Slashdot Mirror
EU To Vote On Proposal That Could Ban All Online Pornography
An anonymous reader writes "The European Union is voting on a proposal next week that could lead to a blanket ban on porn in member states, and it seems the measure may well be approved. The proposal, called 'Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU,' mentions issues such as women carrying a 'disproportionate share of the burden' when raising a family, violence against women as 'an infringement of human rights,' and gender stereotypes that develop early in life. From the proposal: "Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism." Update: 03/07 19:05 GMT by T : Pirate MEP Christian Engström writes on his blog that citizens writing to the European Parliament about the proposal are not necessarily being heard: "Before noon, some 350 emails [on this topic] had arrived in my office. But around noon, these mails suddenly stopped arriving. When we started investigating why this happened so suddenly, we soon found out: The IT department of the European Parliament is blocking the delivery of the emails on this issue, after some members of the parliament complained about getting emails from citizens."
then gay male porn is all good, yeah?
has to do with topless women peddling orange juice in adverts on television.. not "porn" in general.
Next on the lawmakers' agenda: requiring all politicians to be honest, and banning all people from eating junk food.
Ezekiel 23:20
Porn is a release, not an inspiration.
I understand that it is a legal document that exists in several languages including english, i guess I'm just wondering if the EU definition of the term is any less nebulous that the US's "I know it when i see it."
Because power isn't about taking enlightened logical decisions for the greater good.
And speaking of women's rights, are they going to ban Berlesconi too? I mean, I'm in favor of banning him, but not for that reason.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
This is exactly why consolidation and centralization of power is so dangerous: it leverages the injustice that inevitably results from coercive authority. Whatever flavor of injustice is currently in fashion will be extended and compounded by orders of magnitude. Instead of the isolated cases of injustice that result from small independent states, what you get with consolidation of political power is a nuclear explosion of injustice.
Of course, for the elite few at the top of the pyramid, consolidation of power is the road to riches.
Does it matter? It's censorship. Why do we think any intrusion on people's private lives is OK?
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Rick Falkvinge of the Swedish Pirate Party has a good summary of the attempt to ban porn as well as a call to action. Apparently getting e-mail through to the parliamentarians is not as straight forward as one might wish. Christian EngstrÃm, MEP, also of the Swedish Pirate Party has a good analysis of the attempted ban. Basically it's a grab at control and censorship under another guise.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Two words only are needed to show why any attempt to ban anything on the Internet is doomed to fail. Both words are proper nouns. The first is "Tor", an onion routing system that means it can be virtually impossible to connect an end user with a particular server. Moreover, there are "hidden" services that do not even show on the main web. The second is "Freenet", the distributed peer-to-peer encrypted network (with built in darknet for those who want or need it). A third word, "Bitcoin", allows a thriving marketplace, and when proper laundries are in place, an effectively anonymous marketplace.
The mere fact of countries like the USA, where pornography cannot be banned, means that any attempt to ban it in another freeish place will be quite difficult.
But that's technical stuff.
While I can understand the desire to eliminate gender stereotypes, and it is something I fully support, I don't see how banning pornography in the media can help. I also think that it's a wrong-headed move from a free speech point of view.
Pornography is not just men fucking women for the pleasure of other men. Human sexuality is so broad and varied, and porn is, as a consequence, broad and varied. Personally, I see porn as a positive thing in society, allowing people to experience their sexuality in the privacy of their own bedroom. A young teenage boy wondering whether it is really wrong, as his class mates, teachers, parents, and community say, for boys to like other boys, can find solace in the Internet. And jack-off to gay porn. And that's a good thing. Maybe a young teenage girl is wondering if her feelings towards some of her friends are normal. She can find lesbian, bisexual, and varied other porn on the Internet to help her confront her feelings. And that's a good thing. And the stories can be much broader than those as well.
I do object to a lot of porn out there. The degrading humiliating porn. The stuff where it looks like the female actor is actually not enjoying herself at all. But that does not mean the answer is to ban all porn.
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
"Porn: anything the powerful doesn't want plebes to have." And here I thought Europe was civilized and we Americans were the dummies. How could they ever enforce this, have a Chinese style firewall around Europe? Do they think all the porn comes from Europe?
Idiots. Just like us, passing totally unenforceable laws.
Free Martian Whores!
Even if violence against women were the most important issue today, this resolution is lacking some sort of reference to actual SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that pornography is the cause. For years, people have been blaming games, movies, and TV for everything with no actual reasoning behind it.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Because... it's a cultural thing. It doesn't have to make sense! It's only mutilation if the other tribe does it. If we do the same, it's a perfectly respectable practice.
You know they can't even get rid of the child porn out there and somehow they think they'll succeed with porn in general? Luck with that.
And yet the countries where women are most unequal are also those which have heavy restrictions on pornography,
I guess all the other problems facing EU have been solved?
It's not about 'think of the children.' Read the article. It's about protecting women's rights. It comes from the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. Some feminist groups oppose porn, for various reasons. The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality is one of those.
Among other things, if you read the article, they feel pornography encourages the culture that allows women to make less money than men.
Thankfully, there are nations that have already banned pornography and are hailed as beacons of Woman's Rights, like Saudi Araba, Egypt, China, North Korea, Guyana, and Botswana.
More Twoson than Cupertino
You know...an unrestricted internet is what we started out with, and that un-restriction is what allowed it to grow and thrive in such a short period of time (look at the vast difference between about say 1993 and 2013).
Why should we try to restrict it now, just as it is becoming pervasive enough that so many in the world now can connect and express their view points.
This is mostly govt.s trying to put the genie back in the bottle because they didn't see this coming when it started.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Banning ads for sex tourism should be a no-brainier I would hope.
Not at all. The no-brainer is that sex tourism should be legal and regulated, just like any other industry. Tax them and use that money to enforcefair working conditions. Problem solved.
It is merely trying to remove negative stereotypes from everyday media
Negative according to who? And why do they get to decide what is negative?
It isn't about being puritanical, it is about protecting people from well understood psychological harm.
Exactly what sort of harm are you talking about? How is sending the message that sex is positive and desirable more harmful than sending the message that sex is dirty and should be hidden?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I think the difference is that libertarians usually acknowledge the negative impacts, but provide a weighted argument that the overall freedom is worth the cost. Are the feminists acknowledging the negative impacts of imposing censorship on broad segments of the populace?
Actually, people came to America because they couldn't properly oppress the people back in Europe that did not have quite their exact brand of puritanism...
So, exactly when did parent 'lose' the ability to control their children? My parents did quite a good job of it...they told me what I could and could not watch on TV, the TV being in all public rooms. I didn't get a phone in my room or a tv till I was in High School.
What is the world is so difficult in keeping the computer the children access in a room where they are easily observed while on it? Who says you have to give a child a fucking cell phone?!? Don't give them on till they're old enough for one.
Seriously, when exactly did we switch from the parents having 100% authority and responsibility for the raising of their offspring and start to unload it on the public in general. When, exactly did parents lose the ability to control their children, and instill in the kids the fear of God (so to speak) of the repercussions if they broke the rules?
And yes, when I grew up, both my parents worked....I knew where the loaded guns were in the house, I had been taught how to use and fire the weapon, but I never once even THOUGHT about going to get it out to play with it or show it off, etc. WTF happened since I grew up....are kids more stupid or are they not parented properly? This is just an example and carries over to anything.
The parent can control who's house the kids visit...they can control what and how much TV they consume, same with video games and computer/internet time.
This should not be a problem, it wasn't in the past, why is it such a "burden" now?
If you are going to fuck and have kids...you have to be prepared to make the sacrifice of $$ and TIME that you have to devote not to yourself as a human being, but use that time as a fucking PARENT, and spend whatever time and set whatever rules and enforce the rules on your children.
Internet time and access is one more that is added on in the modern world
Be a parent....and also remember...you do not have to give little Johnny or Susie or Shenequa everything they ask for, and just because a friend has it, doesn't mean THEY have to have it too.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Among other things, if you read the article, they feel pornography encourages the culture that allows women to make less money than men.
The really ironic part of that statement is that pornography is one of the fields where women make much more money than men.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
Excuse me? Hello!? How they bloody dare to complain about getting emails from their employers?
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
The story just gets funnier as you read it:
"...The IT department of the European Parliament is blocking the delivery of the emails on this issue, after some members of the parliament complained about getting emails from citizens."
EU Parliament is a triumph of democracy, clearly.
Really, the moment I start to think that nothing could be more ridiculous than the US Congress, there I go, proved wrong again.
-Styopa
Ya know, I USED to argue against that "feminists are all man haters" stereotypes...until I saw the widely praised Vagina Monologues. Anybody else notice that the plays says quite clearly pedophilia is okay as long as its a woman doing the raping? And yet at the time all I saw from feminists was praise for the play. I mean how fucked up in the head do you got to be to say being a pedo is okay as long as its woman on girl? For those that don't know what I'm talking about look up the original play and the dialog for "little coochie snorcher" which I swear to God even has the line "If it was rape it was a good rape"". I mean can you imagine how crucified an author would be if they came out with a play where a woman praised her male rapist for "giving it to her good"? Feminism got hijacked by the nutbags and passed the exit for sanity a few miles back.
As for TFA this is another trend I've noticed from the militant feminists, that all non lesbian sex is rape. Its kinda funny how much they actually sound like the old Victorians, how women couldn't possibly WANT to have sex or ENJOY sex in any way, the only real spin they put on it is that lesbians are the exception to the rule since there are no dirty rapist men involved. Kinda ironic that they refuse to acknowledge that one of the most profitable genres in porn these days is so called "chick porn" where they use exotic locations and hunky guys to appeal to a mostly female audience.
But of course just like how the founder of MADD don't want anything to do with them anymore and PETA went from treating animals ethically to actually arguing that antibiotics were murder because you are killing germs and fish should be called "sea kittens" so people wouldn't eat them (I swear, look it up) the feminist movement got hijacked by the nutballs awhile back and have gone so militant I doubt the original feminsts, who from what I saw simply wanted equal pay and to be treated equally in the workplace, would scarcely recognize it anymore.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.