Governments should ban pornography
This section strongly argues for making pornography illegal. So as not to confuse the case with my personal opinion on sex, let me first get my opinion on sex out of the way.
I consider myself a liberal in matters sex. I am one guy who was introduced, by my own father, to sex when I was only nine years old. My dad used to take my younger brother (he was six) and I to watch adult rated movies (sorry you are not in a position to hunt him down to throw him in Kamiti as his body is six feet under) and trust me none of us have turned out to be sex maniacs – nor corrupted. Of course my brother loves life, women and sex just as any typical man does – but he dislikes porn.
On the other hand I am a guy who loathes porn and raw sex, they don’t turn me on at all. About sex, I am one of those rare species who can survive for a year without sex and never worry a bit. The last time I underwent a complete medical checkup, including psychological examination, I was found to be perfectly normal, and healthy.
But my world view on sex has made a number of my friends shut their mouths tight or open them wide in amazement. I consider sex as a basic human need such that if you were to seek hotel services, you wouldn’t shout “the end of the world is nigh” when you discover that part of the basic services offered is bed, sex, and breakfast. There won’t be guilt nor shame. As a practical human I accept that we are yet to reach that level of civility. For my complete argument on how we should treat sex, read the article There’s nothing about sex that is private.
Back to Porn Talk, and with my world view out of the way, let me state that porn is an extreme form of sex. To me, indulging in porn is equivalent to becoming a drunkard or a drug addict. Sex by itself is beneficial in so many ways ranging from evolutionary advantages (adaptation, gene variation etc) to physical, mental and sociological benefits. Porn, on the other hand, has been associated with psychological erectile dysfunction, distortions in the parts of the brain associated with motivation, and depression, stress and anxiety as reported in a 2008 article by Discover Magazine:
A study last month by Australian researchers found that men who have cyber sex had “alarmingly high” rates of depression, stress and anxiety. The study surveyed 1,325 men from the U.S. and Australia who spent an average of 12 hours a week engaged in Internet sex activities, including porn, online chats, and Web cams. The men were then evaluated for mental health.More than a quarter (27 percent) were moderately to severely depressed, 30 percent had high levels of anxiety, and 35 percent were moderately to severely stressed. The most avid cybersex users were also the most severely depressed.
In the debate at Debate.Org on whether governments should ban Internet porn, those who voted yes (77%) generally cited how porn changes the perception men have on women (read possibility of rape), wastage of money on pornographic material, and creation of a perverted society. One such argument reads:
Porn ruins the male image of femininity, it trains men to look at women as sexual objects, it saps motivation, and I suspect white slavery and human trafficking plays a larger role in its production than many would suspect. Its a moral evil and amounts to nothing more than sanctioned prostitution. The idea that its a form of free speech is just double speak.
With such strong arguments against porn, it is important for the government to take the request that ISPs should restrict porn sites seriously. Implementation of the ban cannot be hard as Sudan has done it pretty well.
Some might argue that such blanket bans should not be enforced as it will be an infringement on people’s freedom to entertainment and access to information. Also, the millions to the billions of websites dedicated to pornographic content might not all be blocked by a single algorithm, and that a particular algorithm meant to block porn sites might end up blocking sites thought to contain pornographic material yet are sites that contain useful information on pornography (e.g. studies on effects of pornography) beneficial for our consumption.
Those are issues that have been looked at by organizations and governments all over. In the quest to ban websites and other online places where porn can be accessed, it is important to bring to your attention that global policy shapers are taking this call seriously. In 2013, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced that online pornography was to be blocked by default. “In addition, the prime minister said possessing online pornography depicting rape would become illegal in England and Wales – in line with Scotland”, wrote BBC.
Not just Sudan, UK and a few other countries/states that have banned porn that should pursue total ban of Pornography including Internet Porn – but all governments globally should heed the call and make pornography illegal in their respective countries. Porn, to me, should be treated as hard drugs. By the way, a number of those who participate in the production of porn either as producers or as cast use hard drugs.
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kachwanya you dont say….
kachwanya the shame is in you for that hashtag
SupremeGREAM Hahaha! U0001f602U0001f602U0001f602U0001f602U0001f602
SupremeGREAM The topic is inspired by an expectation from the President’s speech.
kachwanya I didn’t know the president was addressing porn too. #ShameOnMe.
RookieKE SupremeGREAM chills free zone…
SupremeGREAM Kindly read the intro of the article
kachwanya sawa #GhaflaMwitu
kachwanya ha ha ha! Cmon son! Hashtag baiting pia??