Thanks so much for this reply Joe, really interesting.
I am concerned most about the nasty end of porn, the ‘violent’ porn, which I noticed is often cited as a factor in sexual crimes in the UK (recently we had Sarah Everard and Brianna Ghey).
Is it the case that porn is becoming increasingly violent? If so might this be a ticking time bomb for a reversal of the results in the research.
I am also interested in protective regulation of the ‘violent’ porn, rather than a ban of all porn - ID checks are a start (in an industry that seems incapable of self-regulation).
The ‘why’ for the research results would be a fascinating read.
I think I’d prefer it to be ‘correlation is not causation’ because the only alternatives I can think of seem worrying, some sort of sinister need (dominance / misogyny) that is being met with porn that is otherwise resulting in sexual crime?
The Napster boom started mostly among college students and others with high-speed (Mbps) connections. After it spread a bit, others downloaded some songs at dial-up speeds, but the large collections were served from big, fast pipes.
There was also a strong hobby behind ripping and accurately labeling music, with extra plaudits to those who uploaded music before it was officially released (ripped from CDs smuggled out of pressing plants or distributed pre-publication to DJs and reviewers.)
The music was thus not only cheaper than what publishers offered, it was better. Better organized, resistant to accidental loss, more compact, more easily shared.
It's easy to still download music, but most people don't. The publisher's version is a little cheaper than it used to be, but still way above the cost of pirating, which is supported by the much higher speeds of the modern internet. More importantly, it's available electronically, with all the advantages that offers. Publishers went to war against "free" downloading instead of competing on the basis that mattered most: convenience.
“But we can’t sacrifice our free society on the altar of a strange obsession with children’s safety.”
But is it a misguided obsession?
Children have no collective voice of their own and consequently get used and ignored by both sides.
There are those who use children by purporting to be acting in their interests but who are actually just anti-abortion, anti-porn & anti-LGBT.
On the other hand there are those who are so attached to their individual freedom that they are wilfully ignoring real risks to current children (future adults) from violent and misogynistic porn.
Is calling for evidence before acting on such self evident harm a realistic solution.
Unlike other violent fantasy online most children will grow up and actually engage in sexual behaviour making the risks to women of sexual violence from men even greater than it is now. I get the analogy with the music industry but to me Porn has a much greater influence on society than music, its content and standards are much more important to human relationships. At its rare best it’s beautifully erotic and educational, banishing shame from loving liberal sex, at its (more usual) worst it is cheap and too often nasty. If the industry can’t regulate itself then it deserves to be taken advantage of by the conservatives who will temporarily silence it. I agree it will come back, but it will be regulated. Capitalism is clever and innovative, there are plenty ways to regulate the internet and raise the standards of porn, if there is the will.
“Judge a country by how they treat their children” - Nelson Mandela
Rational and dare I say revealing.
Thanks so much for this reply Joe, really interesting.
I am concerned most about the nasty end of porn, the ‘violent’ porn, which I noticed is often cited as a factor in sexual crimes in the UK (recently we had Sarah Everard and Brianna Ghey).
Is it the case that porn is becoming increasingly violent? If so might this be a ticking time bomb for a reversal of the results in the research.
I am also interested in protective regulation of the ‘violent’ porn, rather than a ban of all porn - ID checks are a start (in an industry that seems incapable of self-regulation).
The ‘why’ for the research results would be a fascinating read.
I think I’d prefer it to be ‘correlation is not causation’ because the only alternatives I can think of seem worrying, some sort of sinister need (dominance / misogyny) that is being met with porn that is otherwise resulting in sexual crime?
The Napster boom started mostly among college students and others with high-speed (Mbps) connections. After it spread a bit, others downloaded some songs at dial-up speeds, but the large collections were served from big, fast pipes.
There was also a strong hobby behind ripping and accurately labeling music, with extra plaudits to those who uploaded music before it was officially released (ripped from CDs smuggled out of pressing plants or distributed pre-publication to DJs and reviewers.)
The music was thus not only cheaper than what publishers offered, it was better. Better organized, resistant to accidental loss, more compact, more easily shared.
It's easy to still download music, but most people don't. The publisher's version is a little cheaper than it used to be, but still way above the cost of pirating, which is supported by the much higher speeds of the modern internet. More importantly, it's available electronically, with all the advantages that offers. Publishers went to war against "free" downloading instead of competing on the basis that mattered most: convenience.
“But we can’t sacrifice our free society on the altar of a strange obsession with children’s safety.”
But is it a misguided obsession?
Children have no collective voice of their own and consequently get used and ignored by both sides.
There are those who use children by purporting to be acting in their interests but who are actually just anti-abortion, anti-porn & anti-LGBT.
On the other hand there are those who are so attached to their individual freedom that they are wilfully ignoring real risks to current children (future adults) from violent and misogynistic porn.
Is calling for evidence before acting on such self evident harm a realistic solution.
Unlike other violent fantasy online most children will grow up and actually engage in sexual behaviour making the risks to women of sexual violence from men even greater than it is now. I get the analogy with the music industry but to me Porn has a much greater influence on society than music, its content and standards are much more important to human relationships. At its rare best it’s beautifully erotic and educational, banishing shame from loving liberal sex, at its (more usual) worst it is cheap and too often nasty. If the industry can’t regulate itself then it deserves to be taken advantage of by the conservatives who will temporarily silence it. I agree it will come back, but it will be regulated. Capitalism is clever and innovative, there are plenty ways to regulate the internet and raise the standards of porn, if there is the will.
“Judge a country by how they treat their children” - Nelson Mandela