The Minister for Porn?

Should the UK Government have a Minister for Pornography?

Conservative peer Gabby Bertin thinks so!

“Since being appointed by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak to lead an independent review into the regulation of online pornography in December 2023, Bertin has observed how a double taboo has made most politicians extremely reluctant to engage. Some simply find the subject hugely embarrassing; others stay silent because they do not wish to appear prudish by criticising the proliferation of extreme and often illegal pornographic material online.”

Last week the first of the 32 recommendations that her Review came up with became government policy, when officials announced that pornography depicting strangulation would be made illegal.

Her new task-force of 17 people, bringing together representatives from the police, the advertising industry, anti-trafficking organisations and violence against women charities, will focus on how to ensure harmful online content is better regulated, trying to bring parity between the scrutiny of offline and online content

So what do you reckon? There is no doubt in my mind that the world would be a better place without pornography however it has always been there since time immemorial (have you been to the ruins of Pompeii?). The problem is that the Internet has globalised it and made it accessible to almost anyone. This is the thing that is without precedent. Should we care what people watch in the privacy of their own homes or their own phones In a way, no, but in another way, yes. We should care that children can never watch this sort of stuff so that’s where age verification is a good idea. You want to watch porn, ok, prove you are over 18! Isn’t that fair as a first step.

I am libertarian minded enough not to want to lecture people on what they can view on line so long as it is not criminal. I don’t think it is possible to make ALL porn illegal so the best approach might be as the Baroness suggests and specify the most egregious activities. How do you then enforce it though in an age of VPNs?

It’s a contentious issue and one that can’t be ignored.

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