Inbox
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The moral panic over Net porn
Sirs,
Mark Vernon's article about pornography on the Internet (3 February) seems a rerun of earlier arguments. I remember the moral panic over television and then pornographic videos getting into the hands of children.
Every new technology has the potential for the best and the worst in human endeavour. The invention of the printing press gave us Shakespeare's First Folio, but it also gave us the Sunday Sport.
The invention of television gave us Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man, but also Eurotrash. Now we are on the brink of a new age which will give us virtual sex - what one might call Inter-course.
It is up to all of us to be discriminating, to realise that we have got to act responsibly - steering a middle path between the fulminations of Mary Whitehouse and the sexploitation of Paul Raymond. Otherwise, the regulators will step in and we will all suffer.
Peter Stockhill
Middlesbrough
Correspondence should be posted to Network+, The Independent, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL, or e-mailed to network@independent.co.uk
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments