What country has a population the size of St. Louis, MO and an ultra-feminist political agenda? And what country is currently attempting to ban internet porn? Welcome to Iceland, ladies and gentlemen.
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ccording to a recent report by CNN.com, Iceland is introducing legislature that will ban internet porn from entering the island nation. It's not all that shocking when you consider that for years Iceland's government banned strip clubs (citing them as a violation of women's rights), and have had a ban on the printing and distribution of pornography for the last two years as well.
Iceland's reasoning is solid; porn is a threat to children as it endangers them when they reenact what they've watched. I can get behind that. I wouldn't want my kids imitating the stuff they could find on any given porn site. Their logic aside, banning porn looks to be a pretty difficult task. Restricting the internet, for any reason, is next to impossible and, will probably be shot down as a limitation of freedom of speech [which Iceland protects in their Constitution (Section VII, Articles 65-79)].
Outside of an honorable attempt to protect the impressionable minds of their youth, and beyond the intricacies of blocking porn sites from Iceland's internet, I have to ask - how far will this go?
Halla Gunnarsdottir, an advisor to the Iceland's Interior Minister, was quoted as saying,
Iceland isn't attempting to ban sex, simply limit a child's access to it, citing the violence as the primary enemy. If that's the case, then what else will be banned? MMA fights? WWF? Wrestling teams in high schools? Boxing matches? Rugby? Lacrosse? All of these are physical, and, misconstrued in the wrong light, could be labeled "violent." I'm not disagreeing with Iceland's idea. I'm not even disagreeing with the attempt. I appreciate their idea and reasoning but I feel like Iceland should be expecting more from their parents and less from their government on what is appropriate for a child, and who should be enforcing it. After all, who is to blame for a five-year-old imitating a "face fuck?" The child, for watching it? Or the parent, for allowing it?
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