Nugsy, I was going to respond to comment that "age of consent ... does not mean they are in a position to make sound decisions". I was planning to say if that is your real concern, then I presume that setting the minimum age for people working in the pornographic industry to 21 would address it. I was then planning to add that I'd bet it wasn't your real concern. Is was just some straw man argument for your real agenda: banning pornography.

Ahh, but I see you admit as much in a later post. What a shame, you stole my thunder. I wonder if you actually care about the age issue at all?

I was also going to point out the figure Antonella and evidently yourself say are wrong were peer reviewed, replicated, and hotly debated by people who spend their lifetimes do this sort of thing. But whats the point? Antonella and probably you and already know this is the case.

You evidently have a thing about pornography. Fine, I can understand that, and should we every meet I would respect it. I hope most people do, to the extent of ensuring they don't leave it lying around where you and your family might stumble across it.

I have a thing about honesty. It really irks me when someone gets so tied up with a point of view they feign ignorance, resorting to lies and deceit in order to support it, as you appear to have done here. To me someone looking at picture, unpleasant or not is a non-event - primarily because the negative effects on others its has on others is so small as to be near impossible to measure.

But lies and deceit - well they have real impacts. We have recently gone to war on the basis of a pack of lies. We have miss-treated immigrants because they threw their own kids into the water - only they didn't. So to see you engage in the same behaviour that leads to those sorts of outcomes really irks me.

rstuart, I am concerned about a lot of issues to do with pornography of which there are many. Age of consent is but one. I wouldn't waste my time writing in a forum if I wasn't truly concerned. I don't know anyone but yourself who would brand me a liar.
I am interested in your point of view and do not judge you for your informed views. I would prefer to have an open and respectful conversation about an issue that we both feel compelled to express our views about. May we both be better informed because of it.

NUGSY “They are true, obedient and compassion men and women full of integrity following in the footsteps of Christ.”

And they did not work to remove Hollingsworth or the Bishop of Boston etc.

It is impossible for “integrity” and “religious coverup” to coexist within the same person.

“Other than that, trying to protect individuals in society from pornography has nothing to do with religion.”

What you seek is to protect individuals, not from pornography but from themselves and you do not have the authority either moral or intellectual to do that.

As for “nothing to do with religion”, if it did not have something to do with religion, you would not have felt the need to list the names of a bunch of religious zealots and suggest they were walking in the footsteps of Christ.

Just another lie by the “faithful”.

Which suggests

To rstuart “I wouldn't waste my time writing in a forum if I wasn't truly concerned. I don't know anyone but yourself who would brand me a liar.”

Make that two.

To rstuart “May we both be better informed because of it.”

I have posted several objective links on this and other threads which cover this matter. Maybe you could catch up with some authoritive and objective posts to balance the links I have already posted.

Or are you simply going to ignore the reason and descend into rant like most of the other posters, example Gibo, on your side of the debate?

Col Rouge "you could catch up with some authoritive and objective posts". As it happens I read an online journal, one of whose favorite hobby horses is this area. It seems the results studies range from finding a slight positive correlation to finding none. I could not point to one and call it authoritative. A better thing to look at would be a document summarizing a range of studies - which I take it is what The Porn Book does.

NUBSY - Yes, you are right. I should not say of said you were deliberately lying - I apologise. The truth is more likely a combination of things. At first glance it does seem porn would lead to the example quoted of young girl being raped. And secondly I gather that conclusion agrees with your chosen way of life. So its rather a comfortable rut to sit in. Which would be fine - I am sure I sit in a few of those ruts myself, except you say you take these issues seriously, and then espouse your gut feelings as "the truth".

If you really take these issues seriously that some time to learn more about it. You might start with wikipedia's article on porn. Here is an extract from it:

>historically high availability of pornography in many developed
>European countries (e.g. Netherlands, Sweden) has lead some
>researchers to conclude that ... an increased availability of
>pornography in a society equates to a decrease in sexual crime.
>... Japan, which is noted for its large output of rape fantasy
>pornography, has the lowest reported sex crime rate in the
>industrialized world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography#Anti-pornography_movement

Rstuart, on rereading of my post I can see how you made the assumption I was referring to you and not to NUGSY.

My post “To rstuart “May we both be better informed because of it.””

Was what was stated by NUGSY to you.

I apologise. I was responding to NUGSY and bungled it.

I did not intend to challenge you, your reference links or to suggest the “rant” was yours.

The comment was directed at NUGSY and I apologise to you for my poor deployment of English

I think that the key is that there is porn and there is porn!

Soft porn isn't nearly as dangerous or damaging as hard porn.

When all porn is presented and treated as the same it doesn't allow for difference. And there is a difference.

Jolanda Challita
Education - Keeping them Honest
http://jolandachallita.typepad.com/
Our children deserve better