King's Parenting Seminar with Melinda Tankard-Reist

King's Christian College is passionate about seeing young people thrive as we partner with our College families throughout the learning journey. One of the ways we do this is by equipping parents with tools to help them navigate the challenges of raising children in today's culture. King's free Parenting Seminars invite renowned experts to share their research, knowledge and proven strategies, as well as answer questions from our parents.

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We are very pleased to welcome our King's parents to the next Parenting Seminar with guest speakers Melinda Tankard-Reist, and co-host Daniel Principe.

Melinda Tankard-Reist is a well-known speaker, author and advisor on issues relating to helping our young people navigate a sexualised world. She will share more about how we help our children resist harmful messages from media and pop culture, and aspire to have respectful relationships.

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Have you noticed that your young person seems to be growing up too fast? That they are worried about their appearance and more aware of sexual issues at earlier stages? Children and young people are bombarded with hypersexualised messages from media and popular culture. Even small children are worried about their looks and physical appearance, shaped and conditioned at the earliest of ages by a dominant message that tells them they have to be ‘hot’ to be liked and accepted. The lives of young people are increasingly socialised, conditioned and informed by exposure to porn-related content online. They are exposed to this content not only before they have had sex, but often before their first kiss, with average age of first exposure 11. Exposed to a pornified landscape, young people are ‘acting out’ through social media and sexting, putting their bodies on display for attention and judgement.

Drawing from current global literature on the subject, as well as the experiences of working with young people themselves, Melinda will explore with us how the proliferation of sexualised images and messages contributes to a distorted view of bodies, relationships and sexuality in young people, hampering their healthy physical emotional and social development.

How can we address this toxic culture and raise happy, healthy and resilient young people who value their dignity and self-worth and aspire to relationships based on respect and authentic connection?

Melinda will provide practical tips and resources to help us achieve this. Daniel will also contribute to the parent's session on his work with young men especially.

The Presentation will run from 7pm - 8.30pm, with complimentary coffee available from 6.20pm.

PRESENTER'S BIO:

Melinda Tankard Reist (www.melindatankardreist.com) is an author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for young people. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women. Melinda is author/editor of seven books including Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009), Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Spinifex Press, 2011, co-edited with Dr Abigail Bray), Prostitution Narratives: Stories of survival in the sex trade (Spinifex Press, co-edited with Dr Caroline Norma) and her latest release ‘He Chose Porn Over Me’ Women Harmed By Men Who Use Porn (Spinifex Press, 2022). An opinion writer, Melinda has appeared on ABC’s Q&A and The Gruen Sessions as well as many other TV and radio programs. Melinda is co-founder and Movement Director of the grassroots campaigning movement, Collective Shout: for a world free of s*xploitation, exposing corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and se*ualise girls to sell products and services. An Ambassador for World Vision Australia, Compassion Australia, HagarNZ and the youth mentoring body the Raise Foundation, Melinda is also Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Culture and Ethics, Notre Dame University, Sydney. Melinda is named in the Who’s Who of Australian Women and the World Who’s Who of Women.