Why is the government ignoring the evidence on the harm done by porn?
Support: Two thirds of the public are backing the Daily Mail's campaign for an automatic block on online porn
Polling detailed by Kirsty Walker in this paper today shows that two thirds of the public are backing the Daily Mail's campaign for an automatic block on online porn. This is a welcome result, but it also means that a third of people essentially think that pornography is OK.
This, tragically, shows how successful the porn industry has been at presenting itself as normal, that sex and porn are simply interchangeable descriptions of the same thing. Once curtailed by the obscene publications act, the porn industry now enjoys freedoms that its investors exploit to the full, with no holds barred and total indifference to the shattered lives they leave behind.
We ban things that are harmful - drugs, speeding, stealing. As a society we have agreed that both the individual and societal dangers outweigh people's rights to indulge themselves, and although a law cannot change someones heart, it is a clear statement of values. You can still choose to break the law, but your behaviour will have legal and moral as well as possibly material and medical consequences.
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We put barriers in place when society has recognised that something is potentially harmful or undesirable, especially to the vulnerable, but not so harmful that it needs to be banned. Alcohol is an example; it's a toxic substance that manufacturers have excelled in turning into delicious, palatable forms but most of us know will be harmful in excess and shouldn't be given to children.
Threat: Once curtailed by the obscene publications act, the porn industry now enjoys freedoms that are exploited to the full
We are now in the ridiculous position of neither banning nor putting up barriers to porn. Ask anyone in the street if they think we would all benefit if we were physically and mentally healthier and they'd say yes. Ask them if government should encourage - not force - healthy behaviours and protect the vulnerable from harm and most would again agree with this, many more I reckon than the 66% who answered 'yes' to the poll asking if there should be an automatic block to on-line porn.
This should be sounding an alarm in
the heads of every politician - the Prime Minister included - many who
have said we should clamp down on the sexualisation of children.
Politicians are no longer upholding the ban of shocking, graphic images.
Now they are resisting barriers to reduce harm to children - even
children - when it's firmly established that pornography is highly
addictive, distorts and defiles the relationships and expectations of
adults (let alone children), encourages aggressive, debasing treatment
of women and is a causative factor in the hyper-sexualisation of our
culture.
Pornography is guilty. Guilty of causing sexual misconduct in children, exposing young girls to exploitation, driving domestic violence in the home, causing addiction and obsessive behaviour in adults and breaking up marriages. We are no longer free when we are addicted, demeaned and exploited. Why is the government pandering to liberal-individualists, ISP providers and industry and ignoring the evidence that MP Clare Perry has collated? We need a healthy society for a healthy economy: ignore the threat of porn and you put the health of both at risk.
