Iceland May Ban Online Porn

First comment on the article:<p><i>Edvin Dunaway 22 minutes ago<p>um guys, no.. I am an Icelander, and I'll have you know this: Iceland is not going to ban porn!<p>Ögmundur is just one guy, he does NOT represent Iceland in whole. he wrote a bill that he wanted to pass up for voting, and that bill hasn't even reached that stage yet and if it ever will, it will not pass.<p>also, Ögmundur is highly unpopular among Icelanders and he will not be a part of a new government after the upcoming election in spring.</i>

I'm sure this will be successful. It's very similar to how sharing of movie and music files across the Internet is prohibited, and now no one gets movies or music without paying for them. Same thing with the War on Drugs - it's been so successful that no one takes any illegal drugs any more.<p>But seriously, has anyone in Iceland ever heard of a proxy?

&#62; He argues that easy access to online porn increases the frequency and severity of sexual violence against women<p>There's more evidence that porn reduces sex crime than increases it. (Obviously "more evidence" doesn't mean "is true.")<p>Slate had a good write up: <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2006/10/how_the_web_prevents_rape.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2006/1...</a>

This is an unsubstantiated story from the Daily Mail which is not a news source.<p>Iceland is pretty pro free speech generally eg see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Modern_Media_Institute" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Modern_Media_Inst...</a>

There's no source cited in the linked article other than The Daily Mail. For the unfamiliar, they're a British 'news outlet' who are notorious for writing articles that grossly misinterpret source data, to forward their own agenda.

Just what citizens need: a the government watching everything you do! Regardless of how you feel about pornography or other "obscene" content, this kind of power will be abused. Even if Iceland, arbiters of good taste, manage to use it entirely within the given bounds, that kind of information could be pilfered and used by more malicious people. Even big tech focused companies are not immune to data theft, so why would Iceland do any better?<p>As the saying goes: let's collect data on how everyone in Iceland browses the web; what could possible go wrong?

How odd. I didn't think of Iceland as the kind of country to fall for this sort of hysteria - is this an old pattern there, or something recent?

Even if Jonasson's claims are checked out by evidence, nannying a country's population by censoring offensive material is not the right course of action. You do not change public perception or progress society through censorship.<p>The internet is a new phenomena that has given individuals unprecedented power to indulge in all forms of media. Instead of arbitrarily obstructing information that they deem to be corrupting, the Icelandic government should recommend their citizens to learn the psychology behind desire and addiction [1], perhaps even Stoic philosophy [2], and how to set up a web filter for their children. They should trust that the adults of their country are generally smart enough to think for themselves and do the right thing; anything less is an insult to their intelligence and is likely to foster a mistrust of their government.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKDFsLi2oBk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKDFsLi2oBk</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-Stoic/dp/0195374614" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-Stoic/dp/01953...</a>

If it's voted on, go for it. It is bad for women IMO. Treats them as objects for the most part. Plum, men then get depressed because they expect life to be like a porno.

"But surely if we can send a man to the moon, we must be able to tackle porn on the internet."<p>This man obviously underestimates Internet porn.

Singapore has done that, and it has very little rape cases. Which is cool for a small island of 5m.<p>Not sure if there is a correlation....

The source of this article is quoted as the Daily Mail, UK tabloid newspaper.<p>I should point out that the Daily Mail has had an anti-porn campaign called "Block Online Porn" since at least April 2012.<p>The Daily Mail's primary audience is lower middle class, conservative, middle-aged women.<p>It is not considered an objective, or even credible news source, even within the UK.

Kind of ironic that Iceland is on one hand being held up as the freedom/free speech haven of the world, and on the other hand they want to ban porn. I suspect this is just one whacko politician, not the mainstream, though -- most of the Icelandic people I know are fairly pro porn :)

Is Iceland in some contest to become the saddest place on Earth?

Just because you make it illegal, doesn't mean it isn't going to happen.

&#62;He argues that easy access to online porn increases the frequency and severity of sexual violence against women and causes longterm damage for children who view it at an early age.<p>Does he actually argue that, or does he just claim that? Wouldn't an argument come with some sort of evidence?