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.
