Plugged in: Can online porn cause real-life violence?
Question of prejudice. Writing at Liberal Conspiracy, Cath Elliott questioned the judge’s decision to exclude the pornographic films found on Vincent Tabak’s computer from the trial. “There was some evidence he’d watched them a number of times – i.e. they weren’t on his computer through some kind of mysterious downloading accident,” she wrote.
Control porn. Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Daily Mail is taking a hardline stance, with an editorial calling for greater controls on internet porn: “Opponents of censorship argue that we should not interfere with the free viewing choices of grown-ups. But this freedom comes at too high a price if it means that potentially violent individuals such as Vincent Tabak become violent in reality.”
Cause and effect. Indeed, elsewhere in the Mail, Stephen Glover argued that violent porn may have influenced Tabak: “What seems undeniable… is that internet porn helped to determine the course of his actions,” he wrote. Even if viewing violent porn doesn’t necessarily cause otherwise rational people to commit murder, Glover argued, it can still cause damage: “The effects of violent porn act as a sort of poison seeping into society,” he said.
Not unusual. Writing in The Telegraph Lionel Shriver questioned the media furore surrounding the revelation that police had found violent porn on Tabak’s computer. “Why is this surprising? We’re all sexual beings, and contend with powerful animal forces that we generally conceal behind closed doors,” she wrote. Shriver argued that we try to ignore these “animal forces” in other people due to embarrassment: “This mental whitewashing, this tendency to stick pieces of tape over our fellows’ anatomies, edits out a powerful drive in their lives that these days is often nourished, contorted, and amplified by online smut,” she said.
Church intervention. Meanwhile, Andrew Hough reported in The Telegraph that the Church of England is reviewing its investment in Internet Service Providers (ISPs), with a view to withdrawing money from any companies linked to online porn.
