The UK porn ban isn’t a new concept to anyone. Last year the UK banned facesitting and female ejaculation. Now they’ve set up even more ways of censoring material they deem inappropriate. The new censorship is hidden within the new Age Verification law they will be implementing.
“The government is committed to keeping children safe from harmful pornographic content online and that is exactly what we are doing,” proclaims Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The biggest reason for the push on the new censorship she has ben pushing for, or at least, the biggest argument she uses in public.
“Only adults should be allowed to view such content.” What she doesn’t go on to say is
“However we, the government, will decide what content adults are allowed to view!”
Because this is more than simply protecting the children. This is telling grown adults what material they are allowed, and not allowed to view. After all, websites that don’t comply with the new porn rules will be banned from the UK and it’s viewers.
Is the content they are filtering out illegal activities? Well, no, they’re perfectly normal, natural things that happen to people during intercourse. Perhaps the content promotes domestic violence and undermines females? Surely banning female ejaculation is more undermining of woman as it gives the message that the government won’t stand for female pleasure being shown.
If the acts are non illegal between two consenting adults, is it the right of the government to tell us what we can and can not watch? Because someone has decided that 3 fingers inside an orifice is ok, but 4 fingers is too far and will not be allowed. If that sounds silly, it’s because it is.
But because the subject is pornography, because the rules seem small and silly, it’s easy to get it into law. People will read the articles, shake their heads, mutter than our government are prudes, then proceed to do nothing. Proceed to let them start censoring the material we are allowed to view online.
It starts with porn. But the law is very specific about regulating “adult content” which is very vague. What counts as adults? Remember when the NHS website was blocked for having the worlds “vagina” and “nipple”? Or when a suicide helpline website was blocked for being too adult?
How are they going to track what people watch anyway? After all, they cant simply spy on all of us when we watch porn. Well actually they can. The UK has also passed a new bill that let’s them record your browsing history for the past year, with a warrant. The bill gives secret service agencies the right to hack into your computer. They are also looking at ways to ban the use of VPNs, or at least, give themselves a backdoor should you try using them.
So what happens in the future when we have set the precedent that the government is allowed to decide what is morally acceptable to view and what needs to be blocked, as well as having the power to check through your personal information and browser history without your consent?