Could Porn Be Censored in America?

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Some reminded people that the major web companies like Google, Microsoft’s Bing, Facebook and Tumblr have adopted “zero tolerance” policies restricting child sexual imagery and that these companies work with CEOP’s existing blacklist. Even the Economist  pointed out that some small towns in the UK, like Scunthorpe, in Lincolnshire, could be blocked, as “scunt” is slang for vagina. The BBC noted that the filtering program Cameron wants the Brits to adopt, called Homesafe, is supplied by Huawei, a Chinese company; the UK’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) raised serious concerns about the company’s practices. Some even see Cameron’s anti-porn campaign as a cynical political move aimed at wooing women voters. He has been accused of being a hypocrite for railing against online porn but refusing to condemn Murdoch-owned Sun’s page 3 depictions of half-naked women. 

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The UK is not the only country attempting to ban online porn. A similar effort is underway in Europe. The Nordic Council is moving to ban websites considered "anti-women" and anti-porn feminists and Christian conservatives are active in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Denmark established a web blacklist, and in 2008, WikiLeaks published it; it was riddled with errors, listing many non-porn sites.

Over the last few years, Iceland undertook a wide-ranging campaign to regulate the sex industry. The distribution and selling of pornography has been officially illegal since 1869. Nevertheless,  Playboy and Penthouse are available at bookstores, sex shops offer more hardcore materials and adult channels are on digital TV services. In 2009, Iceland introduced fines and prison terms for men who patronize prostitutes (the sex workers are not subject to the penalties as they are considered victims). In 2010, Iceland outlawed strip clubs. According to the Economist, legislators are finalizing how the porn ban could be enforced. They are considering two options: one would make it illegal to pay for porn with an Icelandic credit card; the other would be the adoption of a filter to block blacklisted sites and words.

Opposition to the further regulation of online content in Iceland is being led by Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an MP, an online activist associated with WikiLeaks and chair of the International Modern Media Institute in Reykjavik. She has rallied considerable support both in Iceland and throughout Europe opposing the ban as incompatible with a free society.

Norway represents a unique nation in the anti-porn wars. A recent study by EU Kids Online, based at the London School of Economics and Political Science and funded by the EC’s Safer Internet Program, EUkids, found that 46 percent of Norwegian children viewed pornography in general and 34 percent watch pornographic content online. In comparison, 23 percent of young people in Europe viewed pornography in general and 14 percent viewed it on the Internet.

In Norway, it is legal to show uncensored sex between adults in print but not on cable TV. Nevertheless, commercial sex was banned in 2009. Efforts are now underway to ban porn on the Internet.

In March, the European Union parliament began considering regulations that would ban pornography across all media, including the web. Kartika Liotard, a Dutch feminist and leftist, introduced the proposed legislation. It seeks to establish a European-wide regulatory agency with "a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualization of girls."

Meanwhile, in Austrialia, the government introduced a mandatory filtering program in May 2008 as part of a $125.8 million “Cybersafety Plan." A pilot program was launched in 2009 and met with fierce resistance from the online community. In late 2012, the Australian government formally abandoned plans to impose porn filtering. Instead of imposing the burden of self-censorship on the end-user, ISPs like Telstra, Optus and iPrimus agreed to voluntarily block sites listed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, thus policing their sites for child abuse materials. According to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, "Australia's largest ISPs have been issued notices requiring them to block these illegal sites in accordance with their obligations under the Telecommunications Act 1997."