Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Controlling porn

China gets tough on Internet Porn, which is, I think, a good thing. However: imagine what else the filters and censorship systems built to control porn can be used for? China is not exactly known for not using tools for information control.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of questions attached to this subject.

"Porn" is not easily defined, and can be subject to local variations; within geographical, religious or personal borders. The same can be said about "communism" or "market liberalism". Different definitions within different borders. The Internet crosses these borders in order to work as a world wide web, and in my opinion, this marks the essence of the Internet. Therefore, the discussion cannot be whether or not "to ban internet porn". That would be the same as to try to ban "thoughts from the 17th century philosophers". You can be for or against it. But the discussion about banning things from the Internet origins in a poor understanding of the medium.

If you're against porn, don't watch it. Argue, and convince other people not to watch it. Install filters that prevents your kids from watching porn on the net, along with raising them according to your beliefs: Don't lie, don't steal, etc. But as you mention: Tools for information control should be applied with care. I would say that these tools shouldn't be used at all. This is a discussion about moral, not media. There's no resident evil in the Internet, nor in books.

I think.
-arneolav@mac.com
www.arneolav.sprayblogg.no

Arne Olav said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Arne Olav said...

(I'm the same as above, only logged in)
Forgot to brag about your blog. As a master's degree student at HiS, Senter for leseforskning/Nordisk institutt, studying digital reading, I find your site useful and interesting. Thanks!

arneolav@mac.com
www.arneolav.sprayblogg.no

Torill said...

Yes, sure, of course, right, it's all relative and should be understood in context. But online porn is more annoying than spam. Porn sites hijack much used search words in order to lead searches into their sites. I have found THIS blog listed as a resource in strictly pornographic sites, and I don't even discuss gender, much less sex! I find that non-consensual, as it does not give me the option to avoid online porn if I so wish.