If you find porn offensive, stop searching for it!

By Davey Winder
Saturday, 13 September 2008 19:19

Networking

Is Wikipedia guilty of porn creep? The biggest free encyclopaedia on the planet stands accused of exposing all comers to sexually explicit imagery, of certain entries being nothing less than dress up porn. Orgies, oral sex, masturbation and ejaculation can all be found in graphic detail. An iTWire reporter reluctantly investigates...

Porn creep, according to Wikipedia, is the process by which "sexually explicit content enters American pop culture." Examples given include how Brazilian waxing has become a fashion mainstream, and how porn movies have made breast implants popular.

I can see how that works, and as a pop-psychology trend guess it makes sense. However, other examples are less likely: the spread of oral sex in the West and blue jokes on the TV are both blamed on porn creep.

I mention this because Wikipedia itself now stands accused of being Porn Creep Central it would seem.

The very fact that the 'wisdom of crowds' publications allows explicit imagery and video content within its articles has come under fire. Many articles with such explicit content being described as nothing less than dressed-up porn.

And that description comes from Wikipedia editors themselves.

Child protection campaigners argue that children pursuing the age-old childhood hobby of looking up dirty words in the dictionary can now find themselves online and staring at the equivalent of the newsagent top shelf as a result.

Bob Peters of Morality in Media is concerned that there is nothing to stop children accessing the site. "It wasn't required to prove my age or type in a credit card or anything else" he says.

Others report how one entry shows "an 18-second video of a man ejaculating, and that too, without any warnings or age verification."

Do we really need to see a woman masturbating? And if not, what can be done to prevent it? More explicit thoughts on page 2...

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