And Now The UK Plans To Censor All Internet Porn

“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” – Mark Twain

We’re into the… let me think… fourth year of plans to introduce a mandatory internet filter in Australia and now it seems the UK conservatives want a piece of the censorial goodness. The British government is going to start talks with ISPs to discuss creating an “opt-in” version of the internet where all porn is mandatorily censored unless you put your name on their list.

Wow, sounds horribly, stupidly familiar. And I can only assume that the UK will now go through the same process we have: first, questions will be asked as to the technical feasibility of it all. Because naturally the idea will be prohibitively difficult to pursue and also expensive.

Next, they’ll have to work out what they mean by “porn”. Are we talking just the hardcore stuff? Nudity? Breastfeeding? Sex education sites?

Then, the geeks shall arise. Porn-loving people will realise they’re not alone, that they won’t stand for the government telling them what they, as adults, can and can’t see and they’ll start to get organised. To protest. To stand up for free speech. Because this is absolutely an attack on free speech.

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The usual excuse is being used: “Won’t somebody think of the children!”

The MP (Claire Perry) rejects claims she is anti-porn, instead insisting tighter regulations would stop children from viewing restricted content.

“Why is the onus on parents, teachers and carers to act as web guides and policemen? Where is the industry responsibility?” Ms Perry asks.

(Source)

Why is the onus on parents, teachers and carers, Ms Perry? Because that’s their fucking job! That’s what “parenting” is about last time I looked. But never mind that, she is going to impose censorship because she believes most people can’t look after their own kids. Insulting to both the child-free and those who are responsible parents.

She also defends her position because apparently most people won’t use filters, either because they don’t know how or they don’t want to. Sorry, Ms Perry, but the rest of us shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s stupidity.

Read her full opinion piece here.

Alarmingly, she does her best to back up her call for censorship with the claim that there’s “compelling evidence” that porn does harm to children. Her source for this is a group called Safer Media. I looked up their site. They are a Christian anti-porn group who believe that any kind of media can induce crime. Aside from 4 outdated studies from the 70s, their main example of this “compelling evidence” is a study called “A meta-analysis of the published research on the effects of pornography” published in 1997. It seems to be a favourite of the anti-porn and religious purity brigade because it’s quoted often on the various anti-porn sites.

And, unsurprisingly, the research for that study was conducted by The Marriage and Religion Research Institute in co-operation with the “Love and Responsibility Project of The Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education.” The opening statement on that study says pornography is a “grave offense” that “perverts the conjugal act.”

Yep. Nice bit of unbiased research there. Read it and be impressed by the way it reaches its conclusion at the start, unhindered by any trifling concern with scientific method.

One biased meta study by a religious group shouldn’t comprise enough evidence to motivate a government into large-scale censorship. Because the fact is there is still no definitive peer-reviewed scientific evidence that porn is harmful – to children or adults.

So, UK readers. It’s your turn to stand up and fight this crap. Tell these people that they can’t take away your right to free speech just because some people are bad parents. Tell them that if they want to start censoring porn, they’d better come up with real, quantifiable scientific evidence that it actually does harm.

And pop on over to the various Australian websites like Gizmodo where we’ve already been having this argument for four years. You’ll be able to see all the opposition’s nonsense trotted out in advance, along with the well-reasoned discussion points you can use in reply. And note that we are still fighting this shit – even though the government has been forced to back down and change its position numerous times thanks to our ongoing opposition.

You can win this. We can win this. You just have to stop being embarassed about liking porn and be prepared to stand up for free speech.

And if enough of you can unite to get Surfin’ Bird into the Christmas singles chart, you can definitely stand together to save the internet from government philistines.

Pic is from here.

Update – more good posts:
Sex educator Dr Petra Boynton unpacks the whole shebang here.

Good critique of dodgy data at Thought Soup.

Bish Training has another great perspective.

Violet Blue shreds MP Claire Perry’s “research” at ZDnet