22 Jul PM’s porn plans first step to closer policed Internet
David Cameron is looking at porn, purely for research purposes of course.
Ok, we can all smile and talk in a nudge nudge wink wink way about his plans to block sexual content from us unless we opt in, but his announcement today will certainly start a debate around Internet censorship.
Since the web began to take hold of our lives, just over a decade ago the debate on censorship has raged. I spoke about it in a recent blog, where the death of soldier Lee Rigby gave us an insight into a horrendous murder that we’d never witnessed before.
At the time of his death both ITV and the BBC received complaints about their filming of the blood soaked man, who has subsequently been charged with his murder.
Our broadcasters are deemed to be responsible bodies with codes of conduct befitting what we invite into our living rooms, so when they step out of line the public will let them know.
However, whilst the BBC and other large media corporations are tangible bodies who we can engage with about their content the internet isn’t.
The web continues to be a lawless wild west where anything goes.
David Cameron’s plans to curb porn is little more than tokenism, but as the parent of primary aged children anything that can help protect their innocence has to be welcomed.
Freedom of choice is not always good and sometimes we have to rely on governments to do what we think is best for the people.
There have been countless studies showing porn to be damaging, especially for relationships, and MRI scans in tests have shown the thrill of it to affect the brain with those in the studies wanting harder porn to gratify the insatiable appetite for it.
Those in the study showed cold turkey to be the only way these newly formed neural pathways wither and die – a similar effect to illegal drugs!
Porn is a highly addictive and lucrative market, hence the reason 12 per cent of all websites on the net is porn related.
I’m not being remotely prudish, but if it’s damaging to us as studies conclusively prove then it’s to be welcomed that the Government is taking steps in the best way they can.
Only in a generation’s time will we be able to make sense of the birth and infancy of the Internet. It has exploded quickly and too powerfully for governments to police it properly.
