'The history of public discourse on pornography is notoriously polemical. There is perhaps no other media form that has been so relentlessly the centre of what boils down to little more than arguments “for� or “against�.' (Burgess and King, 2004). Should governments have the right to censor people and restirct them from viewing certain content, such as pornography, online? Who should decide what classifies as porn?
“Pornography has become the most controversial topic arising from internet use, causing fear and a 'moral panic' among the government, law enforcement bodies and the media in general.� (Akdeniz, 1997). As Thornburch and Lin (2002) highlight that because there are highly held values at stake, views in the subject area are highly polarized, thus the political debate is heated, and often characterized by extreme views, inflammatory rhetoric, and half truths.
There are many sides of the argument for and against online censorship. From companies in the online adult entertainment industry who are concerned that efforts to restrict the access of children to sexually explicit material will impinge on legitimate business opportunities. To the opposing view of companies developing filtering technologies and other methods to censor children from illicit content and opportunities for them to capatilize on a growing market. As well as anti-pornography groups such as the Catholic Church. In the interest of free speech pro-censorship and anti-porn supporters must not only recognise the rights of the adult entertainment industry, they must also ensure not to infringe on the rights of adults to view pornographic content legitimatley. On the otherhand the Adult Entertainment Industy must also recognises that it has an ethical and social responsibility to uphold to the community at large.
A major focus and basis of the argument for censorship online is to protect children from the social implications of being exposed to graphic and sexually explicit material at an early age. As according to Jerome et al. (2004) exposure has many negative social rammifications in later life such as the degredation of partners and the dissasociation of sex with intamacy. Many pro-censorship advocates believe regulation is the key to protecting our children. Thornburch and Lin (2002) have defined ‘sexually explicit material’ as “textual, visual or aural material that depicts sexual behavior or that exposes reproductive organs of the human body.�
Being that pornography is already available on the streets, along with the technical difficulties of enforcing censorhsip Akdeniz (1997) argues that it is currently inappropriate to regulate pornography on the internet. However it is in the industries best interest to regulate itself using independent age verification services such as Adultcheck, not only to restrict minors from harmful content but to protect the billions of dollards of proft made from the online porn industry each year.
--Chris McCosker 15:06, 26 Oct 2004 (EST)
--Chris McCosker 19:50, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
Internet Pornography Censorship: Access
Internet Pornography Censorship: Censorship in China
Internet Pornography Censorship: Filtering Technology
Internet Pornography Censorship: Regulation and Responsibility
Pornography and Internet Technologies
Moral Panics and the Internet
