February 26, 2013 | Online

Iceland hoping to freeze out porn

Iceland's government is planning on blocking Internet porn, and is busy drafting plans to ban it to, supposedely to protect children from violent sexual imagery.  

"When a 12-year-old types 'porn' into Google, he or she is not going to find photos of naked women out on a country field, but very hardcore and brutal violence," argued Halla Gunnarsdottir, political adviser to the interior minister. "Is it freedom of speech to be able to reach children with very hardcore, brutal material? Is that the freedom of speech we want to protect?"

The country seems to have an uncomfortable relationship with sex. Two years ago, the government passed a law closing down all strip clubs, claiming they were demeaning to women. And it already has a ban against pornography, a ban that is hard to enforce because the term 'pornography' has never been clearly defined by the courts. 

The government insists it is only targeting material deemed violent or degrading. Of course, that could potentially include spanking, cumming on someone's face, swallowing cum, watersports, leather, non-missionary positions and bondage fantasies. It's a slippery slope to banning everything. 

The government is considering several options. One option would be a country-wide firewall blocking specific porn sites (akin to what one would find in Iran or China). Another idea is to make it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards for porn purchases.

"This kind of thing does not work. It is technically impossible to do in a way that has the intended effect," countered Smari McCarthy of the International Modern Media Institute. "And it has negative side effects – everything from slowing down the internet to blocking content that is not meant to be blocked to just generally opening up a whole can of worms regarding human rights issues, access to information and freedom of expression."

Australia flirted with a similar online ban, hoping to curtail access to child pornography, bestiality, sexual violence and terrorist content. But the outcry was so intense the government abandoned the plan last year. 

The UK gave up on a similar attempt (although certain sites that include child pornography are blocked by Internet Service Providers).

"The fact is, there's simply no way to regulate the Internet with a scalpel," Motherboard's Derek Mead pointed out. "It's impossible, unless the answer is to bar all access to the Internet at large and replace it with a state-run intranet like Iran or North Korea. But lawmakers in the West increasingly seem to think that either they can, or more likely that citizens won't know or care enough to protest as the rights they'd expect [in real life] disappear online."

Lost in the argument is the fact that parents have a responsibility to monitor and restrict their own children's access to web materials and to teach their kids the difference between real life and play-acting.

Iceland considers pornography ban [The Telegraph]

Why Does Iceland's Proposed Porn Ban Matter? [MotherBoard]

Can Iceland succeed in its bid to ban online pornography?  [Irish Examiner]

Man challenges pornography laws [Iceland Review]