KeepItNice Blog

It seems, after quite a few years of experience, that the vast majority of people who are “offended” by nudity or depictions of sexual involvement in movies, magazines, on television and online, are actually much more worried by how people will react to their opinion than anything else. The recent incident where an Australian news program inadvertently broadcast a member of their staff looking at some adult photos is a classic case in point. The guy can be seen to briefly browse through some photos in his e-mail, but to be perfectly honest the screen is too far from the camera to see any real detail, and what could be seen looked very softcore in nature. Websites, newspapers and other news broadcasters were quick to voice their outrage, demand the sacking of the individual involved and general express disbelief that the whole thing happened at all.

This is all very well but I suspect that no-one is actually too bothered at all about the whole thing. However no-one wants to be seen to be not bothered. I suspect that a lot of the opposition and protests about adult websites is very similar. People prefer to be seen to be against it even though the visitor stats show that more than half of people with a home Internet connection regularly visit adult sites, and more than that visit at least occasionally.

It’s about time that society grew up and realised that opinions and fact are clearly not in sync and much of the upset is simply fuss about nothing. Sure there are things out there that most of us don’t want to see, but non-explicit attractive nudes clearly don’t fall into this category for the vast majority.

Some scientists at the University of Montreal, in Canada, were attempting to run a study comparing men in their twenties who regularly view porn to those who never have. They hit an unexpected stumbling block when they failed to find even one man in the target age group who had not viewed porn. The researchers did however discover than the average age for first viewing porn is actually 10 years.

They had to change the focus of the study to compare those in steady relationships to those who are single. The professor running the research said that they discovered the watching pornography did not have any negative effects on men’s sexuality.

“Not one subject had a pathological sexuality,” he said. “In fact, all of their sexual practices were quite conventional.”

“Pornography hasn’t changed their perception of women or their relationship, which they all want to be as harmonious and fulfilling as possible,” he went on to say.

That won’t please the anti-porn brigade!

Looks like he’s enjoying that!

Following the criminalisation of possessing porn in the Ukraine, Irish bookkeeper Paddy Power has laid odds on which nation will be next. Turkey tops the odds at 11/10, with Italy second at 5/1. Scarily the UK comes next at 6/1. Bottom of the odds is Denmark at 100/1.

To win the country chosen must ban all porn before 2012.

Somehow I really cannot see the UK banning porn. The uproar and resistance would be immense. The loss of tax revenue would be enormous, then the Inland Revenue would have to get that money from other sources.

See the full country list at the Paddy Power website. Just to be clear I am not recommending betting or condoning gambling! This article is posted purely for interest value.

On the 1st of this month Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a new law into effect, outlawing the possession of pornography, making it a criminal offence. There will now be fines and even up to three years’ imprisonment for those found in breach of the new lay. This is obviously a controversial law in many ways but it is made even more controversial by the fact that pornography is not clearly defined anywhere within the wording of the law.

The closest they get to a definition is: “Pornography is vulgar, candid, cynical, obscene depiction of sexual acts, pursuing no other goal, the explicit demonstration of genitals, unethical elements of the sexual act, sexual perversions, realistic sketches that do not meet moral criteria and offend honor and dignity of the human by inciting low instincts.”

This leaves the precise definition up to lawkeepers such as police and the courts. I suspect a large number of normal, everyday people are currently destroying their little porn collections for fear of trouble with the Ukrainian police. The Ukrainian police must like the new law as they can now confiscate porn and they have another source of bribes.