Iceland Considers Pornography Ban (first Western democracy to block online porn?)

Telegraph UK ^ | 13 Feb 2013 | Staff

[Mrs. Don-o]

The government is considering introducing internet filters, such as those used in China, in order to stop Icelanders downloading or viewing pornography on the internet.

The unprecedented censorship is justified by fears about damaging effects of the internet on children and women.

Ogmundur Jonasson, Iceland's interior minister, is drafting legislation to stop the access of online pornographic images and videos by young people through computers, games consoles and smartphones.

"We have to be able to discuss a ban on violent pornography, which we all agree has a very harmful effects on young people and can have a clear link to incidences of violent crime," he said.

Methods under consideration include blocking access to pornographic website addresses and making it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards to access pay-per-view pornography.

A law forbidding the printing and distribution of pornography is already in force in Iceland but it has yet to be updated to cover the internet.

The proposals are expected to become law this year despite a general election in April.

"There is a strong consensus building in Iceland. We have so many experts from educationalists to the police and those who work with children behind this, that this has become much broader than party politics," Halla Gunnarsdottir, a political adviser to Mr Jonasson told the Daily Mail.

The proposed control over online access...is justified as a defence of vulnerable women and children.

"Iceland is taking a very progressive approach that no other democratic country has tried," said Professor Gail Dines, an expert on pornography and at a recent conference at Reykjavik University. "It is looking a pornography from a new position - from the perspective of the harm it does to the women who appear in it and as a violation of their civil rights."

[metmom]

Ping to post 80. I put your name in the *To* field and have no idea why it didn’t take.

[Revolting cat!]

Liberaltarians exist solely in order to provoke nasty exchanges on the Internet. Otherwise, they are entirely inconsequential!

[little jeremiah]

The LP people even if they claim “No, I’m just a small L libertarian!” as a cop out, have zero understanding or respect for the Constitution or the men who wrote it, signed it, or bled and died for our country.

They are nasty, nasty, nasty and act as spoilers for Dems.

[little jeremiah]

ACtually they spoiled quite a few state races this “election”. 2 to 4% of them made Dems win... so they have their function as spoilers.

[Revolting cat!]

You’re right, I stand corrected.

[Joe 6-pack]

There are two topics, porn and drugs, that virtually always make me think of Franklin's admonition, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Porn and drugs both have corrosive effects on a healthy society; however, so do heavy-handed government initiatives intended to cure them. No legislation will ever fully eliminate either porn or drugs and efforts to enforce the same will net a lot of innocents. In a healthy, moral society, those who choose to purvey or indulge in drugs or smut marginalize themselves, but in a morally dysfunctional society they are lionized.

During prohibition, booze ran freely amongst those who abused it most, and rumrunners and gangsters often receied public acclaim while the person who wanted to simply enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or a beer after work risked making themselves federal criminals. Similarly, attempts to define pornography will frequently entail language that would (and have) banned Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter and Degas nudes. While aestheticians and moral philosophers might tend to distinguish an artistic nude as something that celebrates and elevates the human form while porn is something that is designed to appeal to the basest most prurient interests. The problem is, different people will respond to the same film, painting, photo or sculpture in very different ways and community standards work only in as much as the community has standards.

The answer lies not in open license or in draconian legislation, but in the moral restraint and judgment exercised by every individual. A community, town, state or nation composed of persons with generally strong moral standards will easily survive the ills that are forced to remain in the shadows. Those communities without a sense of moral virtue will be consumed by their basest instincts regardless of the laws they pass.

[Bellflower]

Not a joke. You do not know better than God.

______________________________________________

Matthew 5:28 But I [Jesus] say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Matthew 5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell.

5:30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell.

[little jeremiah]

Just setting the record straight...

btw your current tagline (I don’t remember your old one/s) reminds me of one I”ve seen elsewhere:

“Good is better than Evil because it’s Nicer”.

[little jeremiah]

Well said, Mrs!

Actually, having run the Moral Absolutes list for years since I invented it (with help over the years running it) I’ve seen my share of porn articles.

I remember one library they had to install rubber mats in front of the computers, since the men masturbating in front of them were messing up the floor.

I guess according to Gay State that’s a small price to pay for E-Z access pornography ON OUR DIME.

And of course, families with children just have to avoid public libraries.

Reminds me of years ago in the Eugene OR public library I was looking for some kind of art book when I happened to see a book stuck in sideways along the tops of the other books. Being the book neatnick that I am, I took it out to replace it correctly. The number/codes didn’t match, so I opened it up and read one paragraph of the most horrible and revolting pornography - and I thought - suppose a child read this!! It still makes me almost physically ill thinking of it, and I don’t remember the details.

There is no protection of pornography under the First Amendment if a person understands the intent of the writers and signers.

[CitizenUSA]

I think you hit on a key point about porn and sin. A man doesn’t need porn to lust after a woman, and porn doesn’t have to result in lust. It starts by seeing something that appeals to the person. It could be a pretty woman or a car. Noticing something attractive is not sin. So the temptation is there to look at something that makes the person feel good. If one isn’t careful, the temptation can grow into lust, an actual desire to have what attracts the person. That’s when it turns into sin. At that point, it doesn’t even matter if the person doesn’t act on the lust if they wish they could. They’ve done the act in their heart. I think that’s what Christ was point out.

So what about porn? I don’t freak out over it, but I think it’s unhealthy. The site of porn, as noted above, isn’t automatically a sin, but it could lead to lust and then sin. It’s wise to avoid.

Aside from sin, porn is not very realistic. No real woman can possibly measure up to the fake photoshopped and carefully posed women of porn. Even if a wife is devastatingly beautiful, they can’t possibly be all women. That’s what porn promotes, and it’s a lie. It’s better to turn all passion toward your spouse. That’s not only approved by God, it’s more fun.

That said, what to do about porn? I don’t think the federal government has the constitutional authority to ban porn. However, I do think states have a right to impose community standards. It’s really up to the people of each state to decide what they think is appropriate.

I do think some of the stuff online nowadays goes too far. I’d probably vote to block some of it, but I admit that’s the most difficult part. Who gets to choose what gets blocked, and how does a government block it without illegally blocking legal stuff? It’s probably not realistic to vote on every piece of porn, so you’d probably have to create a group to monitor and vote accordingly. Plus it might just be a lost cause in this day and age given the internet.

In the meantime, the best bet is to simply avoid it and monitor children so that they’re not exposed to it.

[Gay State Conservative]

I guess according to Gay State that’s a small price to pay for E-Z access pornography ON OUR DIME.

I never said I wanted easy access to porn on *anyone's* dime.Just remember that here in the US,Rush Limbaugh,Ronald Reagan and Free Republic are seen,by the Rat Party,as being *far* more dangerous than the filthiest porn you can imagine.So that would mean that here,at least,they'd be banned far quicker than any NAMBLA website.The best answer...although an imperfect one...is to drive porn out of business through lack of customers.

And if you're honest you *know* that I'm correct in what I said about Limbaugh,Reagan and FR.

[Nowhere Man]

Please answer my question, do you want a US Gov agency to control what we view on the internet? Kiddie porn is already illegal and should remain so.

I agree, the cure is worse than the disease. If drugs can't be stopped, neither can this, there will always be a demand plus porn is one of the oldest forms of artwork in Mankind's history, there is even evidence of it on cave walls. As long as all parties consent, well, I don't have a problem, legally, with it. Kiddie porn, as you put it, should remain illegal. I am very libertarian an many things, but in these debates, common sense goes out the window on both sides of these issues. Almost all libertarians would argue in a Cliff Notes way, as do I, kids cannot consent to these things because they lack mental judgement along with being too young physically so they do need protection via the legal system.

Iceland, I do not agree with their action here, but as a sovereign nation, can do what they want, but it will not work.

This issue is way down my list of priorities if it is on it, I have bigger worries, job, money, the economy, paying bills, rising fuel prices, North Korea with nukes, Iran trying to get them, a Marxist in the White House, our military being weakened, the left bullying people of religion, conservatives and libertarians and so on. No one should be bullied period, I am for freedom of thought. I'm more of the Barry Goldwater type.

I have high moral standards personally, I just think beyond basic Mosiac Law, it is really not the government's role, especially the Feds, to codify and enforce it, it is up to all of us to do the work ourselves.

I risk the ire of many here but that's my take.

[little jeremiah]

Limbaugh is a neutered windbag, and Reagan is long gone.

THe point is communists/leftists/progressives have planned to destroy our Republic, and one of their methods is to destroy the fabric of society by destroying morality and the family. Porn is one of their tools.

Your arguments mean nothing at all and do not address the real issue. You’re completely skirting the point.

[little jeremiah]

And as far as “banning FR”, they want to control the internet, they just can’t at this point shut it down.

So they lard FR and other sites with minders and trolls.

[Antoninus]

Men look at porn occasionally, it rarely ruins their lives but you make it sound like the worst thing on earth!

Hey, you're right. See the following Google search:

Google search with keywords "sexual addiction" therapy

Only about 5,000,0000 results. Obviously, this is not a problem and is not widespread. Also, the sky is green, the grass is purple and Obama will lead us to prosperity.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Right, I was forgetting about that. May I add it to my list?

[Jim Robinson]

Certainly, my dear. Always prepared to lend a hand to a lady.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thank you, metmom. I'll tell you, I saw two marriages of friends break up over sexual issues where porn was a HUGE factor--- this was years ago --- and the porn-drug supply has only gotten more high-dosage, more contaminated, and more addictive since then. It pains me wheen even self-identified conservatives treat it like a joke.

Don't they have children? Don't they have any idea the electronic digital pathogen-world this generation of children lives in?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thank you for this thoughtful discussion. I agree that draconian enforcement (with the kind of surveillance that entails) would create its own, rather more horrible, problems.

Nor do I think that artists and writers can only licitly produce works suitable for the preteen girl market.

I am paying attention, though, to see what direction Iceland is going to go on this one. They have (as I understand it) virtually -zero- conservative cultural or political input --- Christianity there being nearly extinct --- so the whole impetus is coming from feminists.

It'll be interesting to watch.

[metmom]

I saw it happen with a pastor I knew.

And a college prof I know of at a Christian college says it’s epidemic among the boys coming in to the college. They’re addicted to it and really struggling with it.

It’s a cancer eating away at the fabric of our society.

As Ben Carson said in his speech at that prayer breakfast, Rome fell from within because of issues of morality.

It may be common in cultures around the world and throughout history, but it’s never been part of a society which has been safe, healthy, and free. Everytime it’s embraced, society collapses.

I guess nobody learns from history after all.