EU Considers Porn Ban

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: International, News
• Date: Mar 8, 2013 12:26 JST


• Tags: AV, Censorship, Feminism, France, Germany, Italy, Politics, Sweden, UK
  

The European Union is now considering banning all pornography as it is an “infringement of the human rights” of women and “promotes gender stereotypes.”

The proposal, readable in full on the European Parliament’s website, explains that porn and “the sexualisation of girls” all infringe on the human rights of women, and specifically demands they be banned:

Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism.

The report also complains about the lack of feminist censorship of the rest of Europe’s media as well:

In television programmes, computer games and musical video clips there is an increasingly noticeable tendency, partly for commercial purposes, to show provocatively dressed women, in sexual poses, thereby further contributing to gender stereotyping; whereas the lyrics of songs for young people contain sexually suggestive content, which often promotes violence against women and girls.

[…]

Young women and men are most affected by pornography’s new cultural status; whereas the ‘mainstreaming of pornography’, i.e. the current cultural process whereby pornography is slipping into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealised, cultural element, manifests itself particularly clearly within youth culture: from teenage television and lifestyle magazines to music videos and commercials targeted at the young.

To correct these evils, they call for EU-wide efforts to purge all media of “gender stereotypes” deemed disadvantageous to women, including forcing a “culture of equality” on the Internet:

Points out that a policy to eliminate stereotypes in the media will of necessity involve action in the digital field; considers that this requires the launching of initiatives coordinated at EU level with a view to developing a genuine culture of equality on the internet; calls on the Commission to draw up in partnership with the parties concerned a charter to which all internet operators will be invited to adhere;

Calls on the EU to develop awareness campaigns on zero-tolerance across the EU for sexist insults or degrading images of women and girls in the media;

Calls on the Member States to establish independent regulation bodies with the aim of controlling the media and advertising industry and a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls;

In the interests of better demonising porn, they are also keen for the EU to fund the concoction of more research linking it to child pornography and sexual abuse:

Calls on the EU to conduct research into the links between child pornography and adult pornography and the impacts on girls, women, boys and men, as well as the relationship between pornography and sexual violence;

A Swedish Pirate Party MEP is also now claiming that the EU is actively censoring email complaints about the issue to the European Parliament, after citizens had the temerity to complain about the ban to them:

Next week the European parliament will be voting on a resolution to “ban all forms of pornography in media.” After this information became known to a wider audience, many citizens have decided to contact members of the European parliament to express their views on this issue.

This is absolutely excellent. Citizens engaging actively in the democratic process is a very positive thing, at least in my opinion. Before noon, some 350 emails had arrived in my office.

But around noon, these mails suddenly stopped arriving. When we started investigating why this happened so suddenly, we soon found out:

The IT department of the European Parliament is blocking the delivery of the emails on this issue, after some members of the parliament complained about getting emails from citizens.