The History of Modern Pornography

The following paper analyzes the evolution of pornography from 1527 until 2009. It addresses the people, inventions, events and phenomena that have shaped pornography's modern history. This paper has identified four meaningful trends.

Via ASP site:

Stephen Conroy and US at odds on net filter

THE Obama administration has questioned the Rudd government's plan to introduce an internet filter, saying it runs contrary to the US's foreign policy of encouraging an open internet to spread economic growth and global security.
Officials from the State Department have raised the issue with Australian counterparts as the US mounts a diplomatic assault on internet censorship by governments worldwide.

The news is a blow to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, who is defending the plan for internet companies to mandatorily block illegal and abhorrent websites -- for instance, child pornography -- but faces growing opposition.

Link (ASP):

Goldfields teacher on child sex charges

A Goldfields school teacher has been charged with possessing 30,000 images and more than 7000 videos of child pornography.

Police spokesman Greg Lambert said the man was charged with 15 counts of possessing child pornography after a raid on his house in August last year.

Link:

Good old fashioned policing solved this one. Would the filter have helped of hindered?

ASP's Fiona Patten gives a talk about censorship.

Talk recorded by the ABC's Big Ideas
First of five videos.

A few talking points:
. Politicians can see porn, Senator Harradine could show it to politicians but we can't see it cause it will harm us.
. Clive Hamilton (The Australia Institute) drove the need to filter... now he's running for the Greens.
. Wallace represents a small minority of people and want to force their ideas onto everyone.
. 30% of politicians attend prayer meetings but only 8% of Australians attend church - they are over-represented.
. Female ejaculation and small breasts will be RC and therefore banned.
. The Christian Lobby has raised $150k to lobby the government.
. ASP questions the tax status of religious proselytizing.
. Sheila Jeffries and ACL are allies in trying to get the filter in place.
. No Australian politician has lost a seat on an anti-sex platform.
. Australian politicians are frightened of the christian lobbies.
. The name "Australian Sex Party" was deliberate. Don Chip said that getting noticed was the hardest part of starting out.
. Greens have approached them on sex issues for comment.
. Books: "The Family" and "God Under Howard"
. Beasley's father was in the "Moral Rearmament" movement.
. Gamers are anti-filter but their homophobia doesn't allow them to support the ASP. Do they imagine that the major parties are on their side.
. Anti-biker laws could stop the ASP from calling a meeting between shops wanting to discuss selling X-rated videos cause it's against the law.
. Political parties are exempt from anti-discrimination laws so they can discriminate against women and minorities.

Internet's not special, says communications minister

But Mark Newton, an engineer with ISP internode, said: "Censorship will not catch a single pedophile, will not cause a single image to disappear from the internet, will not protect a single child."

Senator Conroy also brushed aside concerns from leading academics and technology companies that the plan to block a blacklist of "refused classification" (RC) websites for all Australians was an attempt to shoe-horn an offline classification model into a vastly different online world.

"Why is the internet special?," he asked, saying the net was "just a communication and distribution platform".

"This argument that the internet is some mysti...

Link:

'Rape simulator' game goes viral amid calls for censorship

Attempts to ban a deplorable "rape simulator" video game have only caused it to spread virally across the internet, leading to calls for sites hosting the game to be blocked by internet censors.

Karen Willis, executive officer of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, said in a phone interview that the existence of material such as the RapeLay video game, which lets players simulate stalking and raping young girls, made internet filters, such as those proposed by the government, necessary.

Link:

This is a distasteful game. If a friend felt that it was good fun I would question being their friend.

The calls to ban the game have given it massive coverage.

Rape fantasy doesn't particularly turn into rape. Many sexual fantasies are deliberately kept as fantasy. We often don't want to spoil our fantasies by playing them out in the real world. Rape rates are falling in liberal democracies where pornography is freely available.

In the end, it's fun to be indignant and hard work to do the work and prove your case.

Parents Music Resource Center

The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was an American committee formed in 1985 by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice President Al Gore; Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker; Pam Howar, wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar; and Sally Nevius, wife of Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius. They were known as the "Washington wives" - a reference to their husbands' connections with the federal government. The Center eventually grew to include 22 participants.

Link - Wikipedia

History doesn't repeat but it often rhymes. Look at the list of songs. Did they really harm you? They didn't harm me.

Government goes to war with Google over net censorship

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has launched a stinging attack on Google and its credibility in response to the search giant's campaign against the government's internet filtering policy.

Link SMH:

I posted a comment (me and nearly 700 other people)
It probably wont get put up.

Conroy's plan to equalize the current censorship of videos and books and the internet has merit. Let's get rid of censorship entirely.

I'm not against classification so that people don't get a nasty fright. The DVD player is such a wonderful baby sitter after all. Classification laws need one more category: Unclassified. Parents know that there could be anything on there so don't give it to the kids.

I'm an adult. If I want to watch adult material - we are talking about just normal sex like hundreds of thousands of Australians are doing right now - what does that have to do with Senator Conroy and his ACMA.

He says that this isn't about banning porn but so much porn is banned. Excellent, sex positive porn like Tony Comstock's films showing positive, conscentual loving sex between loving, sexual partners. That is a definite No-no.

Porn is part of a person's sexuality. According to 'The Porn Report' - based on a long term, peer reviewed study, not a hunch or a religion - 1/3 of people like porn and people either like it or they don't, there is little point in trying to convince people otherwise just like GLBTI people. Conversion doesn't work because our sexuality is hard wired into us. Try converting a straight person to GLBTI, it doesn't work. Politicians have no place interfering with other peoples sexuality.

Senator Conroy announced the filter results to the Australian Christian Lobby before the public. With the Vatican besieged by child abuse allegations I wonder why we allow our actions to be informed by people who claim to have a direct line to god.

Conroy to go on ABC Radio National

Conroy to go on ABC Radio National 6pm tomorrow.

You'll be able to listen online after if you miss it.

The federal government will introduce mandatory internet filtering this year. And after recent abuse appearing on Facebook memorial sites, the government is also looking at establishing an internet ombudsman. So how far should control of the internet go for the sake of making the online world safer for children? Is it actually possible to make the internet safe?

Link:

The comments up already aren't very complimentary. :)

Australia on internet watchlist with Iran, North Korea

A top media rights watchdog has listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat of internet censorship.

Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday put Australia and South Korea on its list of countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report.

Australia was listed for the government's plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse.

SMH:

Reporters Without Borders, Senator Conroy. We aren't talking about a crackpot internet libertarian rabble here. Drop this idea.

Conroy's net gag sparks assassination and bomb plot chatter

Members of the community responsible for recent attacks on government websites are now discussing a violent uprising, trading bomb recipes and calling for the assassination of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Senator Conroy's appearance on the 7pm Project last night to defend his internet filtering policy has galvanised online miscreants who are planning new attacks.

Link: BNE Times

Can't condone the threat of violence but I'm not surprise. People are upset.

China hits back at Google with the Great Firewall

The ''Great Firewall of China'' appeared intact yesterday despite an announcement from Google that it had stopped censoring its Chinese-language search engine.

The internet giant said on Monday that it had stopped filtering results on Google.cn based in China and was redirecting mainland Chinese users to an uncensored site based in Hong Kong - effectively closing down its mainland site.

Link:

Google's just told China to get stuffed. They have lodged a strong complaint with the Australian Government too. Why is it that only Rudd and Conroy can see that this idea sucks?

Conroy's internet censorship agenda slammed by tech giants

Australia's biggest technology companies, communications academics and many lobby groups have delivered a withering critique of the government's plans to censor the internet.

The government today published most of the 174 submissions it received relating to improving the transparency and accountability measures of its internet filtering policy.

Link:

Conroy was on The 7pm Report. He just denied that experts knew what they were talking about. What can we do about this. We know he's stuffing our internet and he just wont listen.

How to fix Refused Classification online: start again

On the same day that Google stopped censoring search results in China, the Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy published the 174 public submissions it received on the oddly Kafkaesque issue of improving the transparency of creating a secret censorship blacklist. You can see why Minister Conroy couldn't introduce legislation into the autumn session of parliament as planned. The criticism is comprehensive.

The "Submissions on measures to increase accountability and transparency for Refused Classification material" were meant to focus on how the list of RC material to be blocked by the mandatory internet filter is compiled and managed. A discussion paper put forward six options for consideration.

Crikey:

Third-person effect

The third-person effect hypothesis states that a person exposed to a persuasive communication in the mass media sees it as having a greater effect on others than on himself or herself (Davison, 1983). This is known as the perceptual hypothesis, but there is also a behavioral hypothesis predicting that perceiving others as more vulnerable increases support for restrictions on mass media.

The third-person effect hypothesis also argues that people are compelled themselves to take action after being exposed to a persuasive message but this action might not be due to the message itself but to the anticipation of the reaction of others. This action is unpredictable and it might be either in conformity with the message or counter to it.

Link:

This is the patronizing attitude that the government is taking with the Australian public. If ACMA reviews content for classification why haven't they all turned into sex crazed maniacs. They assume that the Australian public is too stupid and fragile to cope with adult material.

They do not offer evidence to support this idea. Show me the proof that people are harmed by x-rated material, even underage people. Evidence people!

The Clean Feed under the microscope

An industry veteran takes a look at Stephen Conroy's Internet Filtering scheme, and its impact on secure online transactions.

Ah, the Clean Feed.

Few things have generated as much discussion and, well, bile, as Stephen Conroy's pet project to put blinkers on Australian internet access and censor our browsing habits. It's caused a mess of strum and drang in our forums, and now, one industry veteran has had a long

hard look at the scheme and put together a rather in depth discussion paper and report.

Link:

Why Conroy loves porn

Every time anti-filtering campaigners mention porn, they play right into Senator Conroy's hands.

Conroy obviously doesn't care what the online community thinks of his mandatory filtering plans. He will only change his mind about filtering if mainstream Australia turns against him, and that's never going to happen while the debate remains focused on porn.

SMH Link:

"Islam and deception" - I hope these people are wrong but I worry that they are not.

This the reality of islam. Radical muslims ambition which is islam world domination. Muslims deception, if they say peace, do they really mean peace? kuffar)non-muslim is like a cow. You can sell them or kill them just like that. The main roots of this is the koran and the hadith.

Internet Censorship Alert Alex Jones exposes agenda to blacklist dissenting sites

The Western world, from Australia to the United States, UK and parts of Europe, are moving in a unified front toward dictatorial Internet censorship. Australia has led the way, despite outcry from its populace, by "filtering" out certain banned content. In the United States, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, in continuing his family's tradition of oppressing free humanity, has pushed forward Cybersecurity legislation that has already passed the House. He has done so in the name of warding off ghastly cyber "attackers" conceivably fronting for al Qaeda while ushering in a means to restrict free speech and expression online for the general population.

This guy says this is global... but he could be subscribing to the 'vast-government-conspiracy' model... maybe.

Parental call for concert classification after racy Lady Gaga concert

BLOOD, sex, gore, eating disorders and so much more - all in a day's work for singer Lady Gaga.

But when her Australian tour kicked off this week, using elements of bulimia, binge drinking and expletives as props, the chaperoning parents in the audience were not dancing to the same beat as other fans.

They are asking why no Australian concert is obliged to carry a classification to warn them, say, that a woman in a G-string might ask a kid to "get their c--- out"?

Link: News.com.au

The net filter isn't even in yet and already the slippery slope-isms have started.
When the government says it will take over parenting for parents this is they reaction they should expect. What on earth made this parent think that a rock concert was going to be child friendly?

Court Slaps Prosecutor Who Threatened Child-Porn Charges Over 'Sexting'

A Pennsylvania appellate court upheld a preliminary injunction on Wednesday barring local prosecutors from filing felony child-porn charges against a teenage girl who took a partially nude photo of herself with her cellphone.

The court said prosecutors were using the threat of charges as retaliation against the teen for exercising her constitutional right to refuse a voluntary reeducation program favored by the district attorney. The court also determined it was likely the girl and her parents will succeed in a civil rights lawsuit they've filed against the district attorney's office.

Link: Wired

The ridiculous idea that a 16 year old is making child porn if they take a picture of themselves naked. If they remember what they look like naked have they committed a child porn thought crime?

Fortunately some parents have said that enough is enough and are taking this nonsense to the next legal level. I hope they are awarded millions in damages when this is all said and done. That will teach the government to stay out of the bedrooms of teenagers.

No Australian Internet Censorship - Facebook Group

In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 19 affirms the right to free speech:

"Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Receive information through any media....

(note: whilst this is a UN article it was never ratified into the Australian constitution)

Censorship of any kind is a slipperly slope. Rudd has proposed blanket filters on all Australian ISP which Australian citizens will apparently be allowed to 'opt out' from. These filters are intended to stop children accessing to child porn and other such disturbing material.

Link: Facebook.

44000 members and counting!

Wander on over, join, comment, contribute and learn what the government is up to with their filter idea.

Preschool with Playboy: TV show boob

Young viewers of children's television programs in North Carolina got a glimpse of something far more risque than their favourite cartoons, when a cable glitch broadcast two hours of the Playboy channel.

Link:

So, this is the test, have all of these children been mentally damaged? This is the fun police's chance to prove their 'porn hurts everyone' model.

[Government] Internet: ignorance is the real threat

If you've spent any significant time following the Open Internet campaign, you'll see that Rudd's censorship proposal isn't the only internet issue that gives the community cause to take umbrage.

Link: ABC.net.au

Iran's firewalls tightened ahead of election

As Iranians head to the polls, the existing government has tightened its grip on the internet and even turned its firewall against politicians close to the current rulers, say researchers who have detected a shift in the kind of sites blocked over the last two weeks. But a total shut down of the web on election day - rumoured last week - has so far failed to materialise.

Link:

An old article but a frightening vision of what a government can do to consolidate its power with a secret net filter.

Today's class: surviving the internet

Queensland teachers have been urged to play a stronger role in preventing the shocking vandalism of tribute Facebook pages.

Link BNE Times:

Shocking? Really? That is one easily shocked person. Anyway, here's my comment that wont get published:

Mr Robertson points out the need to "emplace" (is that like installing but somehow involving a horse and buggy... or an army unit... ??) filtering software. The lesson for the kids will be how easy it is to google the work around. Or how much easier it is to use your smart phone than the school computers.

We can't make the world this innocent Nirvana that it has never been. This unachievable goal is dangled in front of us and we jump for it every time. We can prepare kids for the real world though. Look at the wonderful 11 year old who just went and told her mum when a 27 year old said something icky. This is parent of the year material. The daughter got out of her depth and was able to trust her mum to help and teach, not judge and punish.

Our Teachers are supposed to know all of this computer stuff on top of their specialty subjects and their teaching skills? Really? With no extra pay or training. They're all supposed to become net experts too. Come on people. If you don't know how to do it, how can they know? If you don't know how to use a computer, why did you buy one?

This facebook thing must be great for politicians, who always want a break from public scrutiny, and pulp current affair shows but it breaks the first rule of web: Don't feed the trolls! Especially, don't feed them paper and ink.

Man accused of grooming girl, 11, for sex on Facebook

The 27-year-old man from Bidwill in Sydney's west allegedly became friends with the girl through the social networking website on March 7, police said.

Police said they exchanged messages before he arranged to meet the girl for sex.

The girl told her mother, who reported the man to police.

Link SMH:

This is how the net is policed. Conroy's filter isn't gonna stop something like this from happening unless facebook is blocked... and that'd cause a general strike. If people can't get to their Farmville crops there'll be rioting in the streets.

The girl's parents were brilliant and are to be commended. Instead of waiting for the government to Superman by and save us all her parents gave her a rough idea of what would be bad and were open to being told that something was going on.

She got a little out of her depth and knew that her parents were gonna help her, not get all hysterical and go biblical on her. That's parenting. That's the responsibility that you've given birth to. Suck it up!

Users to blame for Facebook vandalism: net industry

The shocking vandalism of tribute Facebook pages for slain Australian children could have been avoided if only users, not Facebook, put more effort into policing the site, the internet industry says.

But a former director of safety at MySpace Australia says the industry should be focused on improving content moderation processes rather than blaming users.

Link:

See. The web governs itself. If the people who put the page up took responsibility for what they had done we would have had a little less trouble.

Paraben's Porn Detector Stick sniffs out unwanted images on your computer

I'm not quoting this article because it has a fairly negative spin on pornography. My attitude towards porn is that it is a part of people private lives and sexuality so it is none of the governments business provided the participants are consenting adults.

I don't think that porn harms teenagers particularly. It didn't hurt me or my friends.

Anyway, the Porn Detector Stick looks like a good idea. You run the software on a computer and it pulls all the porn off it. If you're stepping your computer down to the kids or giving a work computer back you can be reasonably confident that it isn't going to express your sexuality to kids or workmates.

Gizmag Article:

Gay prostitution ring linked to Vatican

VATICAN CITY - One of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers and a member of an elite choir in St Peter's Basilica have been implicated in a gay prostitution ring, in the latest sexual scandal to taint the Vatican.

Link:

My favorite question: Is this religion teaching people how to be good?
These horrible, hypocritical people presume to tell us we should listen to their instruction on correct moral behaviour. Come on!

Conroy, I think he's a Catholic, wants to tell us what's suitable on the web... really?

Rudd! He went and visited the pope... in the very place where this was going on. And he presumes to tell us that the net us a dangerous place for kids.

Government: Don't feed the trolls

There are jerks on the internet. Given how many jerks there are off the internet, this shouldn't surprise anyone. (I'm willing to bet that the first cave painting was barely dry before a jerk came along and drew an oversized penis on one of the animals.)

Nevertheless, the offensive defacement last week of two Facebook pages, tributes to slain Queensland children Elliott Fletcher and Trinity Bates, became a minor flap in the media. Words like "sinister", "disgusting" and "sick" quickly appeared in various articles.

EFA schools the government on not feeding the trolls.

Man allegedy photographed kids at swimming carnivals

CONCERNED parents have made a notable citizen's arrest, detaining a man alleged to have trawled swimming carnivals throughout the state, photographing children.

The 36-year-old man, from Townsville, caught the eye of parents when he positioned himself in the marshalling area of a swimming carnival at Thornlands State School, in Redland City.

Link:

Most important quote from the story:

A search of the man's vehicle also turned up a Bible.

Real world policing and protection is what protects children from pedophiles.

Clever Policing and "The Wyoming Toolkit" protect children

Part of the argument against the filter is that it will impede police in their investigations. It's not like a speed limit that the police can ignore with their lights and sirens on. Filtering will stop everyone from performing tasks on the net.

Imagine what this group could do if they had the millions that Conroy has wasted just on the trial. Howard threw $60 million at advertising the problem and only had a 5% download rate on his free PC-based (and affective) filter.

The Courier Mail article

FIFTEEN sexually abused Queensland children have been rescued since police started using new technology to track offenders.

The rescues, that occurred across the state, involved three pedophiles already engaged in the court process.

Police began using the Wyoming Toolkit software 12 months ago to identify peer-to-peer users dealing in obscene images.

Dealing with the dark side of Facebook

Macquarie University's John Selby, who lectures on internet regulation, said laws that criminalise acts such as defamation, child pornography, racial vilification, inciting violence and causing pyschological or economical harm already existed and applied to the internet.

Link:

Another unworkable idea.

The filtering continues to spread.

Rudd's jumped on the bandwagon now.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would consider introducing an internet ombudsman after Facebook tributes to two dead children were defaced with pornography.

Rudd said he would look into an idea put forward by Independent Senator Nick Xenophon to appoint an official who would be responsible for taking complaints and action against such material.

This is the biggest bit of troll feeding ever! Has Rudd ever been online?

Link: