Give it to me, pr0n-to!

The reason why in my e-Business Development class I was asked to do a presentation on Explicit Sex on the Internet is beyond me. Yet, I will not complain since this was one of the few researches I have done that brought me many, many satisfactions.

Long story short: there's no legislation when it comes to cyber-porn. Although there are certain rules to over-the-counter pornography, most of these laws cannot apply to the Internet. Just consider how can you legislate content that is hosted... well... nowhere. Even so, attempts such as the Communications Decency Act in 1996 have failed; the Child Online Protection Act is failing right now.

And why?

Because according to Larry Flint: "Pornography is a vital freedom and that a a free and civilized society should be judged by its willingness to accept pornography." I might not be 100% OK with this, but the claim that banning porn is attempts against the 1st Amendment... well... I'm not American per se, so let's generalize saying completely banning it would oppose Free Speech is right. I believe as human beings we should have the capacity to select what we want to see from what we do not want to see.

Later on I was discussing this with the Pretty Assistant. You see, apart from being pretty she's also somewhat politically correct -do not get me wrong, I actually like that pretty much about her-, so she said something along the lines that precisely because countries like US do not legislate this kind of things is the reason their culture is so screwed up and they have to deal with sexual maniacs. Promptly, I set up a little side-investigation: Sexual crimes in the US, a so called "amoral" culture vs. Sexual crimes in Mexico, a very uptigh "moral" culture. Results? There are almost twice as much sexual crimes reported in Mexico than in the US. Note on the word reported. Less than 30% of crimes are reported to Mexican authorities, so the actual number of sexual crimes in Mexico might be higher.

Tell me now that Mexico is a more "morally mature" society and I will laugh in your face.

Yes, in Mexico we do have legal movements against pornography on the Internet, against child pornography. Hell, being a mostly Catholic society Mexico has laws against most things considered amoral. But what good are laws? What good is it that we have laws against selling alcohol to minors if store vendors will do it for an extra charge? Will a law prohibiting the sale of alcohol after 2a.m. guarantee teens won't alcoholize themselves and crash his car against old ladies and their two month old grandson sitting peacefully in the park? Will Doña Chole stop selling clandestine beer in the back of a van behind a dark alley just because there is a law stating she should not? What good is a law that prohibits me from having child porn if they cannot know what I have or what content I access on my computer? Tell me the point of a law against selling drugs if we also consider legal for people to carry a considerate amount of drugs considered to be for "personal use"?

Heck! What good is any law if it is not carried out?

The real way we can make laws be worth the ink they're written in is by having a mature society. When a society is sufficiently mature all actions are carried out for the common well being. The reason laws work is because people in the society obey them, not just because they are there. What's more, I believe that we can qualify a society of being mature and advanced when it does not need to have laws and punishments in order for people to do right.

Now, we owe a great technological achievments on Internet matters to porn too. First sites to offer privacy protecion? Porn sites. First sites to offer security schemes to protect credit card numbers? Porn sites. First site to implement dynamic content? Porn sites. First sites to invent the sponsored links concept? Porn sites. First sites to offer pay-per-click-ad models? Porn sites. Reason video compression codecs such as DivX where created? Porn sites. Internet industry to produce more money? Porn sites.

In conclusion my Ol' Three Faithful Readers: Crimes and perversion are not proportional to the "morallity" of a society; they're proportional to the society's level of maturity. You want to solve pornography, or all around amoral content? Then do not ask for it. Alfred Marshall won't let me lie when I say that we are supplied only what we demand.

That, and I'm changing my e-Business from a computer accesory store to a pr0n site.