Never judge a video by its cover

– Kath Gannaway
A WARBURTON father has called for second-hand videos to be screened before being sold after his 6-year-old son bought a pornographic video from a shop in Warburton.
Norman Kerr said his son paid $2 for what purported on the cover to be a G-rated Captain America film.
“My son put the video on, took one look and said ‘dad, this is yuk’, and I agreed with him,” Mr Kerr said.
“I turned around and I was just staggered.”
Mr Kerr said his son picked the video out of a shopping trolley full of videos on sale at What Knots antique and second-hand shop.
“I’m no prude, but when my son gets something like that, so filthy and explicit, it’s just not on,” Mr Kerr said.
He said the video had nothing on it to identify what it was and he believed anyone selling second-hand videos or DVDs should be required to screen them.
“I think the owners of the shop should check every one of them so they know what is on the cover is what’s actually on the video,” he said.
He had handed the video to Warburton police and requested they check there were no more on sale.
The owner of What Knots, Charmaine Owens, told the Mail she was shocked and very distressed to be contacted by the police, particularly as it was the first she had heard of the problem.
“Obviously I had no idea. I would never put an X-rated video out for sale,” she said.
Mrs Owens said she did not check videos that came into the shop in various ways, often with boxes of books and other bits and pieces.
“I went through the videos but I don’t sell them for a lot of money and I would need to check every one. It’s just not worth it,” she said.
After initially opting to put up a sign advising that videos have not been vetted, Mrs Owens said last week she has now withdrawn all videos from sale.