Pornography
Pornography, or porn, is the depiction of explicit sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual excitement. Pornography is often targeted by certain groups for censorship. These groups feel that pornography is immoral and offensive, and, in some cases, blasphemous. In all cases, however, it isn't necessarily a particular group working towards censorship; in the case of child pornography, the majority of the public supports complete censorship. In the world of ever advancing technology, it is now possible to virtually generate pornography with 3D characters, including fictional characters, "furries", or semblance of children. This raises new ethical issues for the role of censorship, as in the case of Virtual Child Pornography. No child has been involved in the making of such material, and the ethicality of viewing is based on the viewer and the image rather than the process of production.
Types of Pornography
1. Visual Pornography
- Pornographic Pictures
- This category may include adult magazines and internet websites. Pornography that falls under this category has a wide distribution and is easily available.
- Pornographic Videos
- This category may include distributable video (i.e.: VHS, DVD, etc) and internet websites. Pornography that falls under this category has a lower physical availability (i.e.: physical video pornography is available at adult bookstores and similar adult themed shops), although, it has a high availability via the internet.
2. Audio Pornography
- Phone Sex
- This category involves services where patrons interact, over the phone, with an operator.
- Recorded Erotic Readings
- This category involves recorded reading of erotic texts.
3. Virtual Pornography
- With the advancement of computer generated images, pornography can be virtually generated. In this sphere of pornography, effectively anything can be visualized.
See Virtual Child Pornography.
4. Child Pornography
- Child Pornography, also known as kiddie porn, in the United States is pornography where at least one of the models/actors/etc is under 18 years of age.
- Legality
- In the United States, and many other countries, child pornography is culturally and strictly illegal. Convictions of possession have large penalties (including hefty fines and jail time), and convictions of manufacturing or distributing, or in any other way creating child pornography, lead to even more serious punishments.
For the legality, see Virtual Child Pornography.
- In 2001 a club called the "Wonderland Club" was created by a group of pedophiles who traded images of children on the Internet.
- The group consisted of 7 men who had very easy access to sexual images of children, a way to contact each other, and promote child pornography
- Because these pictures are on the internet, they can remain there for a very long time, which leads to the continuation of the abuse the children are already getting from these images.
- Can encourage new modes of sexual expression while also encouraging, negatively, abusive behavior.
- Today, kids are able to quickly and easily share photographs of themselves, that they have personally taken, with their friends via internet and multimedia text message. The laws surrounding the prosecution of minors involved in child pornography are still being developed as they emerge in the U.S. judicial system.
Ethics of Pornography
The ethical implications of pornography are tough to gauge. Many factors such as religion and morals determine whether or not individuals believe pornography is ethically acceptable. Many concerns over pornography steam from its availability on the World Wide Web. Certain features such as content control helps to control the access of pornography which can prevent underage kids from wandering onto adult sites.
As of December 6, 2011 various news agencies, such as CNN, reported that certain domain names would be change to .xxx[1]. They claimed this would be similar to .edu and .org sites that enlighten users to what content will be found on the site.
See Also
- Censorship
- Kay Mathiesen
- Virtual Child Pornography
- Virtual Reality and Computer Simulations - Philip Brey
- Phototruth
