pornography

EU to vote on porn ban, calls for Internet enforcement

The European Parliament will vote Tuesday on a proposal that could lead to a blanket ban on pornography in any forms of media with potentially wide-ranging implications for freedom and expression in the 27-member state bloc.

Passage of the proposal, "Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU," would allow the EU to help secure the rights for those across the gender spectrum, particularly women. While the report states that there is an "increasingly noticeable tendency...to show provocatively dressed women, in sexual poses," it also notes that pornography is becoming mainstream and is "slipping into our … Read more

E-book porn flourishes on Amazon's Kindle

Amazon has a problem with pornography.

The company created technology to filter smut from its library of video and print offerings and it also pays humans to do the same thing. In spite of that, Kindle users can still download e-books with the same sort of raunchy images and titles normally seen in nudie mags sold at liquor store newsstands.

That's because these salacious e-books are self-published, spawned from sources with names like Camera Erotica Publications and ErotiPics. Some of the milder titles include "The Dirty Blonde 2," which comes with a self-prescribed adults-only warning, a weak … Read more

Iceland works to block Internet porn

If Iceland's Interior minister gets enough support, his country could be the first in the West to ban all Internet pornography. Ogmundur Jonasson is working on new legal measures that could make access to online porn nearly impossible, according to the Daily Mail.

"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," Jonasson told the Daily Mail. He added that the move isn't about censorship but rather the safety of … Read more

Pornographic video clips already showing up on Twitter's Vine

Less than a week after Twitter unveiled Vine, the video-sharing app apparently has developed a porn problem.

Released Thursday, the app for iPhone and iPod Touch lets anyone create and share six-second clips, but it also has become a popular venue for male genitalia and pornographic movies taped off TVs and laptops. As first pointed out last night by The New York Times' Nick Bilton, searches for #porn, #sex, and other associated tags brings up a handful of videos featuring male exhibitionism and other activity.

While Vine's terms of service don't expressly forbid sexually explicit content, Twitter does … Read more

Playboy hit with $160,000 fine over child restrictions

Playboy has been slapped with a fine for allegedly making it too easy for children to access pornographic material on its Web sites.

Ofcom, the U.K.'s communications regulator and competition authority, announced yesterday that it has fined Playboy 100,000 British pounds ($160,200) for failing to include "acceptable controls" ensuring a person viewing pornographic material on Playboy TV and Demand Adult was at least 18 years old.

Ofcom charged Playboy with "failing to protect children from potentially harmful pornographic material," adding that the failure was "serious, repeated, and reckless."

Playboy did … Read more

Egypt works to pull the plug on online porn

Egypt is the latest country to attempt censorship of online pornography. According to Reuters, a public prosecutor pronounced yesterday that all porn Web sites must be blocked.

The government must "take the necessary measures to block any corrupt or corrupting pornographic pictures or scenes inconsistent with the values and traditions of the Egyptian people and the higher interests of the state," prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud said, according to Reuters.

Apparently, Mahmoud's order was following up on a 2009 court ruling that also deemed porn sites be banned. According to Reuters, Egypt's telecommunications minister, Hany Mahmoud, said … Read more

Pinterest rolls out user blocking, flagging, and reporting

Despite Pinterest's clean image, some smut does work its way onto the site -- and now the company is doing something about it.

The social network announced today that it's rolling out a new feature that lets users report and block questionable activity. People will be able to block other users, flag certain pins, or report an entire user profile for review.

Here's more from a blog post by Pinterest software engineer Dannie Chu:

Blocking prevents both of you from being able to follow each other's boards as well as like, repin, and comment on each … Read more

Iran wants Facebook's help in fighting porn

Iranian officials are hoping to team up with Facebook in an effort to remove Pages and Groups that feature pornography or are soliciting prostitution. More broadly, the Iranian police force has announced plans to cleanse the Internet of content its country deems inappropriate.

The new tidbit comes from the semi-official Iranian news agency ISNA (via the Associated Press), which interviewed Commander Kamal Hadianfar, the head of Iran's cyber-police. He promised the country will work with Facebook for the new initiative, but did not elaborate on what the plan would entail.

"Pornography is a crime not just in Iran … Read more

Man's sex legal, cell phone pics of sex illegal

Illinois has its quirks.

This one, though, might puzzle some.

For the state's Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man who used his cell phone to take photos of himself and his 17-year-old girlfriend having sex.

The age of consent in Illinois is 17, so the sex was legal. However, as CBS Chicago reports it, Marshall Hollins, who was 32 years old at the time, was convicted of child pornography in 2009 for taking the photos.

He was given an eight-year sentence, but his appeal to Illinois' Supreme Court was heard this week, with the court's … Read more