(UK) Cracking Down on Porn

[RubberGloveLover]

I'm pretty sure if they took porn off the internet, there would only be one website left, and it would be called "Bring Back the Porn!" - Dr. Cox, Scrubs

[Jake]

My mate reckons it's all just a conspiracy to increase sales in hard (HAHA -.-) copies of porn DVDs and magazines.

I've always wondered at what age children (and the occasional adult) suddenly become aware that things like porn and sex and murder and all that. Someone must tell them, and I would hope it's not their teachers.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would now like to draw your attention to this article, here:

Cameron's Law on Pornographic Exposure
(Sounds scientific, eh!)

"Cameron is getting much mockery over his plan to save children from the perils of porn, but he will press ahead with it anyway.
He already had to climb down after it was pointed out that the Sun should be filtered for running page three. Cameron needs Sun readers."

"Cameron admitted that there might be a few "problems down the line" with the system particularly as he has already ruled out "soft" or written pornography from the scheme entirely."

They also remind everyone that a proxy only takes five seconds to reach. Any teenager nowadays knows what a proxy is.
If this does go through, which I doubt it will, I wonder whether Downing Street will be inexplicably exempt from having to say whether or not they want it to be active within number 10.

[DialGforGloves]

This is definitely sad, especially when you consider the fact that people worldwide are steadily becoming more and more liberal. I do watch porn, although I personally have problems with mainstream porn (I'm not referring to the fact I have a fetish, but rather to the majority of all porn produced). However, the right porn gets me off like nothing else does and as mentioned before, "extreme porn" is highly subjective. Besides, if it's completely safe, sane and consensual, what would be the problem? Besides, governments can ban porn, but there is absolutely no way that people will stop watching and pursuing porn as a result. Sometimes we're just downright sex animals.

[Grim]

Here's where I put my parochial hat on - society in the UK has become so liberal that the government feels a need to put a lid on it. Homosexuality? No worries, it's not illegal any more - congratulations, you're allowed to be legally gay! Get married and adopt if you want. Give a child a swat on the backside to let them know that they've done something wrong? That's child abuse and we'll see you in court. Opposite ends of the spectrum, admittedly, but it rather sums up our society at the moment. As a pagan, polytheistic agnostic (if anyone had it right the Vikings sound closest to me. I don't believe in God/s but don't deny their possible existence) I can't make any reference to any religion without the possibility of prosecution should someone take offence to my beliefs or lack thereof. Religious diversity and respect are a necessity but freedom of speech only applies if you subscribe to one. Fetishes are still anathema as they aren't "normal".

Society aside, I now don my "porn hound" hat. My touch of OCD means that vanilla copulation is icky and messy, worth it for the fun but not my first choice. Both parties have to clean up before (hopefully gloved) snuggling ensues. Where gloves are involved I don't care so much about the mess, it's preferable for me and if I'm the one on the bottom I'll happily clean them with my tongue, dependant on the use to which they've been put. That definitely doesn't mesh with the extreme porn part of the proposal. As a practicing misanthrope and serial monogamist I'm more often between partners than not, I get my jollies most of the time from some rather wonderful porn most of which would be deemed "too extreme" by Cameron and the Daily Heil readership that are most likely to make up the committee determining what we should or shouldn't be allowed to see. "Extreme sex" will be redefined as missionary with the lights on. Doggy style will be banned (no matter who's delivering - that's a whole different kettle of fish. Strapons = offense against nature so there's me being a grumpy bear when I'm in a sub mood), 69 will be deemed "unnatural" rather than fun for everyone and a challenge to see who cums first (even if you lose you win! Doing algebra in your head helps delay matters. That and Latin tenses. It's such a fantastic game )

Alarmist? Certainly. However, I can't help but see anything like this as a move towards 1984. There has to be a halfway house between control/discipline and liberalism but I've yet to work out what it is. Freedom of expression, sexual or otherwise, without causing unwanted harm to another while maintaining appropriate moral values should be the decision of the individuals rather than the state. I'll get back to you on that one but I reckon it might take me 5 years to make a start. "Appropriate moral values" is 3 years alone and it'll take 2 of those for me to define my own which are a cross between Victorian English and rather perverse.

[APC]

Yeah they were talking about censoring the net here in Australia for a while there but I think it fell on it's head. I know the Gov is now allowed to store more of our metadata to "Defend against Terrorists" as they say, and so long as it stays that way I have no problems with it. I'm a true believer in the internet being a free place, although there are of course some horrible things displayed on it that I don't approve of (Murder, Animal abuse etc.)

Freedom is something that is rare, even in our wonderful western societies. To take it from the internet would be the last straw for me. This forum for example would be labeled inappropriate, however to us, it has been a dream come true, the ability for people of similar sexual interests to share our feelings. To "relate" is the one thing humans have strong drive to do, we look for similarities in each other in an attempt to make ourselves feel more "Normal" and to justify our existence. To take freedoms like this away from us would be increasing the level of isolation we and people of other different interests experience, which no doubt would lead to increased mental health issues; Depression, higher risk of suicides and so on.

The biggest problem is the primitive members of the public, those who get a real kick out of banding together to enforce their one sided opinions on the rest of us. These people have absolutely no ability to put themselves in another persons shoes, completely blinded by their binary vision of the world they will continue to fight against freedom and the right to be yourself.

I can't say I'm too optimistic about the future, I truly believe we are heading down a path which will eventually lead to complete censorship of our lives. I'll most probably and hopefully will be long dead before it becomes a problem but I can definitely see the slow tell tail signs of control through technology becoming apparent. One good example I can give is Insurance Companies now offering a portable device to the plugged into your car, it will monitor your driving behaviors which will then influence your premiums. Some say its a great idea, I think not as I tend to be the person who looks at the bigger picture.

Anyway that's my rant over.. haha! Feel better now