Iceland Plans to Ban Internet Porn

[Tyrants]

Flawed comparison. If you were watching people get murdered just so they could tape it, and sell it, then by distributing and possessing said materials you would be contributing to an industry of murder and thusly ethically culpable.

Not flawed, it's the same. What if I possess child pornography without buying/selling/distributing? Am I ethically culpable still for child abuse?

Yes, because you know what it is and what the legal ramications of possession are.

[Ifreann]

Was that man murdered to the purpose of creating that video? If so, yes.

The purpose of the video was the show his murder, yes.

That's not what I asked. I asked if he was murdered for the purpose of creating that video.

So how am I helping people murder?

By benefiting people who murdered someone in order to make a video of that murder.

[Lolination]

Because by using it, you are creating a market for it.

Using that logic, I'm helping the music market by listening to pirated music. So explain the illegality of piracy.

[Frisbeeteria]

Someone has to make it for it to be possessed.

Yes, and making it violates rights. Looking at it doesn't.

This video is legal and depicts a man being burned and beaten alive (warning): http://redacted

Am I a murderer for watching it, or have a somehow helped people murder? Am I aiding the murder market? Should any media depicting illegal actions be banned?

You watch porn because you feel a desire (lust) for that and to get horny, watching some man burned is defintly not because you want to feel the same feeling as porn. In first case you are part of the crime since you have pleasure because of it, while in second case not.

But I understand that to you sick pedophile liberals that is all the same, well it is not.

[Lolination]

Or downloading it for free. Do you know anyone that buys porn? I don't... we have the internet. Child porn is no different.

But someone has to upload said video and film said videos.

That's my point. Uploading and downloading videos isn't a problem, nobody is being hurt. It's the making of the video that hurts children.

[GrandKirche]

Especially since us Brits are still a bit hissy at Iceland over the banks thing, I can imagine the RAF being used to drop porn onto Iceland just to annoy their government

I'm so picturing this.

"What did you do during the war with Iceland daddy?"
"Well son, I dropped porn films with little parachutes attached onto Iceland. We brought happiness to thousands. I still remember watching those Icelandic ministers rush out to get the DVDs and memory sticks. People were getting happy in the streets. Poor Bobby never made it back, he had to look whilst flying his plane...YOU WEREN'T THERE TIMMY STOP LAUGHING..." etc

[Maineiacs]

Iceland's Plan to Ban Internet Porn Sparks Uproar
Advocates say it is a sensible measure that will shelter children from serious harm

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/weird/NATL-Icelands-Plan-to-Ban-Internet-Porn-Sparks-Uproar-192964271.html


In the age of instant information, globe-spanning viral videos and the World Wide Web, can a thoroughly wired country become a porn-free zone? Authorities in Iceland want to find out.

The government of the tiny North Atlantic nation is drafting plans to ban pornography, in print and online, in an attempt to protect children from a tide of violent sexual imagery.

The proposal by Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson has caused an uproar. Opponents say the move will censor the Web, encourage authoritarian regimes and undermine Iceland's reputation as a Scandinavian bastion of free speech.

Advocates say it is a sensible measure that will shelter children from serious harm.

"When a 12-year-old types 'porn' into Google, he or she is not going to find photos of naked women out on a country field, but very hardcore and brutal violence," said Halla Gunnarsdottir, political adviser to the interior minister.

"There are laws in our society. Why should they not apply to the Internet?"

Gunnarsdottir says the proposals currently being drawn up by a committee of experts will not introduce new restrictions, but simply uphold an existing if vaguely worded law.

Pornography is already banned in Iceland, and has been for decades — but the term is not defined, so the law is not enforced. Magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse are on sale in book stores, and more hardcore material can be bought from a handful of sex shops. "Adult" channels form part of digital TV packages.

Iceland's left-of-center government insists it is not setting out to sweep away racy magazines or censor sex. The ban would define pornography as material with violent or degrading content.

Gunnarsdottir said the committee is still exploring the details of how a porn ban could be enforced. One possibility would be to make it illegal to pay for porn with Icelandic credit cards. Another, more controversial, route would be a national Internet filter or a list of website addresses to be blocked.

That idea has Internet-freedom advocates alarmed.

"This kind of thing does not work. It is technically impossible to do in a way that has the intended effect," said Smari McCarthy of free-speech group the International Modern Media Institute. "And it has negative side effects — everything from slowing down the Internet to blocking content that is not meant to be blocked to just generally opening up a whole can of worms regarding human rights issues, access to information and freedom of expression."

Despite its often chaotic appearance, the Internet is not a wholly lawless place. It is regulated, to varying degrees, around the world. Police monitor the net for child pornography and other illegal material, and service providers in many countries block offending sites.

Some governments also censor the Internet at a national level — though the likes of authoritarian Iran, North Korea and China are not countries liberal Iceland wants to emulate.

European countries including Britain, Sweden and Denmark ask Internet service providers to block child pornography websites, measures that have met with only limited opposition.

But broader filtering has mostly been resisted. A few years ago, Australia announced it would introduce an Internet filtering system to block websites containing material including child pornography, bestiality, sexual violence and terrorist content. After an outcry, the government abandoned the plan last year.

Critics say such filters are flawed and often scoop up innocent sites in their net — as when Denmark's child pornography filter briefly blocked access to Google and Facebook last year because of a glitch.

On the streets of Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, there was some support for a porn ban, but also skepticism about how it would work.

"I think this is a good idea, but I think it might be problematic to implement this," said shop assistant Ragnheidur Arnarsdottir. "It is difficult to fight technology."

Iceland's moves are being closely watched. It may be a tiny country of only 320,000 people, but its economic and social experiments — like its active volcanos — often have international impact.

For centuries economically dependent on fishing, Iceland transformed itself in the early 21st century into a pioneer of aggressive credit-driven banking. Then in 2008, the country's debt-burdened banks all collapsed, making Iceland the first and most dramatic casualty of the global financial crisis, and leaving a string of failed businesses around the world.

The economy is now bouncing back, aided by Iceland's status as one of the world's best connected countries, with one of the highest levels of Internet use on the planet. Recent initiatives to boost growth include plans to make Iceland a global center of media and technology freedom — a status that advocates like McCarthy fear could be threatened by an online porn ban.

Anti-porn activists, however, are hailing Iceland as a pioneer. It is certainly not afraid to go its own way. Although the country has largely liberal Scandinavian values, it broke with most of Europe in 2010 by banning strip clubs.

"This is a country with courage," said Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College in Boston and author of the book "Pornland."

"Iceland is going to be the first country with the guts to stand up to these predatory bullies from L.A. (in the porn industry)," she said. "It is going to take one country to show that this is possible."

But opponents say the project is both misguided and doomed.

"I can say with absolute certainty that this will not happen, this state filter," said Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir, a prominent advocate of online freedom.

She is confident those drafting the anti-porn measures will see the error of their ways. They may also run out of time — Iceland is due to hold parliamentary elections in April, and the unpopular coalition government could be thrown out.

Jonsdottir said the key to protecting children and others from hardcore harm is for citizens to better inform themselves about the Internet and how it works.

"People just have to make themselves a bit more knowledgeable about what their kids are up to, and face reality," she said.

Gunnarsdottir, the political adviser backing the ban, just hopes the emotional debate around the issue will cool down.

"I think we should be able to discuss the Internet with more depth, without just shouting censorship on the one hand and laissez-faire on the other hand," she said.

"Is it freedom of speech to be able to reach children with very hardcore, brutal material? Is that the freedom of speech we want to protect?"

So, NSG. What do you think about this?

I honestly believe that this will not work, and that it will achieve absolutely nothing. And even if they did pull this off, would it take to other countries that normally would not ban porn?

I also believe in the saying "When there is a will, there is a way." You can ban internet porn all you want, but if someone really wants to watch it, they will find a way to do so. And why just internet porn? You might as well ban all pornography at this rate. I mean it would be illegal to watch it on the internet, but you can still watch it from other sources (such as DVD, etc.)? Doesn't make much sense to me.

So what say you? Do you think this is a good idea? Or do you perhaps have a better idea than what Iceland is presenting?

Discuss.

Are you sure they meant to say Iceland, and not Kansas?

[Chinese Regions]

But someone has to upload said video and film said videos.

That's my point. Uploading and downloading videos isn't a problem, nobody is being hurt. It's the making of the video that hurts children.

The demand goes up though.

[Lolination]

By benefiting people who murdered someone in order to make a video of that murder.

How does possessing someone's video help the video creator?

[Choronzon]

I was a sheltered child. 8 is a guess those years kind of blend together. At youngest 6 maybe 7 but no older than 8. Pretty sure I was 8 though. I still though girls had deadly diseases a

The problem was your upbringing. Not the porn.

[Ifreann]

But I understand that to you sick pedophile liberals that is all the same, well it is not.

We're not all paedophiles, dear.

[Minoriteeburg]

I was a sheltered child. 8 is a guess those years kind of blend together. At youngest 6 maybe 7 but no older than 8. Pretty sure I was 8 though. I still though girls had deadly diseases a

The problem was your upbringing. Not the porn.

^This.

[The Rebel Alliances]

I was a sheltered child. 8 is a guess those years kind of blend together. At youngest 6 maybe 7 but no older than 8. Pretty sure I was 8 though. I still though girls had deadly diseases a

The problem was your upbringing. Not the porn.

So wait...7 and 8 year olds are supposed to watch porn?
Tell me I am mistaking your post.

[Lolination]

That's my point. Uploading and downloading videos isn't a problem, nobody is being hurt. It's the making of the video that hurts children.

The demand goes up though.

The demand doesn't change here, the supply does. In fact, outlawing child pornography decreases the supply of child pornography to the extent that it makes it much more profitable for parents to sell their children into porn. Child porn laws are essentially incentizing child abuse.

[TotallyNotEvilLand]

Yes, blame other people for your kids finding nasty things, not your crappy supervision.

[Tyrants]

By benefiting people who murdered someone in order to make a video of that murder.

How does possessing someone's video help the video creator?

Supply and demand etc.

[Oterro]

>possession of child pornography

le meme arrow right to privacy le meme arrow

[Ifreann]

By benefiting people who murdered someone in order to make a video of that murder.

How does possessing someone's video help the video creator?

Obviously because that was their goal: to distribute that video. By taking possession of it, you have helped them achieve that goal. Or do you imagine that videos get onto the internet of their own volition?

[Armenia II]

They can't ban Icelandic porn! It's my favourite, next to the furry stuff.

[Lolination]

You watch porn because you feel a desire (lust) for that and to get horny, watching some man burned is defintly not because you want to feel the same feeling as porn. In first case you are part of the crime since you have pleasure because of it, while in second case not.

But I understand that to you sick pedophile liberals that is all the same, well it is not.

It is proven that some people are aroused by violence and abuse, why else would sadomasochism be so popular? Some people are aroused by murder, so should it be illegal in this case?

[New England and The Maritimes]

Iceland is right in identifying the problem, but they're taking a hammer to it instead of the nuanced approach this social problem deserves, though I can't blame them since nobody else seems willing to take serious action to change the way western society thinks about sex.

[Night Elven Empire]

They can't ban Icelandic porn! It's my favourite, next to the furry stuff.

I've never even seen Icelandic porn.

I want to now before they ban it.

[Scholencia]

But I understand that to you sick pedophile liberals that is all the same, well it is not.

We're not all paedophiles, dear.

Yeah, you are right. You are just fighters for human rights.

the pedophiles have also human right why just give them some bunch of kids so that their human right are not violeted.

[Kvltway]

So, whatever happened to Iceland banning government censorship of the Internet (iirc)?

"When a 12-year-old types 'porn' into Google, he or she is not going to find photos of naked women out on a country field, but very hardcore and brutal violence," said Halla Gunnarsdottir, political adviser to the interior minister.

What, so you ban pictures of naked women out on a country field just because apparently "very hardcore and brutal violence" exists?

[Individuality-ness]

My gods, the stupidity of this proposal... it burns... Does Iceland not have parents or parental controls on their computers?