Australia pushes further Web censorship

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Wait a minute...: I have known a number of people who were sexually abused as children, and some of them also reported that they liked it at the time. However, ALL of them said that it caused them harm in the long term, seriously impairing their ability to function appropriately as adults - in the less serious cases, just in the sexual arena, but in the more serious ones, as a whole. Leria may be such one case, because he/she states him/herself is not comfortable around other adults and needs to be around "young ones." And he/she is the first one I've ever come across that doesn't acknowledge that the experience was traumatic (even if appreaciated at the moment) and should not have happened.

I have more than once been accused of being too tolerant in sexual matters. Maybe that's true, but pedophilia has always deserved and received my most energic reproach. Feel free to set your kinks all loose, as long as that remains with you or at most between you and other consenting adults, and as long as it causes (any of) you no permanent harm. Even if some religious issue arises and someone threatens you with hell, it's still your problem if you are going there or not.

However, children are a whole different story. Their minds and their sexuality at a pace that should be followed naturally. They can be easily manoeuvered and manipulated to do what an adult wants them to. They are often physically defenseless. They lack the means to evaluate the long-term consequences in their lives. Even with teens, whose sexuality I said I believed that must be taken into account, one has to be careful - and the large numbers of unwanted teen pregnancies are here to prove it.

As for "protected speech," that varies a lot from one jurisdiction to the other, and not all countries have an equivalent to the U.S.'s First Amendment. That includes countries with a tradition of free speech and constitutional guarantees of it. Even the American First Amendment's application to specific cases often needs to be decided in court. But I find it very unlikely that child porn and pedophilia would be included in that protection. Even a supreme law cannot in good judgment be used to protect one's right to do serious, life-long harm to others.

Leria, keep your urges to yourself. Seek therapy, if it will help you (I doubt that it would "cure" you - if that's the word - but it could help you control it). I don't know who you are, but more likely than not, you don't have Michael Jackson's near-unlimited funds to pay for his expensive attorneys. So, if nothing else matters for you, just think of your pockets - like a cynical former Brazilian finance minister once said, "the human body's most sensitive part"...; Posted by: goyta Posted on: 09/22/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use