testosterone] formulations on women, there is the potential for harm. Compounded formulations are being sold in Australia,” Davis said.

She warned high doses of oestrogen, combining hormone patches to achieve off-label levels, were also being given to women to treat midlife depression and could raise the risk of clots and thrombosis.

“Once you start prescribing doses of oestrogen and progesterone above those studied, you have to throw the safety data out the window,” Davis said. “We don’t know what high doses [of these hormones] to do your clotting factors, let alone your breasts.”

Sarah White, chief executive of the not-for-profit Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, said women were demanding better menopause support.

“This would be really positive if we didn’t have this hijacked by for-profit interests including high-profile clinicians elsewhere who are promoting testosterone as a wonder drug,” she said.

“There’s never been a time when we’ve had more ways of getting information, and more rubbish information.”

Misinformation has resulted in women asking Jean Hailes clinicians if they can prevent menopause using hormones and saying they should be on testosterone.

“There is a consumer push around, ‘you’re being denied if you’re not being given testosterone’ and yet there is no evidence to support the use of testosterone, and it is not a benign compound.”

The Australasian Menopause Society’s Dr Lina Safro said demand for better standards of women’s healthcare was positive, but testosterone had been politicised and some advocacy had “gone into overdrive and public opinion is being driven by influencers”.

Testosterone was “not the elixir of life, and neither is it snake oil”, she said.

Safro said she could understand the frustration of doctors whose patients were demanding it because of anecdotal recommendations and were upset that they could not get it.

Dr Anna Clare, a council member at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said oestrogen and progesterone in menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) can improve energy levels and the distribution of body fat, but there was no evidence testosterone could achieve this.

“When I start someone on MHT for menopause symptoms, when we see them again they tend to say their life has completely changed back to where they were … the response is pretty quick and convincing,” she said.

“When I start people on testosterone therapy [for libido issues] the response is vague. Most haven’t continued with it.”

Women’s fitness trainer Jacqui Toohey said promises of quick-fix treatments for energy or weight gain regularly take off on social media.

But she said influencers profiting from unproven claims testosterone provided broad health and cognition benefits were taking advantage of a challenging time for some women.

“It’s just another example of ‘big whoever’ trying to make money out of women when they feel at their most vulnerable; because they don’t feel good enough or are not living up to societal expectations in some way,” she said. “To stay youthful or a certain size.”

#feminist #australia #radblr #women's health #mythbusting

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australianwomensnews · 5 months ago

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The feeling of arms violently pushing *Samantha onto the couch is etched into her memory as if it was yesterday.

The 22-year-old was raped four years ago by a friend she confided in after a break-up. She repeatedly refused his propositions. He didn’t let her leave his house until she complied with his demands.

“It took me a long time to understand what happened to me was rape,” said Samantha, whose identity the Herald has protected.

“It has impacted every part of my life. I don’t trust people. I struggle to have healthy relationships. I am anxious and on edge all the time.”

Far more than a statistic, Samantha is, however, among the 22 per cent of women who have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. She is also among the 92 per cent who don’t report the violence to police for myriad reasons – hers being a fear of retraumatising herself in the unlikely prospect her offender is brought to justice.

Seven per cent of reports to police end in guilty verdicts

New figures released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) paint a troubling picture for sexual assault victims. They show the overwhelming majority of reports made to police never make it to court, and even fewer result in a guilty verdict.

BOSCAR tracked the progress of sexual assaults reported to police in 2018 through the criminal justice system.

Of 5869 sexual assault incidents reported to police, fewer than 15 per cent resulted in charges being laid, the study showed.

Fewer than half of the cases that did go to court resulted in a finding of guilt, leading to an overall conviction rate of about 7 per cent of all reports made to police.

Separate to the 2018 analysis, the report included raw data that found, over the four years to 2022, the number of reported sexual assault incidents skyrocketed from 5945 to 9138. However, police prosecutions for sexual crimes were generally stable over that period at about 1000 each year.

“Over the past decade there has been heightened public concern over the low conviction rate for sexual assault,” the report found.

“The low conviction rate … shows no sign of abating and may have become slightly worse in the past decade as sexual assault reports have dramatically increased.”

Figures show a monumental systemic failure: experts

Experts say the criminal justice system is failing sexual assault survivors.

Chief executive officer of the Women’s Legal Service NSW, Katrina Ironside, was not surprised by the BOSCAR findings.

“We know that people who are assaulted – and that usually means women – don’t report,” she said.

“And if they do, it may not be handled in a way that makes them feel like they’re safe or empowered. Indeed, the statistics tell us that it’s getting worse.”

While there had been a recent increase in awareness of sexual assault, Ironside said that had not led to a trauma-informed legal system that supports survivors and it “treats them as a criminal or a witness in their own matter”.

“Victim-survivors are still blamed for provoking perpetrators,” she said.

“You know the narrative – she was walking alone at night, she was wearing a short skirt, she had too much to drink. They continue to be made the villain.”

While many women didn’t want to come forward after seeing negative outcomes for those who do, Ironside said it was important they were not dissuaded from seeking support.

“We say, get legal advice, get counselling, support, and make informed decisions,” she said. “There are services out there.”

Samantha’s feelings about reporting her rape to police echoed Ironside’s concerns.

“I have heard from other people who’ve had similar experiences and they’ve tried to go to police and gotten nowhere,” she said.

“I knew it would be my word against his. I didn’t want to relive the trauma over and over again when I know it’s so hard to actually see these men punished.”

Chrystina Stanford is the chief executive officer of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, who previously worked in sexual assault services in NSW.

She said the reporting process for anyone affected by sexual violence was “brutal”, and the prospect of a court case lasting years did not help.

“Added to this is the ‘belief-disbelief’ dynamic inherent in sexual violence reports, which we see play out very publicly in the news and on social media,” she said.

Referring to the bleak reality that this situation is far from new, Stanford said, “five years ago we reported on this colossal system failure”.

“We owe survivors so much better.”

Police point to ‘significant changes’ to sexual assault investigations

A spokesperson for NSW Police said, since 2018, there had been significant improvements to the way sexual assaults were reported and investigated, including reviewing all practices and procedures.

They said that, in 2022, the force amended a compulsory course for any officer wishing to become a detective to ensure that it was trauma-informed and taught a victim-centric response. A dedicated Sexual Violence Portfolio Holder (SVPH) has been assigned to each police area command or district to oversee its sexual violence matters.

In 2023, the force introduced a process that ensures any sexual matter reported to police that does not proceed to charge was assessed by an experienced committee.

The Australian Law Reform is reviewing the justice response to sexual violence across the country, with a report due in 2025.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said acceptance of the complainant’s evidence beyond a reasonable doubt was essential to a conviction, because sexual offending often took place in private with no other witnesses or corroborative evidence.

“In the ordinary course of a sexual assault trial, the Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the complainant did not consent, and either that the accused knew they did not or was reckless as to whether they were consenting, or did not reasonably believe that the complainant was consenting,” they said.

“Jurors must therefore consider the state of mind of both the complainant and the accused at the time of the alleged assault.”

Charges may be withdrawn if there is a change in the evidence, or if a complainant no longer wishes to give evidence for reasons including stress and anxiety resulting from the legal process and a desire to avoid retraumatisation.

The spokesperson said that, while the decision to proceed with a sexual assault prosecution rested with the ODPP, significant weight was given to the views of the complainant.

In June 2022, new judicial directions were introduced for NSW jurors in an effort to “address common misconceptions about consent”.

They include not assuming a person consented to a sexual activity because of their clothing or appearance, they consumed alcohol or drugs, or they were in a particular location.

Another direction told jurors some survivors, when giving evidence, might show obvious signs of emotion or distress, but others may not.

*Samantha is a pseudonym

#feminism #auspol #australia #radblr #women's rights #sexual assault cw #sexual violence #misogyny in the law

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australianwomensnews · 5 months ago

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I’m staring at a freeze-frame of a bare-chested man behind the text “Why is menopause painful?” when a woman’s head pops up from the corner of the screen, wavy haired and bespectacled.

“You know what’s painful in menopause?” she says. “Having to listen to pontificating shirtless dudes who have no idea what the f--- they’re talking about.”

The woman is Dr Jen Gunter, a Canadian-born, US-based gynaecologist and author who earned the moniker “vagina antichrist” after her searing critique of Gwyneth Paltrow’s $250 million wellness empire Goop in 2017, which was selling vaginal jade eggs, espousing the benefits of vaginal steaming and claiming bras caused cancer.

Seven years later, women are being bombarded with bad intel about their own bodies with rapid-fire repetition on TikTok and Instagram that trades on fear, often before hawking a pricey, unproven, potentially hazardous solution, Gunter says.

“Misinformation is the most pressing problem for women’s health today,” Gunter says before a visit to Sydney for National Science Week, including a speaking event at UNSW on August 15.

“These algorithms are creepy smart, and they favour fear,” she said. “It’s not just the original video we’re dealing with, it’s the people who stitch [which allows users to combine a video with a new video they create], then those videos get views and shares and comments, which [is rewarded by] the algorithm,” she said.

“We mistake repetition for accuracy. It’s very human. And once you are exposed to misinformation it’s very hard to then accept valid information.”

Social media may provide a vehicle for medical untruths, but it’s also a salve.

Gunter has 355,000 followers on TikTok, 289,000 on Instagram and 360,000 on X, and she’s not the only medical professional on TikTok and Instagram (not to mention scientists and official health departments and peak healthcare organisations) debunking wellness myths and providing science-backed information. Most are less sweary.

The proliferation of misinformation is understandable. It is what fills the vacuum when accurate, accessible information about women’s health is scarce.

“We know many women don’t get the healthcare they need because they are dismissed and sent home with pain. They are let down by the healthcare system, and that’s when predators or the wellness industry swoop in,” Gunter said.

Her targets include naturopaths, chiropractors, lifestyle coaches, and influencers who espouse unfounded and erroneous “health advice”.

An Instagram post that recently drew her ire was by a “body connection coach” with more than 13,000 followers who said she avoided cervical cancer screening, colonoscopies and mammograms before advertising her course for $750.

Gunter also responded to a TikTok (which had more than 677,000 likes) in which a woman recommended putting boric acid into one’s vagina to “be perfect down there”. Boric acid kills good bacteria as well as bad and is very irritating to the vaginal mucosa, Gunter told her followers.

The “worst myth” for Gunter, is the “hormone imbalance” trend, which co-opts hormonal health: the changes in hormones that influence the reproductive cycle, menstruation, puberty and menopause.

Proponents claim rebalancing hormones is responsible for an expanding array of ailments including gut problems and autoimmune diseases that can be treated with detoxes, ceasing hormonal contraception and hormone health courses.

“It’s a nonsensical thing, just a made-up term that people can turn it into whatever they want to suit their purposes,” she said.

Her approach has brought her admirers and vocal critics.

“I certainly get attacked a lot by other women,” she said. “I just want you to have the power that comes with knowledge about how your body works. You can do with it what you want.”

She recalls a patient whose husband had read online that contraceptive pills irrevocably damaged fertility.

“They were having a little trouble getting pregnant the second time, and she was literally sobbing on the floor thinking she had damaged her fertility by taking birth control pills. That is cruel,” Gunter said.

“When I started tackling misinformation online I thought I’d have this fixed in a few years, then I won’t have to have these conversations in the office any more. I was so naive.”

The spread of misinformation has been recognised by social media companies. Both TikTok and Meta employ mechanisms aimed at curbing its spread.

A spokesperson for Meta (which owns Instagram) said, “Meta is committed to stopping the spread of misinformation. We use a combination of enforcement technology, human review and independent fact-checkers to identify, review and take action on this type of content.”

In a statement, a spokesman for TikTok said, “Our Community Guidelines prohibit misinformation, including medical misinformation, that may cause significant harm to people, and we remove millions of pieces of content in Australia each year.”

#feminism #australia #radblr #medical misogyny #good news #women's health

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australianwomensnews · 6 months ago

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Federal police have charged a Sydney man with trafficking a teenager to work in NSW brothels while officers in Indonesia arrested a woman who enlisted vulnerable young women from the slums and villages of Indonesia.

Authorities say they have already identified 20 brothels and numerous women across Sydney and the Central Coast who could be linked to the syndicate’s sexual servitude.

The Australian Border Force in December 2022 allegedly uncovered a cohort of women who appeared to have been brought to Australia on tourist visas only to end up working in brothels under dire conditions.

They called in the Australian Federal Police who say they found evidence multiple women had been brought in from Indonesia by a crime syndicate.

Investigators allege they found women who were having their first month of pay withheld, were not allowed to decide how many clients they saw each day.

Search warrants followed in March, including on a large double-brick home in Banksia where women were found sleeping three to a single room, often on the floor, which had allegedly been rented to house them between brothel shifts.

Police also raided the home of an unassuming Indonesian-born Australian citizen, Surya Subekti, in Arncliffe.

Investigators will allege Subekti was the “on-shore facilitator” of a crime syndicate. The 43-year-old would allegedly travel to Jakarta to meet with young women in hotel rooms.

There, police claim, he would organise their entry into Australia on tourism visas. But they would allegedly find themselves working long shifts in brothels across Sydney and the Central Coast.

The AFP passed information to the Indonesian National Police to trace how the women had ended up in the syndicate’s grasp.

Indonesian authorities quickly arrested a woman in Jakarta. They will allege she would recruit desperate young women from the rural and urban areas of Indonesia who needed money.

Subekti was arrested on July 10 after one of the women spoke up, telling investigators she had been recruited by the alleged syndicate when she was just 17.

He became the first person in NSW to be charged with trafficking in children by organising for a person under 18 to enter Australia to work in a brothel. The charge is only the third of its kind in Australia.

The charge is so rare because it relies on vulnerable young women, who have arrived in Australia illegally and endured sexual servitude, to make formal statements to police.

Police worked for months to convince the young woman to speak up, and they have not ruled out further charges if other victims come forward.

“Human trafficking investigators work tirelessly to help victims struggling through atrocious situations and to ensure they are removed from harmful situations, and their alleged abusers face the full extent of the law in Australia,” AFP Commander Kate Ferry said on Tuesday.

“We understand it can be incredibly difficult for vulnerable victims to come forward, and we want to assure them that there is help and protection available.”

Another woman was also identified during the investigation, accused of falsifying records at an education institution.

She was allegedly paid to produce the false records so the alleged syndicate could keep the women in Sydney on longer-term student visas, sources with knowledge of the AFP investigation say.

The woman is currently being held in Villawood immigration detention centre. She was not charged.

“We are dedicated to identifying criminals who seek to exploit our visa programs and visa holders who are victims of trafficking or modern slavery practices within the sex industry,” ABF Acting Superintendent Mark Jenkins said on Tuesday.

#feminism #australia #radblr #anti sex industry #radical feminist #sexual abuse cw #how are brothels legal in Australia???#they are pure evil

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australianwomensnews · 6 months ago

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Something positive for us 💖

#good news #technology #digital sexual abuse

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australianwomensnews · 6 months ago

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Drunk men are among the biggest dangers to women in Sydney.

Of the 230,217 domestic assaults involving female victims in NSW over the past decade, one in three of those involved alcohol.

Some of Sydney’s most exclusive harbourside enclaves – including North Sydney, Mosman, the Northern Beaches and Woollahra – saw an even higher percentage of DV assaults involving booze, according to data compiled by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and obtained by the Herald.

A horror year of high-profile domestic violence deaths, including that of three children allegedly killed by their father in a Western Sydney house fire, and Forbes woman Molly Ticehurst allegedly murdered by her ex-partner while he was on bail for attacking her previously, has firmly planted the issue on the political agenda and in the public conscience.

Go to the link above to access the interactive maps

The Herald has built an interactive map, pinpointing alcohol-related domestic violence incidents across the state’s local government areas over the past decade. The numbers do not refer to alcohol-related domestic violence convictions, but entries into the NSW Police database.

The data shows the North Sydney Local Government Area recorded the highest proportion of domestic violence assaults involving alcohol in Sydney – a staggering 45 per cent over the 10-year period to March 2024. It was closely followed by two other affluent LGAs – the Northern Beaches, with 42 per cent of DV assaults involving booze, and 40 per cent in Woollahra.

Domestic violence incidents in Mosman involved alcohol 38 per cent of the time, while in the Sydney CBD that figure was 39 per cent.

“In other areas, there is more domestic violence, but it’s occurring not in an alcohol setting,” BOCSAR’s Jackie Fitzgerald told the Herald. “[Wealthy Sydney suburbs] are more likely to involve alcohol than in other areas.”

More than half of all domestic violence incidents in six regional areas of NSW – Central Darling, Brewarrina, Balranald, Gwydir, Walgett Carrathool – were linked to alcohol.

“The rates are a lot higher, it’s happening with much more prevalence, just not with that particular alcohol-related trigger,” Fitzgerald said.

The NSW government is working to understand exactly why alcohol dredges up such deep-seated violence among some men, particularly in the more affluent areas of Sydney.

Read the full article at the link above

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

#australia #women's rights #radblr #domestic violence #male violence #mvaw

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australianwomensnews · 6 months ago

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Medical research has a major problem: an alarmingly high number of trials are based on fake, fraudulent or misinterpreted data.

Research misconduct sleuths call them “zombie” studies. They look like real research papers but they’re rotten to the core. And when these studies go on to influence clinical guidelines, that is, how patients are treated in hospitals and doctors’ rooms, they can be dangerous.

Professor Ben Mol, head of the Evidence-based Women’s Health Care Research Group at Monash University, is a professional zombie hunter. For years, he has warned that between 20 and 30 per cent of medical trials that inform clinical guidelines aren’t trustworthy.

“I’m surprised by the limited response from people in my field on this issue,” he says. “It’s a topic people don’t want to talk about.”

The peer review process is designed to ensure the validity and quality of findings, but it’s built on the assumption that data is legitimate.

Science relies on an honour system whereby researchers trust that colleagues have actually carried out the trials they describe in papers, and that the resulting data was collected with rigorous attention to detail.

But too often, once findings are queried, researchers can’t defend their conclusions. Figures such as former BMJ editor Richard Smith and Anaesthesia editor John Carlise argue it’s time to assume all papers are flawed or fraudulent until proven otherwise. The trust has run out.

“I think we have been naive for many years on this,” Mol says. “We are the Olympic Games without any doping checks.”

How bad science gets into the clinic

Untrustworthy papers may be the result of scientists misinterpreting their data or deliberately faking or plagiarising their numbers. Many of these “zombie” papers emerge from Egypt, Iran, India and China and usually crop up in lower-quality journals.

The problem gets bad when these poor-quality papers are laundered by systematic reviews or meta-analyses in prestigious journals. These studies aggregate hundreds of papers to produce gold-standard scientific evidence for whether a particular treatment works.

Often papers with dodgy data are excluded from systematic reviews. But many slip through and go on to inform clinical guidelines.

My colleague Liam Mannix has written about an example of this with the hormone progesterone. Official guidelines held that the hormone could reduce the risk of pre-term birth in women with a shortened cervix.

But those guidelines were based on a meta-analysis largely informed by a paper from Egypt that was eventually retracted due to concerns about the underlying data. When this paper was struck from the meta-analysis, the results reversed to suggest progesterone had no preventative effect.

There’s a litany of other examples where discounting dodgy data can fundamentally alter the evidence that shapes clinical guidelines. That’s why, in The Lancet’s clinical journal eClinical Medicine, Mol and his colleagues have reported a new way to weed out bad science before it makes it to the clinic.

Holding back the horde

The new tool is called the Research Integrity in Guidelines and evIDence synthesis (RIGID) framework. It mightn’t sound sexy, but it’s like a barbed-wire fence that can hold back the zombie horde.

The world-first framework lays out a series of steps researchers can take when conducting a meta analysis or writing medical guidelines to exclude dodgy data and untrustworthy findings. It involves two researchers screening articles for red flags.

“You can look at biologically implausible findings like very high success rates of treatments, very big differences between treatments, unfeasible birth weights. You can look at statistical errors,” says Mol.

“You can look at strange features in the data, only using rounded numbers, only using even numbers. There are studies where out of dozens of pairs of numbers, everything is even. That doesn’t happen by chance.”

A panel decides if a paper has a medium to high risk of being untrustworthy. If that’s the case, the RIGID reviewers put their concerns to the paper’s authors. They’re often met with stony silence. If authors cannot address the concerns or provide their raw data, the paper is scrapped from informing guidelines.

The RIGID framework has already been put to use, and the results are shocking.

In 2023, researchers applied RIGID to the International Evidence-based Guidelines for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a long misunderstood and misdiagnosed syndrome that affects more than 1 in 10 women. As a much maligned condition, it was critical the guidelines were based on the best possible evidence.

In that case, RIGID discounted 45 per cent of papers used to inform the health guidelines.

That’s a shockingly high number. Those potentially untrustworthy papers might have completely skewed the guidelines.

Imagine, Mol says, if it emerged that almost half of the maintenance reports of a major airline were faked? No one would be sitting around waiting for a plane to crash. There would be swift action and the leadership of the airline sacked.

#australia #women's health #medical misogyny #radblr #this feels particularly important with the huge gender data gap in medicine and the cass review's findings of bad research in the UK

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australianwomensnews · 7 months ago

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A self-proclaimed “humanist venture capitalist” from Sydney’s north has been charged with dozens of rapes and sex crimes against 10 women after he allegedly paid for sex acts using bad cheques.

The case, which can only be revealed after this masthead won a legal bid over court officials who had blocked the release of public documents, will be a major test of “new territory” in NSW consent laws.

Court documents allege Mark Sarian, 35, sexually abused the women at Mascot, Rose Bay and in central Sydney between February and June.

Sarian allegedly organised to have sex with the women, sometimes two at a time and sometimes asking them to urinate on him, before giving them the worthless cheques.

“The fraud done by [Sarian] is well-thought-out but somewhat simple,” a police prosecutor said in Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.

Sarian would allegedly pay using cheques drawn from a closed bank account. The cheques would initially appear valid but later bounced, police claim.

“There is CCTV of multiple locations, including ATMs, where the alleged fraudulent actions took place,” the prosecutor told the court.

“There are mobile phone communications with the complainants in [Sarian’s] name and photographs of himself sent to the complainants.”

Sarian often posts online about his consultancy business, Babylon, and describes himself as a “bon vivant”, “humanist at heart”, and “empath” who has explored the rural villages of Asia.

The NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad set up Strike Force Angla in May, and the businessman was arrested on June 14.

Angla’s investigator, Detective Amy O’Neill, charged Sarian with 32 counts of sexual intercourse without consent, three counts of carrying out a sexual act without consent and two counts of sexual touching without consent.

The number of alleged victims and charges would make Sarian one of the most prolific rapists in Sydney if the charges are proven at trial – but legal minds are watching closely because the case will be a major test of new consent laws.

Those laws were introduced in NSW two years ago following the advocacy of Saxon Mullins.

‘New territory’

One of the lesser-known changes, “fraudulent inducement”, protects sex workers from clients who deceitfully promise money but then hand over an empty envelope or a dud cheque.

Sarian appeared via videolink at Downing Centre, where his barrister, Brad Williams, asked the court to grant bail.

“There’s not been a case like this in NSW, we are venturing into new territory,” Williams said.

Magistrate Daniel Covington said he had never seen a matter like it.

“If [this new law] did not exist, the prosecution case would be problematic, to say the least, but the presence of that law clearly affects and increases the strength of the case,” Covington said.

“It will come down to that inducement and the link to consent.”

“I can’t say it’s a weak case.”

Since his arrest, Sarian has been held on remand in prison and has not entered a plea.

His heavily pregnant wife watched from the public gallery. The family had offered up $50,000 for him to be released on bail.

Williams told the court that Sarian’s mother was battling cancer, and he was unable to provide for his family while behind bars.

A lawyer for this masthead also appeared in court on Wednesday to argue for the release of Sarian’s charging documents.

The Downing Centre Local Court registrar had blocked the release of the documents last week because they contained details of serious sexual offences.

It is illegal to publish the names and identities of alleged victims of sexual crimes, and journalists can be prosecuted for breaching the law.

It is not illegal to release court documents to journalists, though the Downing Centre has a longstanding policy of refusing to release them.

But, as Covington noted, it is “consistent with open justice” for journalists to view court documents, and it’s neither unusual nor controversial for them to be released.

“The media wish to accurately publish details in relation to the matter, and their accuracy involves them looking at the documents,” he said.

‘Significant public interest’

This masthead’s executive counsel, Larina Alick, told the court that Sarian’s case held significant public interest and that the registrar had made an error in refusing to release documents.

“The Sarian proceedings involve several issues of public interest: the lived experiences of sex workers and how they are treated by their clients; how allegations of sexual offences are addressed by police, prosecutors and the judicial system; and exposing a wide variety of public preconceptions and misconceptions about sex work,” Alick said in a written submission.

Covington released the documents but refused Sarian’s release on bail, saying he could not ignore the number of complainants and charges.

The case will return in August.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

#auspol #feminist #australia #women's rights #radblr #sexual assault cw #sexual violence

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australianwomensnews · 7 months ago

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Evidence of a powerful link between smartphones, social media and depression, anxiety and self-harm among teenagers, especially girls, is growing, with new Australian research naming 2012 as the year that ushered in a mental health crisis.

The study of longitudinal data found there is a strong correlation between when an individual was born, how old they were when Instagram and Snapchat came into their lives, and self-reported mental health distress and social isolation.

“Young women born since the late 1990s report much lower levels of mental health than earlier generations and compared to their male counterparts,” the analysis from independent think tank e61 says.

“This generation has lived their teenage years when photo- and video-sharing social media platforms became popular in Australia.

“We also find that lower mental health is highly correlated to self-reported feelings of social isolation as measured through friendship connections.”

The analysis was submitted as evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into mental health and social media and whether age limits should be imposed on young people being able to access such platforms, among other things.

The analysis shows that self-reported scores on young women’s mental health declined from 73 per cent to 62 per cent between 2011 and 2022, while for young men it fell from 74.5 per cent to 67.5 per cent.

“Youth mental health was stable but then began falling sharply after 2012,” said Gianni La Cava, e61 research director.

Women aged 15 to 24 are the heaviest users of social media. Nearly 90 per cent of them use social media every day, or most days, compared with 62 per cent of women aged over 25.

There has also been a corresponding decline in friendships and feelings of isolation.

The e61 analysis notes some experts argue that social media can be a source of good for some young people, and mental health responses are individualised.

It also notes that there have been vast reductions in the stigmatisation of mental health issues among young people, which means that more may be comfortable in reporting it.

However, e61 says this “would not explain a sudden drop since the 2010s”.

In South Australia, former High Court judge Robert French was tasked in May with examining the legal consequences of banning children under the age of 14 from having social media accounts. The model would also require teenagers aged 14 and 15 have parental consent to access social media platforms.

In March, the US state of Florida legislated to ban social media accounts for children under 14, while Texas has legislated to require parental consent before allowing a user under the age of 18 to open an account. Spain also bans children under 14 from accessing a social network.

A growing body of evidence is linking social media and mental health. A survey by mental health service ReachOut this year found that 60 per cent of parents said they were concerned about their child’s use of social media and 55 per cent agreed that social media had a significant impact on their child’s wellbeing.

A US study found that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes.

Support services:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800

#feminism #radblr #australia #technology #mental health #women's mental health

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australianwomensnews · 7 months ago

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Sexual strangulation has become so popular that more than half of Australian young people have used it for pleasure, though it can cause lasting brain damage in seconds and death within minutes.

Known as sexual “choking”, the practice has taken off because it is mainstreamed in contemporary pornography, researchers say, but new national data shows it is so widespread that 57 per cent of those aged 18 to 35 have been strangled during sex at least once.

More than half (51 per cent) had strangled a partner during sex, found a study of 4702 young people around Australia by the University of Melbourne Law School and the University of Queensland.

Close to one-third of those who had been strangled by a sexual partner were aged between 19 and 21 when it first happened. Respondents who had been strangled had it done an average of five times, by three partners, found the research, published on Tuesday in Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Police, physicians and the researchers, led by Professor Heather Douglas, say there is no safe way to use strangulation or choking during sex. They say understanding of the dangers is so lacking that even those who consent to it are not aware of the grave risks to their brain health and life.

Douglas said brain injury from repeated strangulation could build up, like the impact of concussion among sportspeople. Symptoms, including stroke, could occur up to many months later.

Strangulation in sex is the second most common cause of stroke in women under 40, UK research suggests.

“It [sexual strangulation] is happening incredibly frequently, people are doing it regularly … and half the people are doing it at least several times,” said Douglas, who has been researching non-lethal strangulation for several years.

“Brain injury accumulates – the more times you are strangled, the greater the impact on the brain. I suspect there are probably a lot of young people with impacts on their brain as a result of this behaviour and that’s incredibly concerning.”

Blood clots, “thyroid storm” – increased heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature that could be fatal – and miscarriage might happen in the weeks or months after strangulation, Douglas said.

Pressure on young women not to be vanilla in their sexual practice was contributing to the uptick in the popularity of choking, the experts said, though many young women in the new research were comfortable giving consent.

Women’s safety experts have long warned that strangulation is an indicator of potential future homicide. Consent advocate Chanel Contos has been warning since 2022 that choking, though never safe, has been normalised from kink to “not out of the ordinary” in her age group.

Forensic physician Dr Jo Parkin said sexual strangulation was exceptionally dangerous, and sexual choking memes were being promoted in social media hashtags.

“In terms of what [young people are] seeing, it’s not just the hands around the neck; it can be a ligature, clothing, it can be rope or just a forearm across the neck,” said Parkin.

“It can be legs used in what is being promoted as a playful hold, but it isn’t. There is no safe level of neck compression in a community setting.”

She said it was not possible to give informed consent because people did not understand the risks “which are in seconds a loss of consciousness and minutes to death”.

“They don’t understand the anatomy of the neck and the risk of compression of the vital structures,” Parkin said. “Within seconds, once you’ve lost consciousness, you can have seizures, and ongoing compression leads to death.”

There have been documented cases where serious impacts to the brain from sexual strangulation have not appeared until one year after the incident. But in 40 to 50 per cent of cases that Parkin and her colleagues examine at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, there are no external symptoms or signs of it at the time.

Jackie McMillan, senior project officer at Women’s Health NSW, said it was important for those using choking to understand you could acquire a brain injury without losing consciousness, and other symptoms were an indication urgent medical help should be sought.

“More serious choking involves loss of consciousness and sometimes urination and sometimes defecation; so if you engage in sexual choking and one of these things happens, you definitely need to seek medical advice,” she said.

Violence-prevention educator Maree Crabbe said as well as pornography influencers, mainstream TV was showing sexual strangulation as “a relatively normal part of the sexual script”.

Young people she had interviewed for a forthcoming campaign around sexual strangulation, Breathless, said they believed it could be done safely.

“People from different places, cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic groups all talked about strangulation being normal; our team was shocked,” she said.

“What was really concerning was the way it was framed as about being adventurous … and if they express lack of enthusiasm, or resistance, to engaging in strangulation or other rough sex, they are seen as vanilla and that’s shameful.”

Crabbe said the fact porn was promoting consent of very dangerous practices “raises questions about having multibillion-dollar industries shaping our sexual experience in ways that put other people’s lives at risk”.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said if someone consented to sex, it did not mean they consented to other acts, and that non-consensual strangulation during sex was assault.

“There needs to be clear and affirmed consent before and during the act. We want to make it clear that there is no safe way to strangle someone.”

#auspol #women's rights #radical feminism #radblr #sexual violence #sexual abuse

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australianwomensnews · 7 months ago

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Inmates convicted of domestic violence tracking their former partners from inside prison. A suspected child trafficker purchasing 11 magnetic surveillance devices. An elderly couple whose relationship deterioration started in tracking and ended in murder-suicide.

These are all examples of what the NSW Crime Commission says is an escalating problem – criminals using trackers to keep tabs on their victims.

Surveillance devices, including GPS trackers that can attach to a car, mobile phone spyware and bluetooth tracking devices like Air Tags, are increasingly being used in both domestic violence and organised crime, says a report from the Crime Commission released on Tuesday.

“It’s scary. We knew devices were being used in crime, particularly organised crime, but didn’t know how widely,” NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes told the Herald.

The Commission was initially investigating the use of surveillance in organised crime, like in the execution of drug kingpin Alen Moradian, but came to realise they “had to include domestic violence”, said Barnes.

Asked about the crossover between organised crime and domestic violence, he said: “I think it’s the type of people. They are macho and violent, very possessive, their ego is out of control, it’s not surprising they are unrealistically possessive and controlling.

“To do that sort of work you have to be involved in violence, and have a command and control approach.”

The Commission analysed 5663 purchases of tracking devices, with alarming findings. One in four purchasers had a history of domestic violence, 15 per cent of purchasers had a history in serious or organised crime, and 126 were subject to apprehended violence orders at the time of purchase.

One in three offenders charged under the Surveillance Devices Act with unlawfully using tracking devices were also associated with organised crime networks, the report said.

Such was the commission’s alarm that it referred 391 of those purchasers to NSW Police for investigation. NSW Police were contacted for comment.

One man – with no criminal convictions but suspected to be involved in the trafficking and sexual abuse of children – purchased 11 magnetic trackers in the past year.

In another instance, an elderly man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, used a GPS tracker from a car shop to stalk his wife of 25 years before murdering her. “The tracking appeared to form part of a series of behaviours that the offender used to prevent the victim from leaving the relationship,” said the report.

In another example, two men, both in prison for domestic violence offences, continue to undertake surveillance on their partners from inside.

“It’s extraordinary,” said Barnes.

Barnes said the Find My iPhone app can alert people who suspect they are being surveilled.

“It gives you an alert if you are in close vicinity and moving with an AirTag that isn’t on your device.”

The Crime Commission has made a number of recommendations to government to reduce access to tracking devices. These include amending legislation to explicitly prohibit accessing tracking devices in AVO proceedings and regulating the sale of surveillance devices through licensing, recording device identifiers and customer particulars, and mandatory reporting of suspicious transactions.

A spokesperson for Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the government “will consider the findings and respond in due course”.

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

#auspol #feminism #radblr #domestic violence #stalking #abuse #tech based misogyny

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australianwomensnews · 7 months ago

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Andrew Thomas Hayler, 38, pleaded guilty to 28 counts of using a carriage service to cause offence [creating deepfakes] involving 26 women between July 2020 and August 2022, including his close friends, former housemates, colleagues, his best friend's sister and family members. In many instances, Hayler took photographs of his victims from social media accounts and superimposed their faces onto sexually explicit images, which he then uploaded to an Instagram account and pornography website with more than 300,000 members. These were sometimes accompanied by graphic rape fantasies and descriptions of physical violence. In captions accompanying a photograph of a woman who described Hayler as a "close friend", he described a sexually explicit rape fantasy to be enacted over the "dumb slut". In some cases, Hayler also published identifying details including the women's full names, occupations, the suburbs they lived in and links to their social media profiles. At times he invited other users to publish comments detailing the ways in which they would like to assault the women. In September 2020, he posted on Instagram a photograph of a family member and another woman with a caption asking users to choose one for a derogatory sexual act. A photograph of another family member and three others in school uniforms were accompanied by the words: "It is up to us to turn them into our sluts, we need to force them to..." Hayler sometimes used multiple accounts to reply to his own posts, creating the illusion of social engagement. As he walked into the Downing Centre District Court on Thursday morning, the ABC asked Hayler how he felt about what he had done. "I'm really, really sorry," he replied. "It was a dark part of my psychology that came out and manifested." Although Hayler was not formally sentenced, Judge Jane Culver indicated that she planned on imposing a term of imprisonment. Hayler's defence lawyer told the court her client had "said his goodbyes" and wished to begin his custodial sentence immediately. ... After listening to the victim impact statements, Hayler took the stand and apologised for his offending. "I have really done a terrible thing and I am so very sorry to them, their families, friends and work colleagues," he told the court. "It's bigger than myself and them, it's affected the community. "I was living in this weird messed-up fantasy not thinking about the consequences of my actions." Hayler agreed that he chose "strong women" whom he found sexually attractive. He said the activity had been an "outlet for part of [his] psyche [he] didn't want to bring out in public".

He's not sorry that he did it; he's only sorry that he got caught.

#digital sexual abuse #deepfakes #this man is deeply evil

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australianwomensnews · 8 months ago

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Australia’s online safety regulator has accused Apple and Google of financial motives in deciding not to remove Reddit and Elon Musk’s X from their app stores for hosting pornography in violation of their own policies.

Research cited in the eSafety commissioner’s online roadmap for age verification technology for adult sites last year reported that 41% of teens aged between 16 and 18 reported seeing pornography on X – more than the 37% who viewed pornography on dedicated adult sites.

“There’s a huge disincentive right now for the app stores to actually follow their own [policies],” she said.

“They collect a 30% tithe from every transaction that happens on a social media site … Think about the force multiplier of deplatforming an app and what that would mean to their revenue.”

Google Play charges a 15% fee for the first US$1m earned by developers each year, increasing to 30% above that. Developers making Apple apps pay 15% if the revenue generated the previous year is lower than $1m, or 30% if they earn more than that.

Guardian Australia has sought comment from Apple, Google, X and Reddit. X and Reddit are free apps in both stores, but users can pay for a subscription or premium service through the apps which would attract the app store fees.

Under Apple’s developer guidelines, apps with user-generated, primarily pornographic content may be removed, but apps with user-generated adult content hidden by default may still be displayed. Both X and Reddit hide adult content by default.

Despite campaigns calling for age assurance technology trials to include social media for people under 16, the $6.5m trial of the technology announced in May’s budget by the federal government is unlikely to initially include social media sites, the Senate committee heard, with the initial focus to be on adult websites.

Bridget Gannon, the first assistant secretary for the online safety branch in the communications department, said the initial focus would be on online pornography and the effectiveness of technology to prevent people under 18 from accessing it.

There would be more consultation on what to do regarding social media, she said.

“There’s wide agreement there should be age limits on social media [but] there are different views on what that age should be … we’ll be doing some consultation and research to really nail down what that age should be, and then trial the available technologies to assess their effectiveness,” she said.

Gannon said the trial would examine different technologies, how to manage other issues such as privacy and security, and whether the intervention should be at the internet service provider level or the social media companies, or other type of services.

Gannon noted that in recent years there was an increasing reluctance for people to hand over identity information to companies, meaning they might seek to bypass any age assurance tech that uses ID.

“We will be working closely with industry as a whole but they won’t be undertaking the trial – we will be,” she said.

But the social media companies would be required to assure user ages, under codes developed under the Online Safety Act in parallel with the trial, Gannon said.

There is no date set on when the trial would end, but Gannon noted the trial was funded just for the 2024-2025 financial year. There was a risk if the technology was rushed out that it wouldn’t work, she said.

“There’s a risk that families and parents and carers have a false sense of security about the technologies that they have in place that they may place undue trust in a system thinking their children are being kept safe when actually their children can bypass it quite easily or it just doesn’t work.”

#auspol #feminism #australia #tech based misogyny #radblr

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