"opposed".

I wouldn't say that illegalising porn is the way to go. Porn is an industry, and like all industry works on the basis of supply and demand. The demand for porn is huge and growing and illegalising it just creates a black market with the negative effects that accompany it. It is just naive to think that illegalising porn will eliminate it.

Porn itself is not the problem. Just as with everything else its the people involved that are the problem. Also banning something usually has the opposite result to what is desired. People tend to want what they can't have.

Personally, I have no interest in or need for porn, but at the same time I can appreciate that there are situations where it can meet a need.

What I think we need to be looking at is;

(a) How the demand is being met. Having porn displayed (top-shelf or not) in a general store is not appropriate for the very reason that we bring children into stores with us and they are being exposed to sexual images. Very few of us would be comfortable with our children witnessing us in the act of sex so why allow this exposure. If you want to buy golf clubs you go to a store that supplies them not your corner shop, let people who want to avail of porn go to a sex shop.

(b) The content: Sex is a normal activity but what I would have a problem with is the deviancy aspect of porn. People look at what they like or enjoy. Sorry, but if you get off on abusing, humiliating, hurting another person (sexually or not) then there is something wrong with you! NO ROOM FOR DEBATE THERE! Also, sex seems to have expanded to make non-sexual things sexual. It seems to have expanded to mean all the things that you want to keep secret become sex. Animals, sorry but I don't and never have fancied my pet!!! If I ever did I would be straight to the nearest shrink not the nearest porn supply.

(c) The production: There's a big difference between somebody choosing to participate in the sex industry and receiving adequate salary for it than some victim being forced into the industry to line the pockets of some evil soul.

(d) Exposure: I suppose this could be included in (a) but it scares me the amount of exposure and the glamourisation of porn that we are being exposed to at the moment. Films that have sex thrown in just for the sake of it when it is totally unnecessary to the story. Music videos that are now just soft porn. Children should be able to enjoy the pleasure of music, but to allow our children access to music channels is to expose impressionable minds to soft porn. They do imitate it!

The mind is the biggest sex organ and quite frankly is susceptible to exposure and conditioning. You can train yourself to get off on rubbing your elbow if you practise it on an ongoing basis and attach sexual thoughts to it. My point here is that porn users are conditioning themselves to it. Exposure to porn is having a destructive effect on our society. Users expect that potential partners should emulate what they are viewing.

Porn (images of healthy sexual activity, not deviancy) can have a benefit in our society.

* The lonely person who is having difficulty meeting there sexual needs.
* In a relationship during a period of diminished sexual activity. Most people can accept the use of porn, it may keep the relationship intact and prevent somebody cheating to get their needs met.


The point really is not to look at it in such a black and white manner but to examine how and what is being provided. The problem isn't with porn it is with people. A sexual deviant has the desire and finds the outlet for their deviancy. The issue is more with deviant material promoting and glamourising deviant behavior in an impressionable mind.

However, we cannot control the world but we can control our own personal environment. We can decide what is acceptable in our own homes and what environments we choose to interact in. Let us each accept the consequences and responsibility for our choices. We can choose to educate our children in order to protect them. We can take control and help them develope a healthy attitude to sex and porn. We can try to minimise what they are exposed to and try to influence their attitude towards exposure that we cannot control.