Internet Pornography: Freedom of Speech or Just Too Much Freedom



Internet Pornography: Freedom of Speech or Just Too Much Freedom

Introduction

Liberal perspective on pornography emphasizes that the free flow of ideas is so valuable to the discovery of sexual truths and erotic art and literature that it should be interrupted only when a grave harm to another person occurs as a result of exposure to sex-related materials. The threshold for censorship should be set high to guard against frivolous attempts to censor ideas that are taboo now but may be acceptable later. This position emphasizes that as long as the recipient of sexually explicit messages restricts his or her behavior to private actions, such as sexual fantasy, or only acts on these ideas with a consenting partner, society has no right to interfere. For example, only if it can be shown that consumption of sex depictions is causally related to rape or other violent crimes can the government regulate such depictions (Delta and Jeffrey, 2002).

No effect short of these direct threats of violence is sufficient justification for society to interfere with the individual's right to view sex-related materials and with the right of others to produce it. This position embraces findings such as the meta-analyses focusing on the use of pornography by convicted sex offenders, as compared with men from the noncriminal general population. Studies have examined several types of dependent measures, including frequency of pornography use, age at first exposure, the degree to which pornography was a prelude to some sexual act, and degree of sexual arousal. The findings showed a slight difference but not one that was judged to be reliable. This paper discusses that internet pornography cannot be termed as freedom of speech. It is too much freedom which spoils our youth in name of freedom of speech.

Discussion

This theory of freedom of expression has led to concerns with methodological problems in laboratory studies on the effects of sexually explicit materials. For example, in the laboratory, only attitudes toward rape or, at best, physiological arousal can be measured, not, of course, actual rapes. However, these critics point out, when privately consumed, pornography is often associated with masturbation or consenting sex, and thus (Delta and Jeffrey, 2002), laboratory settings may be dissimilar to the typical experience with pornography. By attempting to simply arouse subjects in the laboratory, such studies ignore completely the potential that pornography consumption and masturbation may serve as a substitute for rape that results from the use of pornography to release sexual tension.

These critics note that the incidence of rape in the United Kingdom has actually declined in the past 25 years, while pornography has become freely available to teenagers and adults through the Internet. Studies have shown, for example, that while the nationwide incidence of rape was showing a drastic decline, the incidence of rape in the four states having the least access to the Internet showed an increase over the same time period. The four states having the most access to the Internet have shown ...