Iceland Could Ban Online Porn

The country's government is considering a new policy that would use Internet filters to prevent downloading or viewing pornography.

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Everybody knows that the Internet is for porn, but in Iceland, that may no longer be the case. The country’s government is considering a new policy that would use Internet filters to prevent downloading or viewing pornography.

If implemented, the ban would make Iceland the first Western democracy to attempt to censor the Internet. Lawmakers say the proposed measures would be justified by the fact that the ban would reduce damage and harm to women and children. “We have to be able to discuss a ban on violent pornography, which we all agree has a very harmful effects on young people and can have a clear link to incidences of violent crime,” Ogmundur Jonasson, Iceland’s interior minister, told the Daily Telegraph

(MORE: How Much of the Internet Is Porn? Less than You’d Expect)

In practice, the ban would be something like the Great Firewall of China, which blocks a number of sites, from pornography to politics, from Chinese viewers. In addition to simply blocking the address of porn sites, Iceland’s ban would likely make it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards for pay-per-view pornography as well.

Iceland already forbids the printing and distribution of pornography; those laws just don’t currently extend to the Internet. If adopted, however, the new ban could go into effect as early as April.

“There is a strong consensus building in Iceland. We have so many experts from educationalists to the police and those who work with children behind this, that this has become much broader than party politics,” Halla Gunnarsdóttir, political adviser to the Interior Minister, told the Daily Mail. “But surely if we can send a man to the moon, we must be able to tackle porn on the internet.”

MORE: Q&A: The Researchers Who Analyzed All the Porn on the Internet