Internet Porn Increases Sex Crimes

Sex is a good thing, so it’s no wonder that people use the internet to get in on the action. Whether you’re spending some time along with your right hand or you just want to spice things up with the flesh and blood person beside you, it’s the easy answer.

And people began to panic. Like rap, or rock ‘n roll before it, the older generations were convinced it was corrupting the younger ones — who, in turn, were convinced that they were just worry-worts.

Apparently the old worts were right. The abundance of sexual images available with the click of a mouse is increasing the amount of sex crimes, according to researchers.

The Manchester Police Obscene Publications Unit may have been able to record the dozens of images of child pornography they seized in 1995, but since 2001 they’ve stopped recording the number of images. It has soared off the charts – literally.

It’s not like I wasn’t aware before. It seems that you always hear incidents in the news about police uncovering child pornography rings. But the fact that there’s too many to even record really makes alarm bells go off in my head.

People argue that sex offenders always existed. Of course they did. But this new evidence showing a correlation between the internet and a rise in the number of incidents of sex crimes is a hard pill to swallow, especially when a large portion of the population is just using porn to get off. No harm done.

Another obstacle is that it’s hard to stop them when they can use the internet to find their way to each other. There’s no physicality about it. They can commit crimes in cyberspace without the danger of exposing themselves in the real world.

We must be optimistic, of course. People are monitoring the internet to catch the people committing such horrific crimes. There special forces, like the obscene publications unit, whose purpose is this very task.

Still lingering, though, is the question of censorship. Do we limit these images on the Internet to stop “fueling more extreme fantasies?” It’s a polarizing question. Imagine two political philosophers. One argues for collective freedom and happiness and the other for individual freedom and happiness. Internet porn is restricted for the greater good or allowed so as to not limit the freedom of the individual, which is something we highly regard and have fought hard for.

One suggestion is putting greater time and energy into watching over porn sites and monitoring content on the Web in general. We may be going into Big Brother territory, but who can live knowing incidents are increasing?

Ultimately, there’s no simple answer. Porn is out there right now. But we can’t despair. Continuing to look at our options is at least action. It’s movement in a positive direction.

In the meantime, don’t feel guilty when you cozy up in bed to watch porn. It’s not all bad.

Contact the author here: tinybart@morningquickie.com