EU to vote on porn ban, calls for Internet enforcement

[The Straight Story]

The European Parliament will vote Tuesday on a proposal that could lead to a blanket ban on pornography in any forms of media with potentially wide-ranging implications for freedom and expression in the 27-member state bloc.

Passage of the proposal, "Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU," would allow the EU to help secure the rights for those across the gender spectrum, particularly women. While the report states that there is an "increasingly noticeable tendency...to show provocatively dressed women, in sexual poses," it also notes that pornography is becoming mainstream and is "slipping into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealized, cultural element."

But if adopted, the proposal could infringe certain civil liberties in the 500 million strong population.

Christian Engström, member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Pirate Party, said on his blog that the "devil is in the detail," warning that the wording in an older resolution from 1997 could lead to "statutory measures to prevent any form of pornography in the media."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57572947-93/eu-to-vote-on-porn-ban-calls-for-internet-enforcement/?ttag=fbwl

[cthulu2016]

1. Nice to know that crackpots the world 'round have so much time on their hands

[unreadierLizard]

2. Some people on this forum

and elsewhere may not like pornography, but as long as those taking part are consenting adults, then I don't have a problem with it.

This just REEKS of nanny-statism and it's frankly scary.

[MadHound]

3. This is not going to end well,

Not just free speech issues, but where do you draw the line. One person's porn is another person's art. Furthermore, how is this going to go over in countries like the Netherlands, which have legalized prostitution?

More stupidity that will end badly.

[DJ13]

4. I find it odd that a region with nudity on TV hates porn

[upaloopa]

5. I thought Europe had a more mature attitude about

things such as that compared to our puritanical morality.

[RC]

6. Again it is the "Leaders" deciding for the people, what the people want.

We, in this country have lots of experience in that department, on a variety of things like wars, taxes, bail-outs, Social Security and Medicare, health care, etc.

[Taverner]

7. WTF???

Get ready for the WAR ON PORN

[redqueen]

8. "rape" porn SHOULD be banned IMO.

A blanket ban seems unworkable, but Iceland bans the production or distribution of it and is working on blocking the more violent porn, which is something the UK also does, so that could be a workable goal.

Violence against women is a pandemic. Portraying violence against women as sexually arousing has to stop IMO. Whatever people get up to in their own bedrooms is their business, but producing material that most kids see before they're even teens, people have to stop mouthing libertarianish platitudes about freedom and consider reality.

Also a couple of Nordic countries already have laws limiting the amount of sexual objectification in ads, so, progress.

[geek tragedy]

10. Are they talking about prior restraint are ex post prosecutions?

I can see the latter with regard to rape porn, but the former seems like it could lead to abuse, if nothing else you could see someone censoring scenes meant to convey the horror of rape in legitimate films.

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Sorry, but this would be misused. For instance, footage of soldiers raping a woman would become

illegal and those trying to publicize war crimes could be made into criminals themselves. Plus, films and documentaries that try to portray the horrors of rape could be banned by prosecutors who are secretly sympathetic with rapists themselves.

Feminists in the US went through a "lets ban pornography" period. Until they realized that the first thing banned would be "Our Bodies, Ourselves."

[redqueen]

22. IMO, differentiaring violent material produced for purely prurient purposes

and as someone else put it, legitimate films, isn't impossible or even all that difficult.

As I said, banning all porn is probably unworkable.

[LittleBlue]

15. Nah, most of Europe doesn't have free speech

Banning rape porn would be an infringement. It's passed in Europe because they don't necessarily have free speech. For instance, the UK has racism laws that can get their citizens jailed for speech deemed "racist", which wouldn't fly in the US.

Trying to get a rape porn law passed is a waste of time with the First Amendment. The actual rape porns are pretty mild, usually to show that a rape isn't actually occurring. It's nothing compared to movies where the goal is to portray violent rape like Irreversible, which was unforgettably sickening.

[geek tragedy]

9. Bad idea.

Not a fan of that stuff, but letting bureaucrats determine what people are allowed to see, no thanks.

[DonCoquixote]

11. this is a weapon

That the mosques and cathedrals of the EU will use to gain back influence, pouring money to people who just by coincidence happen to be their enemies.

[McCamy Taylor]

12. But porn finances the Internet. There would be no Internet w/o porn.

[LittleBlue]

14. Porn will never be banned, nor should it

If you don't like porn, don't watch it. Simple.

Some porn is disgusting to me. I don't watch it. It's an easy solution for everyone. We don't need modern day prohibition movements policing morality for consenting adults.

[jsr]

16. Good luck with the enforcement part

[Fumesucker]

17. Well, I guess it's back to the Sears catalog for horny EU males

[dairydog91]

18. Even if they ban porn, people will just take the law into their own hands.

[Comrade Grumpy]

19. What about gay porn?

[Initech]

20. They can have my porn when they pry it from my cold dead sticky fingers!

[name not needed]

21. So let me get this straight.

If I go to Germany, for example, it would be legal for me to have sex with a prostitute, but if I'm watching porn in my hotel room, it's a crime.

[KharmaTrain]

23. Don't They Learn???

...technology is and will remain two steps ahead of legislators...trying to ban something that is already out is a futile exercize that just encourages a "black market" that will find ways to work around the laws. Trying to ban music downloading failed as is the attempts to regulate the internet as its too vast to completely shut down. Ban a site here and determined users will move offshore and work around any and all attempts to block them. Litigation is also costly and lengthy and doesn't assure the prohibition will succede...if anything, over time, it will become more and more of a target for those who want to "beat the system".

In general, censorship doesn't work very well as it only calls more attention to the issue they want to shut up...and not in the light they want to shine on it...

[OldDem2012]

24. Slippery slope. No matter what we may think of pornography personally, where will the....

...control of free speech and expression stop? What will they try to ban next?

Or is this more about attempting to control the Internet itself?