Colum Kenny: We ignore concerns of internet privacy and porn at our peril
The recent Facebook spam attack reminds us of pornography's central role on the web, writes Colum Kenny
IMAGES described as "shocking" and "sickening" appeared on the Facebook pages of thousands of people last week. Hackers inserted links to pornographic and violent pictures within the newsfeeds of users who are more accustomed to enjoying scenes of family or friends.
One Irish user, for example, last week received a message saying "poor lady gaga lol... nice videos :D", but the thumbnail was blatantly pornographic. A photoshopped (falsified) image of teenage pop star Justin Bieber was also circulated. So too were scenes of animal mutilation.
As many as two in five Irish people are thought to use Facebook. Its main attraction is the fact that you can post pictures on it. But last week's spam attack "exploited a browser vulnerability", says Facebook. It was a sharp reminder that social media such as Facebook are very public, even if many who use them frequently forget that fact.
Facebook has previously been accused of not doing enough to protect the privacy of its users against commercial exploitation. Last week, it was unable to protect people against the appearance of porn and animal cruelty on pages viewed by children.
This very public manifestation of internet porn was also a reminder of the central role played by pornography on the web, where it is exploited and valued commercially. Many sites that are easily accessed by children contain explicit depictions that even more liberal parents would regard as inappropriate.
Two clicks on Google last week could bring anyone of any age to a video of three men forcing a crying and bound schoolgirl to have intercourse. Bestiality and incest were milder options.
Challenging porn on the internet is not just about the protection of children. It is also about the protection of some of those adults who appear in it. Adult relationships are depicted in ways that may influence young minds and trigger oppressive or harmful behaviour, either in public places or within the privacy of a bedroom.
The commercial internet industry can sound righteous in its assertions that it has things under control and that it is a champion of free expression. But its massive intrusion into daily life in general, and into domestic spaces that were formerly private in particular, raises questions about how it should be monitored and regulated.
While internet companies may object to being regulated, some are not slow to spy on ordinary users of their sites. Profiles are automatically created that allow companies to exploit or sell information about you to others, so that you may be targeted with content tailored especially to your individual tastes when you go online in the future.
The sex industry is also righteous about regulation. The industry would have us believe that only prudes and religious fanatics care about sexual imagery. The rest of us are meant to be cool, as though adults have no responsibility to ensure that those who appear in sex videos are treated well; or that those who view such images are not even unwittingly supporting child abuse, the degradation of women, prostitution, the promotion of unsafe or unprotected sexual practices and incitement to violence.
There is a mistaken idea that you have to pay to access explicit sex on the internet. A couple of minutes on Google and that myth is exploded. And what do common site titles such as "Teenies" signal in an era when the traumatic effect of child abuse is well understood? And there is much worse.
We have gone from one extreme to another, from a censorship that suppressed even mild expressions of sexuality to a world in which we shrug when internet service providers deliver scenes of bizarre sexual behaviour into our laps. Maybe we feel that we can do nothing about such intrusion. But we are not even trying much.
Many adults today have little objection to adults viewing other adults appearing in erotic sexual videos, provided that those who feature in those videos are mature adults making a truly free decision that is not driven by desperate financial or psychological need.
Viewing such videos can be tough on those who currently have no sexual partner, making life seem lonelier. The videos can even be a "temptation" (that old-fashioned word for a continuing reality), making it more likely that some people will act aggressively towards the opposite sex.
But such straightforward erotic videos are a long way from much of what is out there on the internet and what can be viewed freely by people of all ages. It is a realm that is rarely discussed in public, as if the consumption of sex videos has no consequences for society and human relationships.
Last week's hacking of Facebook reminded us that privacy and pornography are two aspects of the internet to which we turn a blind eye at our peril.
Originally published in
