Who's distressing the kids?
I was not a little amused by B.K. Cottle's Sept. 25 letter, "Dangers lurk at local park." By way of illustrating the dangers at Japanese parks, particularly for children, he states that "there are several love hotels" near his local park.
So? Are kids likely to find this disturbing? Not only that, but "Prostitutes wait for customers then escort them through the park to their hotel of choice." Again, so what? How does this affect kids? Could they care two hoots?
Furthermore, we are told that the said park is "awash with single men . . . who go there to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, read pornographic material and take pictures." From my long association with Japan, I know there are, unfortunately, people smoking everywhere, but what they drink is their own business, as is their reading material -- so I must take Cottle's word for its being "pornographic."
But can "pictures of mothers changing the wet clothes of their kids" and those "looking up little girls' skirts on the swings" be described as "indecent?" Maybe the people who take them are rather sad, but surely nothing more. And yet, again, do these activities distress the children concerned -- as opposed to exercising certain adults?
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