

How India tried to ban porn and failed - jimsojim
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/08/economist-explains-2#2iRaeWBRWgIcOzpV.99

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trhway
"ban porn" sounds like banning wind or sun. 35 years ago in USSR - an
environment where banning things was a normal practice and frequently worked,
and porn was a banned thing - in elementary school we had porn - it were texts
copied on type writer :)

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anon4
Oh, pornography is still banned in some countries that used to be in the
soviet bloc. In Bulgaria for instance, even though the country is part of the
EU now, porn is still absolutely banned. Possession of porn, selling of porn,
disseminating porn - all illegal with jail time. The only thing you can buy is
erotica, like Playboy and others like it featuring naked women, sometimes with
naked men, doing naked things. Whether a work is classified porn or erotica is
decided on a bribe by bribe, I mean case by case basis. The law is practically
not enforced, you are absolutely free to browse the entire internet and can
purchase por.. I mean erotica magazines freely.

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CmonDev
Why would _they_ want to ban it? If anything it would result in an increase to
population.

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agumonkey
Maybe the regular rapes have been partly attributed to access to pornography ?

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belorn
It was not long time ago that Sweden attributed violence in society to TV and
movies, and it's only in current enlighten days that the old censorship is now
finally removed. A person doesn't go and murder, rape or steal just because
they happened to see a movie that displays actors doing those things.

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agumonkey
I'm not saying there's an actual logical relationship nor that I believe porn
causes violence but governments might end up believing so. I strongly think
porn, even inevitable, especially in teens, is amazingly detrimental. It might
not be a reason for someone to force someone else (I never thought of shooting
someone after playing Doom), but it will twist the notion of intimate
relationships.

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belorn
During the 90s, people argued that teens watching movies like _The Texas Chain
Saw Massacre_ would get a twisted notion of what normal was. The detrimental
effect on teens was seen as such large that they banned the cartoon darkwin
duck for TV, and blamed TV violence for the increase in violent crime amongst
youths.

Those claims has since proven at best to be speculative, at worse outright
media fabrication. Studies have shown that even very young kids can
distinguish that what happens on a movie is not real, and that the social
rules that gets shown on a movie does not exist in real life. Teens and adults
has a more mature brain and longer life experience that if there was an
effect, movies would have destroyed them long before.

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agumonkey
I agree but I didn't indulged the 'ban' logic. I'm just saying it might be one
of the reason invoked for the Indian government decision.

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emirnht
all the bans that are implemented for only political reasons rather than socio
ones have the fortune to fail because they are not aligned with our practical
lives. And like any other none practical rule, this one will not only survive
but also result in a higher negative(for the gov't)numbers. Just like we saw
during the Prohibition period, this will also make people to see the law as
whimsical and unimportant, instead of something good and protecting. It did
nothing to encourage the respect and obedience the law deserves. I agree there
is a lot of harm that's caused by porn, both personally and sociologically.
Personal one is our own free will, governments cannot ban everything that is
harmful to us but in this case I can understand and support governments who
will fight against sociologically disruptive porns with the content of rape,
beastiality, extreme fetishism and definitely child porn.

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xbmcuser

      They didn't fail ISP's are now responsible for the content so Isp's will play safe and not unban the porn sites.
     So the government will be able to get the ban without calling it a ban.

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known
Unprotected sex is opium for the poor in India leading to pregnancy/population
growth;

