Every few weeks the topic of adult content in Ireland raises its head. In some cases people are looking at domain names, whereas in others they are interested in the content itself.
I’ve gone over a number of these topics in the past, as they were topical due to the release and subsequent shelving of the .xxx TLD.
So where do people think the line should be drawn?
Should a line be drawn?
If you draw a line with regard to what occupies Irish web space (and the IE namespace) should you also restrict access to adult content from Irish ISPs?
What is “adult” anyway?
Where does erotica end and pornography begin?
Is there any difference between the two?
As a consenting adult should you have the right to view whatever content you wish in the privacy of your home?
If an Irish company were to openly host pornographic content would they be able to survive in the marketplace?
Why is the opening of a nightclub in Dublin cause of such furore?
I wish I had the answers.. I do have my own thoughts and opinions, but most of those are already in the public domain, so little would be served in rehashing them.
Michele Neylon :: Pensieri
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If it’s possible to label Adult content and not to be able to accidentaly stumble on it and it conforms to the law of the land and it doesn’t cause blindness I’m sure it’s ok 🙂
…And why not?
I don’t understand why there is even an argument here – porn exists, and has existed for thousands of years, and will continue to exist until such time as we manage to alleviate ourselves of these crude bodies. Any form of censorship of this universal artform/marital-aid only creates tension (uh-huh-huh).
I’m all for .ie porn domains. In fact, I wonder if I would recognise any of the people on them!
Kae – just because something exists does not make it either legal or acceptable to a society’s mores..
True, but the morals of society are what the majority thinks is acceptable. I simply think that, as most people privately are okay with porn, that porn should therefore be accepted as a part of life, even if it’s something that should be seen but not talked about.
I think this is somewhat similar to the drug problem – most people that have any actual knowledge about drugs understand that they will always be there, whether you actively accept them, or try to condemn them.
To try to hide any knowledge about a subject (which is what the act of hiding porn from the public is tantamount to) is detrimental – the knowledge becomes taboo, and therefore overly enticing to people that are excited by breaking boundaries, and embarrassing for other people, who just want to accept this normal part of life.
It’s ridiculous. I think that any knowledge that does not harm the viewer should be freely available.
So would you like to see primary school children exposed to hardcore porn?
Where do you draw the line?
ah now, you’re yaking what I said, and bringing it to the extremes. To bring it back on topic, the question you posed was whether porn should be allowed to be hosted on Irish servers. To say “no” to that, is to outright ban porn from Ireland. But, by saying “yes”, you are not automatically giving access to absolutely everyone. Restrictions must, of course, be put in place, to protect people who may not be mature enough to understand the point of porn.
To go back to my previous answer, I said that information should be freely available as long as it does not harm the viewer. As a premature viewer by nature cannot understand erotic material, pornographic images will therefore be taken in, but “twisted” to fit what the child actually understands.
To put it in context – I remember sitting at breakfast once, when my sister came in and burst out with “Mummy and Daddy are fighting!”. What had happened was that she had come across sex for the first time, and “twisted” it to fit what she understood.
So, to bring it back to your question, Yes, primary school children must be protected from potentially harmful material, but No, it should not be banned outright.
Kae
Ok. So let’s say that we allow the content, then how do we protect the “innocent”?
And to come back to one of my earlier questions – where does the line begin?
M
– how do we protect the “innocent”?
The same way that most commercial porn sites do it – have a “warning” page at the front, with “adults only”, and make sure that the reader actively identifies themselves as an adult and that they accept that there may be shocking images inside.
Any people that ignore the warnings get what they asked for…
I will not pretend that that answer is the one and only correct one, but it works for me – information cannot physically hurt you, so I don’t know why people get so worked up about it. A pre-pubescent child surfing those sites would eventually get bored and confused and go back to areas they are more familiar with.
It is really the adolescent readers that care must be taken with – they are exploring new territory, and should probably be eased into the frightening world of “adult mating behaviour” in a less overt way than by jumping into hardcore erotica.
As for where the line begins? Allow the content, but require a warning. As simple as that. Just as CDs have warnings such as “may contain explicit lyrics”, and DVDs have warnings such as “may contain sexual content and profanity”, explicit commercial websites should probably have the same warnings.
“We” don’t protect the innocent.
That’s their parents’ job, and I’m heartily sick of them passing it off onto me. You want the kids to stay away from adult sites? Put the PC in the front room where you can see it.
This doesn’t mean I disapprove of warning pages, of course. And porn which depicts illegal acts is itself illegal for that reason anyway. But requiring anything further basically restricts the rights of the rest of us for the sake of parents being relieved of the job of watching them.
They want me to babysit, they pay my hourly rate…
I agree with John, and having been involved in talks with our government (Australian) over the years about it, regulators still are not the wiser.