Resolved, adult pornography should be illegal.

Opposed to adult pornography becoming illegal.
If two or more consenting adults wish to have sex, film, photograph, and market their sex, then thats their right.
The pornography industry hasn't really done anything against the law, while some find it immoral that alone shouldn't make it illegal.
I do feel they should operate under certain guidelines such as the actors and actresses involved should have to undergo regular STD testing and whatnot.

ah for the hell of it.

I'll play the affirmative, and I vehemently agree that pornography should be illegalized. The nation's psychological health should not be determined by the precendence of sexual deviancy. As a nation we have the right to declare what we see as good and wrong, and exposing not only ourselves but our children to the likes of pornography is something that will only further lead this nation down the path of corruption, and ultimately failure.

It is already legal for adults so the argument for making it illegal would have to be strong. There is already way too much out there to think you could stop the madness. As long as video cameras are legal it is making the net. Anyway, my stance is this, if viewing sex between adults is illegal where does it stop. The opposition is clearly a moral one. Should a person get jailed for swearing or not going to church on Sunday?

And as far as I know, the professional porn industry is very good about testing for STD's.

As far as exposing children goes, I personally believe parents have been given the tools to prevent there children from being exposed. We have the V-Chip built into almost every tv these days, you can safelock your computer so when kids are on the internet they can't get to all that porn laying around. Also there is just good old fashioned keeping an eye on your children, peak in on em every so often to make sure they're not watching porn.

As far as this nation declaring what it views as good and wrong goes, this nation doesn't all agree on that. I myself think a little sexual deviancy is a good thing and if this nation wants to start telling me to behave how it feels I should morally then this nation no longer wants me or people like me (which I think is a pretty big chunk of our population) I like to drink a beer every now and then, eat some red meat, curse, and every now and then enjoy some good porn.

Also I highly doubt this nation will one day fail because we're all to busy watching porn to get anything done.

Yeah I know I don't have to technically respond, but it's more fun this way.

Essentially the negative's only response is that "there is too much already to stop it." Thats not the view point any nation should take. Thats a self-destructive view pattern. I'm not promoting an ultimately ideal society, I'm saying as a society in general, we have the right to decide what we should allow in our nation. Just because it's already out there, doesn't make it acceptable. Complacency is just as destructive as pornography itself. No one person here can deny that pornography is psychologically healthy. Thats where the argument should stand. It's not that pornography is out there, the question should be should we allow it to be out there, and as the affirmative I still say it should not be out there.

No I'm not going to lay down and say "Oh it's too hard" thats the view point of the negative team thus far. The affirmative stance is one that believes change can happen, and this is no exception. Morality is only an issue once the negative brings it up. I'm not saying that sex is a bad thing, however, open sexual deviancy is not psychologically healthy for any one person, especially when that person is a 13 year old kid just learning what their own body can do.

Don't let the negative bring up anologies about swearing or not going to church. The effects of such things are man created, however, pornography is something that is damaging beyond just the stigma associated with it. Under the negative's own viewpoint there should be no age limit on when children should have sex. What is the psychological difference between the two. Granted, there is quite a big difference, it's comparable to being shot from a .22 and a .45 calibur rifle, but should we even allow our kids to be hit by the .22. I think not, and that is why the affirmative still stands resolved that pornography should be illegalized. Not because we're too lazy to make a change, and not because of the stigma, but because of the psychological effects that pornography has on the nation as a whole. We have the right to change it, and I believe it is in our best interest as a society to change it.
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Posted while I posted.

Again the negative does not deny that the psychological effects on children are bad. The negative concedes this by just stating that we should watch our children. So now both sides of the table agree that pornography is bad for kids. Go ahead and pull through that argument.

As to making parents watch kids 24/7: This is neither feasible nor responsible. Should drugs be legalized just because you enjoy them, after all, parents should be able to gaurd against it right? What about magazines, what about the countless Girls Gone Wild commericals on TV. Further more, there are always ways around V-chips, and the like. Adult filters only go so far, especially in an age where most children know more about the technology than the adults who are supposed to "protect" them. If pornography is out there, children will find a way to get it. Under your ideology all church going kids would not have sex until their married, because their parents would be there to protect. No parent can shelter their kid that long, and no one can argue that. A parent can not be by a kid's side 24/7 and you've already agreed that it is psychologically damaging to the child in question, so why have it open for the children.

I'm not telling you, you can't enjoy some wild nights at home in your bedroom, I'm saying that publically produced and shown pornography should not be legal. The negative team can't give us a reason why it should be legal, beyound the fact that they enjoy it, and theres just too much out already. As was stated the resolution stand until it's knocked down, and the negative team has already re-affirmed the resolution by proving the harms of pornography.

As for your last statement, this is not a "porn is bad because it takes up your time" it's more of a "porn is bad because we're simply raising a bunch of children into a psychologically damaging society." There is no reason to allow this behavior, so why promote it?

That's certainly a lot to swallow coming from a step dad who watches teh pornz with his son in VIP

But two things:
1. How well did prohibition work out? Making pornography illegal only empowers the mobs, gangs, and undergrounds to produce and profit. Which creates a whole new facet of organized crime and criminal activity by way of black market revenue. And in that case I'm sure other values of the industry, if you want to call them that, would fall to the way side. Saying it could be stopped and actually wiping it out are two totally different things, I don't believe it would do much more than put a few more guys in over crowded prisons who wouldn't be there other wise.

2. I specifically said adults for a reason as those are already the guidelines and standards in place just as a store can not sell cigs and booze to children. It is the parents responsibility to protect their children not society in this particular case. There are laws to protect children that I agree with in regards to pornography.

Hey- I love debating ;)


Again it's only a precedence of failure on other matters that deters you from change. You give no reason why pornography is good, no reason why it's beneficial, no reason for it to stay beyound your own inhibitions that it would turn out to be the prohobition. And you're right I can see it now people will ditch into alley ways and run from cops just to catch the bootlegged copy of bootylicious 37.

Again there is nothign stoping two adults from enjoyin their own fantasies in closed doors, but as soon as this becomes a public act, it effects more than the participating parties. You simply say allow pornography because you don't think it can be stopped. You give us no reason and no true anology as to why it can't be stopped. The stretch between prohibition and pornography is one that you can't cover with the golden gate bridge.

Further more, we shouldn't arrest wrong doers because our jails are crowded? Seems like an invitation to invite more dillusions, corruption, and crime into American lives. Who cares, we don't wanna fill our jails.


And you didn't see porn before you were 18? The "restrictions" are not working. Again we've conceded that porn is bad for children yet you don't promote change? It takes a village to raise a child, no parent can influence a child enough to make them a complete person. I completely disagree with you, it is societies responsibility and should be there priority to concentrate on a healthy society. Not only does it benefit the children, but it benefits society itself.

Children aside, pornography is not even healthy for adults. Pornography addiction is actually quite rampant in the United States. Countless adults go to counciling each week because they are addicted to watching/purchasing pornography. It gets to the point where the ignore their partners, ditch friends, and quit jobs simply to view pornography. And thats only the tip of the iceburg

Sure I'll agree to that, I like booze too I don't think kids should have that.

I suggested popping in on your kids not locking them up 24/7, Girls Gone Wild commercials only come on during the late night block, make your kids go to bed if you don't want them to see censored breasts. While I don't think that material is good for very young children 1-12, once that kid hits puberty he's gonna be all over that censored breast and I say thats fine. Whatever kids are gonna be kids they're brains aren't going to rot out there heads and you can't protect them from everything. I think over sheltering your children is probably about just as damaging to your children as seeing a copy of hustler at 15. Yes kids can get around V-Chip and Internet blockers but they don't have the motivation to do so until they hit that period where they're sexually curious anyway, and at that point I don't think its that damaging for little billy to catch a glimpse of some ****.
In no way am I saying go get your pre-teen hormone children a skin bin, but it won't be the end of the world if they do.


Please define publicly shown, last time I checked you had to pay to get pornography, at least in magazines and on television. You know there is porn on HBO and Cinemax, so don't pay for them, don't keep a copy of hustler crammed under your pillow. Now when we come to the internet I can make a few conessions to the postive, yes it is easy to get access to internet pornography and that comes with the problems of policing the internet. Age verification for alot of sites comes down to just entering a birth-date there should be more protection then that.
Your statement that I can have wildnights in my own bedroom is void if pornography was illegal, then I wouldn't have access to it. Now I don't have it because its too hard for parents to keep it away from their kids, and that argument opens up to everything else I'm allowed to enjoy that kids can't.

Should booze not be legal because its to easy for kids to steal?
Should cigarettes not be legal because some deliquant minor might steal some smokes from his old man?
How about violent television and games, should I not be allowed them because some 12 year old might see it and think violence is cool?

My answer is no, no you should talk to your children about these things and do some parenting instead of just prohibiting the actions all together. Its not the job of the government to make sure you kids grow up in a society psychologists have determined to be damaging, our parents grew up in it, we grew up in it and the vast majority of us turned out fine, you can't hide your children from every little bump and exposure to some dirt, how safe and fluffy and nice do things have to be until we're satified? The way I see it you can't protect your children to the point of getting through their childhoods without being exposed to something thats damaging in someway, thats life, and we can't very well protect them from that.

Is violent television and fear mongering news also psychologically damaging? Are those of us who grew up in a world that didn't shelter us from these things somehow worse off? I don't think so, I think thats part of life at some point we need say how clean is clean enough. Sugary foods aren't good for children either, do we take all the cake off the self? No, we simply don't buy for our particular household, sure your kid might get a hold of that cake, but we don't make cake unavavilble to public because children's teeth might rot out of their heads.

When we have more criminals coming in for stupid crimes such as drug possession and this proposed illegal pornography, then that means more murders,rapist, and other violent offenders and real criminals make parole and get back into society. Throwing people in jail for the sake of making pornography illegal takes away form the justice of victims of real crimes.

I don't see how alcohol and porn are so different at all, except that alcohol is MORE dangerous because of drunk drivers and alcoholics. Pornoholics only hurt themselves. The comparison mainly being that it was once legal and only created a crime wave by making it illegal. There is profit to be made with both and the demand will not be easily forgotten or swept under the rug. I just don't see it realistically being enforced. How many police officers would actually destroy their own porn collections? The idea just seems silly to me.

While I may have found some peoples dirty magazines as a teen, it was still the adults fault for leaving it in a place where minors could find it. Internet has parental controls and so does television. Drugs are illegal and yet some kids still get their hands on that. Making it illegal won't stop kids from sneaking a peak IMO either.