Online Porn Ban

In all fairness I should have made my arguments more concrete. I don't have time to find too much evidence but let me try to make a few brief points and then let's see how people respond:

Issue 1: My argument is that porn should be banned by the govt to prevent children accessing it. Some people counter by saying that the onus to limit children's exposure to online porn should fall on the parent. My response is that many parents simply don't bother to control their exposure or the children get around any protective software so this is not an adequate solution. Children will find ways to obtain it unless it is legislated against at a national/global level.

Issue 2: Some people propose that porn is between 2 consenting adults. I propose that actually it is often not the case. In many cases women are in a desperate situation and so they are exploited by men who often mislead them about the nature of the scenes and then abuse them. If you would like to understand what I am talking about there are many sites that illustrate this for e.g. you can google 'ghettogaggers' (PLEASE BE WARNED THAT THE CONTENT OF THIS SITE IS DISTURBING) but there are many similar sites and in fact one famous recent legal case involved a pornographic actor called 'Hardcore Max' who was prosecuted for violating obscenity laws. Several actresses came forward to say that they had been misled about the nature of the scenes and that they had suffered severe psychological trauma as a result of being featured in these movies. Other cases involve sites such as 'hangingbitches.com' which was viewed by the killer of a young girl (again can't remember the case (I think it was Milly Dowler murder) but please investigate my claim to verify for yourself)-as a result the govt temporarily banned this site altho I think it is up and running again now (don't really want to check as I think it may violate UK laws to view the content). So my point is that porn causes real harm to people involved in the making of it and may in some cases cause people to imitate what they see in the videos which is often abusive and demeaning maltreatment of women. Yes it may be adults may get themselves into desperate situations but it is the govt's responsibility to legislate against the exploitation of these desperate people who mislead or take advantage of their situation.

Issue 3: I have been trying to mount an argument for banning or at least severe curtailing of internet pornography in the Western World. But in a large portion of the world porn has already been banned. So I would just like to hear why proponents of porn believe it is valuable and why it should not be banned? I can understand that erotica which usually shows romantic scenes between men and women to be acceptable but I struggle to get my head around why some people would actually go out on a limb to defend most internet porn which frames sexual relationships in a cold and disrespectful manner with many video titles referring to women as 'dirty slut' or 'filthy bitch' as standard practice. How is this beneficial to society? Wouldn't you like to see more positive messages conveyed about women to our youth? I mean I just don't get why anyone would vehemently stand behind this type of material-enlighten me please?

If you put a price on it less people would watch it, thus kids do not have debit/credit cards therefore this may solve the problem.

nonotrly I don't believe in this completely free society that you promote-I believe humans must be protected from themselves. People for centuries have not had the right to use the internet, now they have that right they must also have responsibilities. I feel that your view simply wants humans to have rights but not responsibilities and society cannot function optimally that way. IMO the govt must legislate against mass negative influences on society because it is very difficult for parents alone to stop their children from being affected by these. For e.g. if we didn't legislate against addictive drugs then these drugs would cause social problems regardless of parental attempts to stop their children using them. I think other forms of media that are not legislated against such as women's magazines have also caused tremendous harm to people leading them to be dissatisfied with their bodies and develop eating disorders. I believe it is very important to control and censor mass media's influence on society. I know I cannot convince you but this is my opinion-I do not think people should just be allowed to be exposed to every piece of garbage that is thrown at them-I believe that Western society has become far too liberal and obsessed with rights and there needs to be more emphasis on responsibilities-this is not being a dictator-this is believing in the benefits of a society that curtails negative media influences and encourages positive ones.

If you put a price on it less people would watch it, thus kids do not have debit/credit cards therefore this may solve the problem.

This is the most objectively incorrect opinion I have ever seen

I think all the benefits of porn that have been discussed can be accomplished with moderate porn e.g. soft porn and erotica. I believe that there is just no necessity whatsoever for violent/abusive/degrading porn-I don't think this really accomplishes anything beneficial whatsoever.

A total ban would be ridiculous, but I agree that there should be restrictions. I see no problem with having to prove your age to view hardcore pornography. Minors need protecting.

Protecting from what?

If a child of any age goes onto a porn site, they're there to look at porn. If a child doesn't like what s/he sees, s/he goes off the website and never looks again.

You assume that people know what is good for them. People choose to do loads of things that are bad for them like smoking and heroine because they are njoyable. The law exists to stop people from doing negative things that they themselves would like to do. If a child wants to look at porn or violence or whatever this does not mean the govt should allow them to.

You assume that people know what is good for them.