The Ethics of Porn on the Net

Abstract

IN LATE 1995 I BEGAN RESEARCHING MY HONOURS THESIS ON ‘Representations of heterosexuality in media and popular culture’. I soon realised that there was a rich vein of heterosexual representation to be explored in popular men's magazines – that is to say, soft-core porn. Researching amateur images in soft-core pornography led me to consider the broader genres of explicit sex media (… which is, of course, a nice way of saying the ‘soft’ stuff led to the ‘hard’ stuff). Initially friends and colleagues were apprehensive when I discussed my work – although I did get plenty of flirtatious offers of ‘research assistance’. By 1998–99, however, things changed. Where the topic of my porn research had once been a sure-fire conversation stopper, it began to receive a great deal of informed (and amused) interest in both academic and non-academic circles. It was clear from these conversations that many more people had become familiar with the diversity of pornography as a media form – and that the Internet had played a major role in this familiarisation. Pornography was no longer the scary and/or embarrassing secret they hid under their beds. It was being openly accessed – and discussed – in my friends' nice middle-class homes and offices. Yet this same openness and ease of access represented a growing source of anxiety for many, particularly those who were already dubious about the production and consumption of sexually explicit magazines and videos.