The Student Room Group

Online Porn Ban

Poll

Do you think online porn should be banned?

Hi guys;

Well, as you know, a growing number of parents are calling for an complete ban on internet porn because they say their children are viewing it and they can not stop them. So, the government have now stepped in and asked the said they are doing what they can at this stage to try and either;

A. Take all porn off the net
B. Limit the access required (i.e. proof of age)

Do you think this is going a bit far? I think THIS IS TAKING IT TOO FAR. Reasons are below.

I mean, all people have to do in theory is put a computer in full view of them in the living room and they can monitor the amount of internet access they have and what they are accessing.
Also, there are several pieces of software which save your internet history which can be bought fairly cheaply so, even if the internet history is deleted, the history will be on the software and they won't even know.

Resources accounting for the "for" of this account;

How porn turned my son into a self hating shell.
How internet porn is "damaging health"
How it turns kids into sex predators

The Opt in system
And how many children watch porn online

A brief description of the bill

Resources and facts for "against" the ban;
How porn benefits people
It is well known that people would often their partners watch porn than cheat on them.
Daily masturbation can boost a man's sperm production increasing fertility.
Porn produces fewer rapists

Do you agree with the ban and would you support it?

EDIT:
Well, not exactly resources, but, all you can get is media when you google it. Besides, will edit when I come home. I have to go to school, 6 hours of maths revision (yay) and won't be in till about 2-3pm.
(edited 11 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

the government and internet providers should stay out of people's personal lives. We should be able to do as we wish!
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 2
Avatar for pratstercs
pratstercs
2
I disagree entirely. There should not be a blanket ban or even an opt out ban on online pornography.
1) These filters are always terrible. You can either go too loosely and it not block everything it should, or too strict where it blocks too much making it unusable. There is no perfect filter.
2) Since when was it the provider's job to protect people's kids? When did parents stop having to parent? If they want to enforce something, like a ban on online porn, then they should so something about it like installing parental controls (see above however) or monitoring their use of the internet. It's not the ISP's job, it's the parents'.
I think it's utterly disgusting. The Conservatives campaigned in the 2010 election on a liberal manifesto, proclaiming themselves as very different from the authoritarian social policies of Labour and then they come out with dickish stuff like this. The ironic thing is that they so often complain how the family is breaking down, yet in one of the areas parents should intervene more (the internet I mean) the Tories instead advocate for the state to be their nanny, whether they like it or not.

Internet freedom is one of the greatest things we have going for us at the moment. If this policy goes through it could easily lead to more authoritarian bans. Why should anyone have to "opt-in" to view porn? The government does not own the internet, the people do. This whole idea is outrageous and I hope the Lib Dems completely oppose it.

Edit: So nobody else says it has nothing to do with the Conservatives, read this.
(edited 11 years ago)
No. Simple as
This is completely unenforceable. Proxies + torrent sites + direct download forums + various amateur sites + all of the sites that are too unpopular or nascent to be noticed = a wholly insubstantial block. It'll be like bypassing the school's security; every lesson someone would have found a new unblocked proxy, and this was before pre-pubescent children had mobile phones with access to the Internet. Only blocking known porn sites will be laughably easily to bypass by the new generation of children who have been around computers from birth.

Children don't even have any money/a credit card to pay for the various porn sites, so they'll be accessing it from illegal/underground/amateur ones anyway. This will only impact adults who are in the position of actually paying for their porn. That these policy-makers are under the impression that no child will have any exposure to or knowledge of sex until they are 16, and will never have seen sex amongst other people until they are 18 is simply preposterous. What happens when a parent opts-in to satiate their needs? This still boils down to parental control over their child's activities.

Why are a few anecdotes being used to prove this point? To even ponder censoring the Internet like this is deeply concerning. I understand but disagree with The Pirate Bay block because it is actively and knowingly facilitating pirated content (marked by their replies to cease-and-desist requests), but this is pure censorship. How long will the, "we're protecting you from terrorism" and, "we're ensuring the well-being of your children" mantras still be seen as good enough reasons for gross infringements on privacy and liberty?
(edited 11 years ago)
The internet is the only place left where free speech truly exists. The only place where you can get access to literally anything you want.

If parents ae concerned about their children viewing pornography, then they should watch over what they do. There's no reason to ban it for everyone else.

If we started banning sites the internet will soon be censored and the world will go back to the worse state it was in before.
your quoting from the daily mail. Really?

But anyway heres an idea - how about parents take respobnsibility for thier children and keep an eye on what they are doing?

no porn should not be panned (and it wouldnt be anyway cos there is no way they could enforce it)
will somebody please think of the children!? LOL i think its time to start stockpiling it! there maybe a drought very soon.

*goes PC world to buy some blank discs*
Original post by patrickinator
the government and internet providers should stay out of people's personal lives. We should be able to do as we wish!


I'm sure people who have been jailed for murder, theft, assault etc. all did what they wished....should they have been allowed to?
People don't interact well, hence the need for regulation.

As for the topic, it's a tough one...I don't see any harm in it as such, though the idea of limiting access by giving a proof of age or something is a very good idea.

People do say "it's the parents job to raise their children" and while this is true, not all parents will do it.
Reply 10
Avatar for Kiss
Kiss
2
I disagree with it. The parents are being typical but they think ruining our internet experience will help them - selfish morons. Their responsibility to monitor what their children see does not give them the right to remove e
what we want.
Does the Pornography feature children or an unconsenting being? No?

Then the government has no right to get involved in what a person does on the internet.
THere's family safety restrictions you can put on to your PC... Or change the password. Problem solved.
Ah yes the Daily Mail ban the porn campaign. Rather interesting to read the comments on the articles, the majority of which are against a ban on porn. The Mail is choosing to force the issue and disrespecting it's readers opinions, which just shows you how self absorbed the editors of it really are if they are unable to reflect and represent the opinions of their readers.

They were also caught out recently misrepresenting a YouGov poll and claiming that two thirds of the public favour an opt out system, whereby porn would be automatically censored for all households unless they specifically sent a request to their ISP in order to access it. See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137121/Two-thirds-public-want-service-automatically-blocks-online-porn-home.html
The actual results were that 57% opposed such action with 36% in favour and 8% saying they don't know. See page 12 of this pdf: https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/bkmm9p70rl/YG-Archives-Pol-SundayTimes-results-27-290412.pdf

My personal opinion is that the government and media should mind their own damn business when it comes to what people do online. Censorship has no place on the internet, and for every block there is a way around it.
Reply 14
Avatar for Martyn*
Martyn*
13
What happened to parental control?
more government intervention and more micromanaging of our lives by government. This is such a waste of time and money and so unecessary. Why when someone has a "problem" in the UK they run to the government to try and put into place even more unecessary laws and regulations. I really cannot understand some peoples thinking. These people cannot operate wihout the government controlling their lives and telling them how to live it. Hopefully no one takes tese idiots seriously
Reply 16
Avatar for Kenocide
Kenocide
11
Instead of stating the obvious, which is that this is ******* ********* **************, is there anything constructive we can do to oppose this?

And I'm not talking about some Kony-esque Facebook campaign, I mean is there anything substantial we can do?
If your child has their own laptop, and is an administrator and can change the parental control settings; so be it. However, if the parents don't know about technology, parental controls could be set from the router so it's all done via the network.

For those that know, it's incredibly easy to restrict access to certain sites, certain keywords ie: porn, torrent, proxy etc... and you can also enable time restrictions as well

The only real way that I could agree with it, is with mobile phone internet, where access is pretty much unlimited

If an opt in service was in place, I suppose they'd have to allow you to change it online, to avoid any embarrassment over the phone
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 18
Avatar for Sadsnail
Sadsnail
15
I think it needs restrictions because some of it is absolutely disgusting

Edit: Obviously lots of people enjoy horse sex....
(edited 11 years ago)
Leave youporn alone!!1

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you