It looks very much like a law is going to come into force in the UK to make it illegal to posess any media depicting a violent sexual act. This all came about because of a murder that took place several years ago in the UK, where it transpired the murderer had been viewing pornography showing violent behaviour both before and after killing his victim.
While I commend the government for wanting to be “being seen” to do something about the problem of inappropriate content falling into the wrong hands on the internet, it would seem that pretty much all governments have no idea about how to really deal with the problem.
In this case in the UK, there are several major flaws that (hopefully) the House of Lords will argue and use to make sure these laws never come into play.
The first major flaw was outlined on breakfast television this morning on the BBC - a guy being interviewed clearly explained that the real problem is the difference between motive and act. If the argument being put forwards is correct, the murderer acted as a direct result of exposure to violent pornography. That is patently not true - the murderer acted of his own free will. A picture did not make him do anything. If the argument were true, the scenes outside moderately violent movies would be truly barbaric.
There is a persuasive argument that media has always been (and should continue to be) governed by the concept of “free speech” - the idea being that anybody has the right to show others anything (within reason), and that it is down to the free will of the recipient whether to look or not. In this case the problem (for the lawmakers) is that violent sexual acts are not actually illegal.
Finally (before I go on for too long), what about content delivered from the internet that you did not specifically request? Junk email, and pop-up windows spring to mind. By receiving an e-mail with a suitable image in it, you would instantly be breaking the new law they are trying to pass.
Of course the entire subject of governing the internet is a can of worms that has been written about for years. The internet was designed from the ground up to avoid failure - and that (in a way) includes governments meddling with it.
It would seem when it comes to particular subjects, the governments of this world really do not trust their own citizens to make their own choices, and would rather dictate. And we’re supposed to live in the “free” world…