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Home > Virtual Sex & Entertainment > Report Reveals Censorship of Internet Pornography Is Prevalent Worldwide

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Home›Virtual Sex & Entertainment›Report Reveals Censorship of Internet Pornography Is Prevalent Worldwide

Report Reveals Censorship of Internet Pornography Is Prevalent Worldwide

By M. Christian
September 8, 2021
1718
0

In countries where it is legal, consistent regulation is lacking.

Young woman in white bed wearing black socks watching a Mac computer screen.

A recent study from the Internet security firm Comparitech revealed various levels of Internet censorship around the world.

Comparitech’s researchers “conducted a country-by-country comparison to see which countries impose the harshest internet restrictions and where citizens can enjoy the most online freedom.”

The researchers found that bans on “pornography” are in place in countries around the world.

Even where pornography isn’t banned outright, the vague definition of illegal, “obscene” material leads to worrisome shadow bans. This can have a pernicious effect on sex education materials, LGBTQ+-oriented sites, and more.

The countries that top the list

China and North Korea top the list of countries with strong censorship policies. Both countries ban Western social media, messaging apps like WhatsApp, and silence political speech.

Iran is third on the list, due to the government’s strict policing of material from political dissidents, social media platforms, and more.

Next are Belarus, Qatar, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Bans on pornography are common

Graphical depiction of Online Censorship in Europe from least censored to most censored

Each of the countries that top the list have a blanket ban of Internet pornography. Thailand experienced the most significant overall rise in censorship, largely because of the government’s overarching ban on anything adult entertainment-related.

Similarly, fourteen African countries restrict pornography, while Uganda, Eritrea, Tanzania, and Equatorial Guinea outright ban access.

In a promising turn of events, Uganda may be forced to ease up on its current restrictions after a recent Supreme Court ruling struck down the country’s anti-pornography legislation.

The countries mentioned above are highlighted in the report as the worst overall offenders, but dozens of additional countries also ban or severely restrict pornography.

The confusion around pornography

Even in countries that don’t restrict pornography outright, the complicated question of what to penalize and what to allow can create confusion.

The United States Supreme Court provided an infamous example of this confusion in 1964. In a decision for a case on obscenity in films, Justice Potter Stewart notoriously wrote that he couldn’t explicitly describe hard-core pornography, but that “I know it when I see it.”

This phrase sums up the problem with countries attempting to censor pornography: no one has ever been able to put together a satisfying definition of what it is and when it’s “offensive” or “obscene.”

Unfortunately, countries tend to respond to this issue by casting too wide a net.

Doing more harm than good

Graphical depiction of Online Censorship in Oceania Original from least censored to most censored

For an example of this over-reach, just look at Australia’s Online Content Bill. Despite being written to criminalize revenge porn sites, the lawmakers behind it may end up doing more harm than good.

Some Australian lawmakers publicly oppose the bill, stating concerns that it may be exploited or used to cast blanket bans in the future.

Look no further than in the United States for too many examples of overzealous anti-porn internet blocking.

In April of this year, Them drew attention to an often-used school security program that’s been erroneously flagging LGBTQIA+ health and wellness sites as porn. The same program was granting students access to hate speech platforms.

Take note

The Comparitech report should make everyone sit up and pay attention.

After all, that’s what it’s there for: to point out how countries like Thailand, Greece, and many others prevent their citizens from communicating with others, expressing their opinions, and learning whatever they want about the world around them.

But another takeaway should be how devilishly easy it is to restrict access in the name of trying to save people.

Images sources: Paul Deluvio/Unsplash, Comparitech

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.
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