“You have a duty to act on this — and it is a moral duty,” Prime Minister David Cameron told Google, Bing, Yahoo and UK’s entire porn-consuming population. “Don’t just stand by and say nothing can be done; use your great brains to help overcome them.”
TOGETHER, WE CAN OVERCUM PORN. I mean, come. I mean, overcome. So sorry.
By the end of the year, every UK household establishing a new internet connection will be automatically blocked from viewing pornography. You will have to call your internet service provider, admit that you are a disgusting “morally corroded” pervert and specifically request they disable your default porn filters.
According to the latest update, all existing internet users will be contacted by their providers by the end of next year and be asked to make “an unavoidable decision” whether or not to install “family friendly content filters.”
A blacklist of “objectionable search terms” will also be implemented.
Does it make sense that acceptable content needs to be determined by whether it is appropriate for little children with internet access? Is it appropriate that government agencies determine the themes of the pornographic material you are viewing, even though they are unable to distinguish illegal, criminal, unethical activity from consensually-created, consensually-consumed adult entertainment?
Though the initiative’s announced purpose is to keep children away from porn and ban “extreme pornography,” but what about child-free households?
When it comes “extreme pornography,” there’s a lot of fuss and confusion. Even one of the more intelligent articles at the New Statesman on “rape fantasies” and “knowing difference” seems to be referring to still images that might possibly be depicting sexual assault. Adult entertainment companies (like Kink.com) producing any heavy “violent” video content includes pre- and post- interview sections, clearly establishing consent and preference by the performers, like neat little bookends for your guilt. And who looks at still images anymore? Who looks at still images that could authentically depict actual rape? Only those looking for that specifically, which suggests a different and criminal motivation. Is regulating people who already obey laws going to stop those whose entire motivation is specifically not to?
Should Cameron be blanket-mandating the nation with “you figure it out or else” attitude, or should he learn how the internet works? Should there be a team of sex-positive psychologists and other reasonable human beings to establish some guidelines to mediate the gray areas instead of blacking them out completely?
I don’t know. I’m not having kids. You figure it out.
(Sorry for all the Stoya images. She’s pretty. Stoya for UK Porn Caucus!)
