Ashley Wells, editors, Wisdom Quarterly; RT.com/on-air; CBSNews.com
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| Does violence and degradation frighten us or is it the sex? (Caliban's Revenge) |
REYKJAVIK, Iceland - In the age of instant information, globe-spanning viral videos and the World Wide Web, can a thoroughly wired country become a porn-free zone? Authorities in Iceland want to find out.
The government of the tiny North Atlantic nation is drafting plans to ban pornography, in print and online, in an attempt to protect children from a tide of violent sexual imagery.
The proposal by Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson has caused an uproar. Opponents say the move will censor the Web, encourage authoritarian regimes and undermine Iceland's reputation as a Scandinavian bastion of free speech.
Advocates say it is a sensible measure that will shelter children from serious harm.
"When a 12-year-old types 'porn' into Google, he or she is not going to find photos of naked women out on a country field, but very hardcore and brutal violence," said Halla Gunnarsdottir, political adviser to the interior minister.
"There are laws in our society. Why should they not apply to the Internet?"
Gunnarsdottir says the proposals currently being drawn up by a committee of experts will not introduce new restrictions, but simply uphold an existing if vaguely worded law.
Iceland could become the first Western democracy to censor the Internet, banning online pornography, it says, in an attempt to "protect children" and reduce violence. Methods may include the use of the same filters used by China and making it illegal to use credit cards to access hardcore porn. Former MI5 [British secret] agent Annie Machon talks to RT.
Iceland could become the first Western democracy to censor the Internet, banning online pornography, it says, in an attempt to "protect children" and reduce violence. Methods may include the use of the same filters used by China and making it illegal to use credit cards to access hardcore porn. Former MI5 [British secret] agent Annie Machon talks to RT.
Pornography is already banned in Iceland, and has been for decades -- but the term is not defined, so the law is not enforced. Magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse are on sale in book stores, and more hardcore material can be bought from a handful of sex shops. "Adult" channels form part of digital TV packages.
Iceland's left-of-center government insists it is not setting out to sweep away racy magazines or censor sex. The ban would define pornography as material with violent or degrading content.
Gunnarsdottir said the committee is still exploring the details of how a porn ban could be enforced.
One possibility would be to make it illegal to pay for porn with Icelandic credit cards. Another, more controversial, route would be a national Internet filter or a list of website addresses to be blocked.
That idea has Internet-freedom advocates alarmed. More
COMMENTARY?
Editors, Wisdom Quarterly
Q: Ashley? A: No comment. Q: You guys? A: I like porn. I can't say "we" do, but "we" probably do. However, we are against violence. But any porn is probably personally harmful to watch, which includes Cosmo and the like, and it does not do an enlightened society good either. Isn't it better to put one's eyes out with red hot pokers than go down that road?
Social psychologists long tried to establish more than a correlation between porno and violence. Then finally they did, and no one hears much about those studies. College subjects were exposed to porno in one group and arousing video in another. Then they were asked to participate in a learning study administering electric shocks to male and female "subjects." (No actual subjects were shocked). Using hand held shockers, scientists were surprised to find no difference in the number of shocks administered to male and female subjects after being exposed to porn. But there was an unconscious quantifiable difference that showed up in the duration of shocks administered to females after being exposed to porn but not after being exposed to otherwise exciting video footage).
(TruthLoader) PANEL. Iceland is considering banning online porn, BUT is such a thing even possible? Porn is clearly something many governments and people would like to see controlled to protect viewers, but how? And if it can be done, should we be worried?
What everyone suspected, that porn leads to violence, was there to be found as more than a correlation. But the causation was hidden. We are not, as people, so obvious even to ourselves. So we would be wise to become aware of how things like consuming porn affects us. They do affect us. It is our karma, and such things will be our karmic consequences (vipaka and phala).
Nevertheless, should government or anyone else CENSOR things? They already do. We already do. The government should tread very carefully. It is very hard to judge others. Yet, we go on judging. It is impossible to accurately judge us; yet, we go on judging others. Do we realize we are being inaccurate?
Scandinavia is very liberal, advanced, prosperous and interested in sustainability, taking the social good into consideration more than American-style (draconian) capitalists. We prefer their model. It is one thing to get on our backs; it is a whole other thing to have to say to government, Get off our backs.
COMMENTARY?
Editors, Wisdom Quarterly
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| BJork in Iceland ("Crystalline" video still) |
Social psychologists long tried to establish more than a correlation between porno and violence. Then finally they did, and no one hears much about those studies. College subjects were exposed to porno in one group and arousing video in another. Then they were asked to participate in a learning study administering electric shocks to male and female "subjects." (No actual subjects were shocked). Using hand held shockers, scientists were surprised to find no difference in the number of shocks administered to male and female subjects after being exposed to porn. But there was an unconscious quantifiable difference that showed up in the duration of shocks administered to females after being exposed to porn but not after being exposed to otherwise exciting video footage).
(TruthLoader) PANEL. Iceland is considering banning online porn, BUT is such a thing even possible? Porn is clearly something many governments and people would like to see controlled to protect viewers, but how? And if it can be done, should we be worried?
What everyone suspected, that porn leads to violence, was there to be found as more than a correlation. But the causation was hidden. We are not, as people, so obvious even to ourselves. So we would be wise to become aware of how things like consuming porn affects us. They do affect us. It is our karma, and such things will be our karmic consequences (vipaka and phala).
Nevertheless, should government or anyone else CENSOR things? They already do. We already do. The government should tread very carefully. It is very hard to judge others. Yet, we go on judging. It is impossible to accurately judge us; yet, we go on judging others. Do we realize we are being inaccurate?
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| Gov't watchdog blocks porn (chilloutpoint.com) |
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