So Pornography is banned. Now what?

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

The Sears catalog will enjoy an incredible revival of popularity with hundreds of millions of copies in print.

 

[Roshi]

If such a law is ever enforced, I will charter a boat equipped with a strong uhf/vhf emmitter (so you guys don't get rid of your analog TVs and antennaes just yet) and I will sail the international waters next to you. Thou shall recieve porn! Almost a terabyte worth!
I think I'm gonna call my boat The Boat That Fucked...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

The newspaper softcore isn't bad, but what gets me... even childrens books seem to be about porn. Seriously, read some and there's a lot of sleaze innocent minds don't pick up on.

New Doctor Who had a joke about fellatio, didn't it (Love and Monsters), and the various insinuations about the Doctor "dancing"? Probably lost on most pre-pubescent children.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Porn existed before the internet and it will no matter how draconian the measures taken against it. Porn has always been illegal in the UK. before the internet as a teenager I still manged to see porn.

Porn has existed before the beginning of time and will endure long after the universe has grown cold and lifeless.

 

[Pingfah]

It's the not too distant future and the long battle is over. The opponents of pornography (the religious right, certain feminists, parents groups) have won. Your leaders, with the endorsement of telecom companies and (most of) the film and television industry, have now made a prohibition of all forms of graphic sexual content the law of the land. Anyone in possession of this material will be fined heavily and possibly jailed for months or (if a repeat offender) years. Anyone found to be producing it will suffer much stiffer penalties.

All existing material will be confiscated and destroyed, except for a small amount for archival purposes (the same way we archive evidence in court cases). All studios or other establishments set up for the express purpose of producing said material will have a short window to convert to legal purposes or be forced to shut down. Similarly, all businesses that rely on selling this material for profit will either have to convert over to another source of revenue or be forced to shut down.

The Internet, it turns out, is not for pr0n. Government mandated internet filters will be put in place by ISP's to monitor and track IP addresses found to be linked to distribution of this "digital contraband". Any person or persons caught hosting this material will be heavily penalized, including possible jail time.

Lastly, your government will sponsor ads and outreach programs designed to prevent impressionable/vulnerable young people from becoming involved in the underground pornography trade.

The ban does not affect the following:

• Images of scantily clad persons not depicted in poses imitative of sexual intercourse.
• Images of athletes in form fitting garments.
• Images of nudity (and, in special cases, sexuality) deemed to be of an expressly artistic nature.
• Images of nudity (and, in special cases, sexuality) intended for educational, research or medical purposes.
• Images of nudity exchanged between spouses or other romantically involved individuals. (must be personal images, not contraband and does not include images of actual explicit sex acts, which are banned)
• Images of nudity found in documentary photography or films (not including documentaries of illegal sex acts).
• Images of individuals involved in non-explicit sex acts.
• Literature depicting sexually explicit situations. (all such literature is now subject to new, more restrictive rating systems)
• Songs featuring sexually explicit lyrics (see above). (does not include sounds of actual or simulated sex acts, which are illegal under the ban)
• Literature, promotional material or paraphernalia used by groups to promote private gatherings that may be of a sexual nature. (there are, however, restrictions on where such promotions can be placed)

So, what happens now? Assuming all of this comes to pass in your country, what do you believe will follow it?

Hard to answer, because the society that comes to that conclusion would have to be radically and fundamentally different to the one I live in now, which is going in completely the opposite direction.

You are essentially asking "what if your country was a completely different place to how it is now?" If that were the case I think I would have gotten fed up and moved a long time before they reached the point of an outright ban on such things.

 

[Rii]

I suspect it would be a healthier society.

 

[Count Zero]

How can a society that feels the need to regulate people's behaviour and expression this much be healthy?
When I think of the countries I know have bans of the sort, 'healthier society' is not what comes up in my mind.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

Really, I think the Americans are going to do the same thing they did when alcaholic beverages were outlawed: ignore the law and do it anyway.

 

[RJDiogenes]

As long as there are Human Beings with blood in their veins, there will be Erotica.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I suspect it would be a healthier society.

Like Iran? -- no let's not go there.

 

[Rii]

How can a society that feels the need to regulate people's behaviour and expression this much be healthy?
When I think of the countries I know have bans of the sort, 'healthier society' is not what comes up in my mind.

I was thinking of a death by natural causes rather than a ban. The furtive obsession with sex reflects a society very much in its adolescence with respect to human sexuality. I suspect that when we reach maturity in such matters - when nudity in public is as eyebrow-raising as mascara today - that the contrived delights of pornography will not command nearly the attention that they do today.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

It'll go underground. Porn speakeasies will open up, and the Mob will take over running the industry. Single people buying personal lubricant will come under suspicion. People will use tunnels and proxy servers to gain access to porn in other countries.

That one caught me of guard, i spread tea everywhere.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

How can a society that feels the need to regulate people's behaviour and expression this much be healthy?
When I think of the countries I know have bans of the sort, 'healthier society' is not what comes up in my mind.

I was thinking of a death by natural causes rather than a ban. The furtive obsession with sex reflects a society very much in its adolescence with respect to human sexuality. I suspect that when we reach maturity in such matters - when nudity in public is as eyebrow-raising as mascara today - that the contrived delights of pornography will not command nearly the attention that they do today.

So we'll all be more healthy and mature when we are blase about sex and stop finding other people sexually desirable? People are obsessed with sex because sex is fundamental to the core of our being and our species existence. It is not a sign of maturity to be less interested in sex it is a sign of a mental or physical breakdown.

 

[Rii]

How can a society that feels the need to regulate people's behaviour and expression this much be healthy?
When I think of the countries I know have bans of the sort, 'healthier society' is not what comes up in my mind.

I was thinking of a death by natural causes rather than a ban. The furtive obsession with sex reflects a society very much in its adolescence with respect to human sexuality. I suspect that when we reach maturity in such matters - when nudity in public is as eyebrow-raising as mascara today - that the contrived delights of pornography will not command nearly the attention that they do today.

So we'll all be more healthy and mature when we are blase about sex and stop finding other people sexually desirable? People are obsessed with sex because sex is fundamental to the core of our being and our species existence.

Food is more fundamental than sex, yet most us don't fetishise it. Nor do we exhibit such contradictory behaviours and attitudes regarding it as we do with sex. For example, most who watch pornography look disparagingly upon those who produce it. We're happy to watch porn stars, but we'd hate to see our daughter become one. It is positively schizophrenic. The contemporary obsession with pornography is a reaction to the puritanism in which it is grounded and which continues to define human society. It's like a child getting a thrill out of doing something he's been expressly forbidden to do.

It is not a sign of maturity to be less interested in sex it is a sign of a mental or physical breakdown.

Who said anything about being less interested in sex? Who said anything about individuals, period? The individuals who cheered in the colosseum as people were butchered below them were no more or less mentally sound than those who would recoil from such things today.

 

[Snaploud]

The contemporary obsession with pornography is a reaction to the puritanism in which it is grounded and which continues to define human society.

I disagree with this assumption. Pornography exists because it fulfills a sex drive that's as core to our biology as breathing.

 

[scotpens]

It'll go underground. Porn speakeasies will open up, and the Mob will take over running the industry. Single people buying personal lubricant will come under suspicion. People will use tunnels and proxy servers to gain access to porn in other countries.

In fact, except for distribution over the Internet (which did not yet exist), that WAS pretty much the situation with pornography in the U.S. before the 1970s. “Dirty” magazines were sold under the counter in plain brown wrappers. Amateur sex films, known as “stag movies,” circulated underground. They were usually in 16mm black-and-white, and were shown at bachelor parties and frat-house bashes.

Check out this anti-porn screed from 1965, narrated by news reporter George Putnam. You'll be amazed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyBkxfSHjEs

 

[scotpens]

Such a law would clearly be unconstitutional.

U.S. courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court, have consistently ruled that obscenity lies outside the protection of the First Amendment. The problem is defining what's legally obscene. Justice Potter Stewart summed it up best with his famous quote: “I know it when I see it.”

Theres so much porn in the UK it's hard to choose which one to view in a daily basis. Even the shower gel ads have more sideboob than pictures of the product, and the ad of the moment is about naked people.

The newspaper softcore isn't bad, but what gets me... even childrens books seem to be about porn. Seriously, read some and there's a lot of sleaze innocent minds don't pick up on.

...or maybe thats just me.

Well, it was your British tabloids that started the tradition of the “Page 3 girl” -- and God bless ’em for that!

 

[Lindley]

I suppose without it I'd have more motivation to find an actual girlfriend. Might not be a bad thing.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I was thinking of a death by natural causes rather than a ban. The furtive obsession with sex reflects a society very much in its adolescence with respect to human sexuality. I suspect that when we reach maturity in such matters - when nudity in public is as eyebrow-raising as mascara today - that the contrived delights of pornography will not command nearly the attention that they do today.

So we'll all be more healthy and mature when we are blase about sex and stop finding other people sexually desirable? People are obsessed with sex because sex is fundamental to the core of our being and our species existence.

Food is more fundamental than sex, yet most us don't fetishise it. Nor do we exhibit such contradictory behaviours and attitudes regarding it as we do with sex. For example, most who watch pornography look disparagingly upon those who produce it. We're happy to watch porn stars, but we'd hate to see our daughter become one. It is positively schizophrenic. The contemporary obsession with pornography is a reaction to the puritanism in which it is grounded and which continues to define human society. It's like a child getting a thrill out of doing something he's been expressly forbidden to do.

It is not a sign of maturity to be less interested in sex it is a sign of a mental or physical breakdown.

Who said anything about being less interested in sex? Who said anything about individuals, period? The individuals who cheered in the colosseum as people were butchered below them were no more or less mentally sound than those who would recoil from such things today.

I think people do have a lot of issues with food, perhaps not as much as sex, but it is certainly a contradictory factor in our lives. Many people have tremendous psychological and physical issues with food. Nor is being hypocritical confined to sex. A perfect example that ties in with food, we are huge consumers of meat, but prefer to get as far away from the concept of killing animals as we can leaving that for others to do. Yes most people don't want their children to be porn stars, but parents often don't want their children to have a wide variety of jobs which are necessary and rhat they don't look down on.

Pornography is hardly confined to countries that are rooted in Puritanism. It transcends all boundaries and all times. All societies produce forms of pornography. Since pornography is simply the visual or oral depiction of sex, and sex is a universal interest, why would you expect any different?

 

[scotpens]

I suppose without it I'd have more motivation to find an actual girlfriend. Might not be a bad thing.

Oh, I don't know . . . some of the inflatable ones are pretty cute.