Violence against women and online harms
Deputy Bacik marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, welcomed progress on coercive control and Cuan, and highlighted the need for more refuges and legislative change, including concerns raised at the weekend. The Minister agreed, stressing shared responsibility, education, and concern about pornography and products sold by companies such as Shein.
Today, we mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. We need to commend the bravery of all those women who have come forward and who have made changes and advocated for change, from Lavinia Kerwick to Natasha O'Brien and so many more. I acknowledge the progress that has been made on the introduction of Coco's law, the offence of coercive control and Cuan, the new agency, but I also recognise how much more there is to do in terms of lack of refuges and more legislative change.
I want to speak about something that came out at the weekend. We are all conscious that we cannot have zero tolerance of violence against women while we are normalising attitudes that facilitate or tolerate sexist abuse. We saw the Shein website advertising childlike sex dolls online. In France today, the French Government is moving in court to suspend the Shein website - this online shopping platform's website - because of the sale and advertisement of these awful objects that are perpetuating this sexist attitude towards women and perpetuating a culture where we cannot have the zero tolerance we all want to achieve.
Comment on this
I agree with the Deputy. I mentioned in my opening remarks earlier on during Leaders' Questions that all us share responsibility in this House but also outside the House, and that includes corporate bodies and our education system. Our teachers and our other educators are doing a lot of work in this regard from a very young age, particularly in relation to boys' and young men's attitudes towards sex, pornography and the normalisation of pornography. Certainly, the ability of companies such as Shein to sell these types of product is of concern. I know it is of concern to the Minister as well. I have noted that other countries have taken steps to ban this, too.
It has to be a zero-tolerance approach. Now it is about continuing on that path of the progress that has been made. I listened to Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. We must make sure that the voices of the survivors and the victims are the most critical in this regard. Given their horrific experiences and the bravery that they have shown, it behoves us to do everything we can.