There have been many detrimental stories which have hit the media within the last year however, the headline which appears to not have stopped discussion and debate is the pornogaphy ban which is being reinforced by David Cameron within the UK.
Within today’s democratic society and with the inflation of internet and various websites varying from the sublime to the ridiculous anything is accessible and just a click away. Generally, this is something which is embraced due to the freedom of choice and speech reaching its optimum utilisation. However, with David Cameron banning pornography by default and progressing further to ban extreme pornography questions arise as to whether this is the right action to implement within a democratic country? I believe it is.
Pornography roughly consumes 50% of the internet and more than 50% of your time if you are an adolescent male, it is the recreational activity which although everyone is aware of ( and probably consuming) is still classed as a taboo subject and hardly even whispered about within the conservative Britain. Paradoxically however, if you have never watched it then you are part of the minority.
All seems harmless from the average outsider but let me leave you to ponder about these following points. Say for example if a nine year old child came across the explicit pornographic world where the underlying message of most of these images and videos usually highlight the degradation of women and signify the body as a mere sexual object surely there would be a need for concern?
Secondly, if children are accidentally coming across these images on a regular basis just like how their TV programmes are normal to them wouldn’t this normalise and neutralise the explicit and mature content which is labelled for eighteen year old’s and over for a specific purpose?
This also leads to greater concerns due to the moral panic which has manifested from cases such as Jimmy Saville highlighting the paedophelic tendencies which are attributed to the minority of the nation. Through the virtual world, where there is an evidential blur between reality and facades, children are targeted by these abusers to exchange photos of their young and fragile bodies not understanding what the intentions and motives are from the pedophiles grooming them.
Many have voiced their opinions against this ban which is being pushed within the Government with members of Cameron’s own party stating that people should not be restricted when it comes to watching ‘legal’ porn. However, I argue that this is not an infringement on democracy it is the transformation and progression of law being endeavoured within the world wide web realm. Laws have been enforced not to restrict our democracy but to protect it and us, from these examples given alone surely this depicts that if laws to ban pornography are not put in place then the judiciary system and the Government are doing democracy and the citizens within it a disservice? I believe this would be the case.