NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Crusaders against public porn viewing, in a losing battle
Crusaders against public porn viewing, in a losing battle http://j.mp/LGTh9g (New York Times) "A spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants said the issue is a bit of a "gray area," handled case by case, adding that its members want to avoid offending passengers or playing the role of censors. One reason the issue is so thorny is that not everyone agrees on what might be considered offensive. That is the case even within Morality in Media, where Ms. Hawkins said people should also be careful with public viewings of violent content." - - - "Gray" area. Get it? Seriously, give it up, morality crusade. This is a microcosm of a larger controversy as old as mankind. It is impossible to control, or even reasonably set boundaries, beyond obvious examples like materials involving child abuse (and even there, real control is largely illusionary). Attempts to declare pornography as somehow verboten but graphic violence acceptable, are tilting at windmills in an age where a leading television series is "Game of Thrones" and a best-selling book is "50 Shades of Grey." Any reasonable person would be offended by much of what some people consider to be entertainment -- animal abuse in particular makes me incredibly angry. But attempting to control public viewing of materials as discussed in this article is a losing proposition, one that simply leads the way toward expanding and hopeless (but still very damaging) censorship regime attempts. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad