Re: [freenet-chat] freenet-chat] Thoughts about Freenet

[Sam Joseph]

Stephen Bennett wrote: > Ok,here goes my 2 pence/cents/sou etc. > Now, I have just become a father. I am no teenager. It(she) is my = > first baby. I am 56 years old. I am also a Paneite. > will begin with your quote, pasted below: > "Perhaps we might be able to agree that child porn requires the abuse of > minors, since we don't consider them able to give consent to take part > in the creation of the pornography. I don't know if everyone agrees, > but isn't child porn the product of child abuse?" > Now, child abuse, porn etc. are highly emotive subjects, not unlike = > capital punishment, abortion, serial killers, and human beings. > Since we don't consider (children) able to give consent to take = > part....blah blah blah...this requires the abuse of minors. > As a new parent, I have noticed that my baby (5 weeks old and 3 days) = > is not able to give consent on ANYTHING whatsoever. You are therefore = > suggesting that everything I do as a parent is child abuse. I think you miss my fundamental point. I was trying to say that in order the process of making child porn, particularly hard-core child porn, children have to be abused. I'm not talking about photos of children playing in the bath. I'm talking about photos of children actually being sexually abused. Now we can argue that all pornography involved sexual abuse, but I assume that since adults can give consent to be involved in the generation of pornographic work, then it's not abuse. As the participants start to get younger and younger, I end up feeling that it is less and less likely that they are able to give consent. I personally don't want to help in distributing material that appears to be fairly firm evidence of child abuse. As you point out the line may sometimes be difficult to draw, but I think it can be drawn when we are talking about photos of children involved in sexual acts. > I am a visual artist. I am also a musician. I hold in my creative = > juices and hands, the responsibility of the leadership of humanity. I = > object to your suggestion of denying the visual. You throw the baby out = > with the bath water. Ugly is as ugly does. Did you know that male = > babies ejaculate inside the womb before they are born? Perhaps, one = > might think that all males are perverts? Some people certainly do! =20 As for the rest of your "accept the ugly world with open arms" speech. Well sure. I'm open to all sorts of possibilties. I accept the world is full of good and bad, and that the fact I eat meat is of questionable morals, that one person's filth is another person's titillation. I am not saying in any sense that the visual should be denied. I am saying that I would not personally want to devote resources of mine (such as running an Freenet node) that might be used to distribute images of children being sexually abused. I am a strong proponent of Free Speech and I would much rather devote those resources to opposing oppresive governments directly, or just basically trying to spread understanding and discussion. The web is still there for you to put up all your visual images. I am not asking for that to be restricted. Clearly if you want to provide a service that allows for the anonymous distribution of any content, whatever it is, then I am not in a position to stop you. I was just suggesting that the distribution of some of that content, might actually undermine the rights of some individuals at the same time as supporting the rights of others. What about the rights of children who have been sexually abused (as relates to photos of children being sexually abused)? Don't they have some kind of right not to see the products of their abuse distributed? I know its all very complicated because its difficult to block images without blocking text - see my other recent mail for suggestions. It's just that I would like to be involved in the Freenet project and help promote free speech, but at the same time I don't want child porn on my hard disk. CHEERS> SAM _______________________________________________ Chat mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.freenetproject.org/mailman/listinfo/chat