Tuesday 19 March 2019

UK Porn Ban

There are some things I am very good at and some things I am very bad at. One of the things I seem to be very bad at is the basic computer control system, the keyboard and mouse. I often mistakenly type the wrong words into internet search engines and so accidentally and completely inadvertently find myself visiting a website providing pornography. Obviously whenever this happens I immediately reach for the close page button, but my ineptitude with the mouse means I find it very difficult indeed to click the button properly. Sometimes it can take twenty or thirty minutes before I succeed and the spectacle of cyber-smut is finally removed from my delicate and innocent eyes. Pornography is a difficult term to define. It refers to artworks or media of any kind that is intended to generate sexual arousal in the viewer. However mild pornography can be found in films, television programmes, music videos, computer games, magazines and newspapers; yet there it is usually not given its proper name. Television adverts in particular are stacked with pornographic images with the intention of making the product look appealing to potential customers. "Hardcore porn", often designed by the letter code "xxx", whose purpose is sexual for its own sake, is the single biggest activity on the internet, probably because the internet is by its very nature a solitary activity; although that is about to change as we shall see. The United Kingdom is introducing a new law that withholds access to porn websites unless the internet user can prove their age. Alternatively the user can pay a small fee, which no doubt some clever clogs will nickname the "wank tax". Proving your age can be done by uploading a scan of your passport, driving license or other state issued ID. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-43795806.

There are huge implications for privacy and civil rights violations with this policy. It means that a database will be created next to anything you look at on pornography websites. This means a profile can be built up about your sexual tastes, one of the most intimate thought processes most people have. This information could be abused in many ways. Hackers could steal it and use it to blackmail you by threatening to send it to your spouse or employer. It could be used as evidence in court or for job interviews. Suppose you're training to be a schoolteacher and it is revealed you spend a lot of time on the "legal teen" pages... Supporters of the ban claim that it is necessary to protect children; however all browsers have a "child lock" on them that parents can switch on when their children are surfing, and indeed are morally obliged to. This is another case of the state stepping in and taking over the parental role; something it does all too often and that is very sinister. Along with child protection advocates, those who oppose porn are a strange collection of feminists and religious traditionalists. There are a lot of myths about porn that these people often assert. One of them is that only men watch it. Not true, plenty of women visit porn sites as well. Performers in porn videos and photographs are paid models, actors and actresses; their work is a form of drama and they have Equity rate contracts. You don't have to be conventionally beautiful to be a porn star. Many successful porn performers are very old, overweight or have disabilities and physical abnormalities. That myth illustrates the enormous difference between what people are supposed to find sexy and what we actually do find sexy. There is also a thriving "amateur" porn culture in which individuals or couples produce their own works and upload them as one would to YouTube and Instagram. The most damaging myth is that porn contains obscene publications. This is false; all performers are consenting adults, although some sites have a "BDSM" section, the 50 Shades of Grey stuff, if you like that sort of thing. Pornography is a normal and omnipresent part of the adult world and so long as it is kept there, it is in my view completely harmless. People will find ways around the state filter anyway with virtual private networks and accessing porn through peer-to-peer or dark net sources. As I explain in the background links below, successful internet censorship is not only unethical, it is almost impossible. The porn industry and performers' unions will no doubt sue the government for loss of earnings because traffic to their sites will be greatly reduced. In the end the ban will fail and the government will achieve nothing except exposing themselves once again for being Big Brother enthusiasts who want to destroy family cohesion and police our thoughts, including our most private and personal ones.

No comments: