Even on a normal day, I must admit to finding life very puzzling. The people who make up the human race I find to be even more puzzling than the puzzling life in which we all live.
For instance, I am puzzled why over 100,000 puzzling people signed a petition, handed in to Downing Street last week. The petition demanded that access to hardcore pornography should be automatically blocked by internet providers as a matter of default.
The signatories, who included MPs and Peers, claim one in three ten-year-olds has ‘stumbled’ upon online porn and the biggest number of ‘consumers’ is aged between 12 and 17.
Let’s just put aside for a moment the obvious arguments of a lack of individual parental responsibility and attacks on freedom of speech.
Let’s also ignore the fact it’s pretty impossible to just ‘stumble’ across porn unless you are either searching for it directly, or for a topic related to it.
Let’s instead concentrate on the words of the chief executive of Premier Christian Media (PCM)who is credited with organising the petition:
We are now looking to this Government to take decisive action to halt this blatant and relentless assault on young and impressionable minds. We demand that they lock this ever-open door to pornography and depravity once and for all
One of PCM’s stated mission aims is: “To make Christian values and beliefs accessible to non-church-goers”. Does that then mean the PCM would not be so judgemental if a petition was handed in against the “blatant and relentless assault on young and impressionable minds” by organisations trying to impose their own religious values on those who are….. well…..young and impressionable?
Anyone who has tuned in to watch music videos on YouTube, or has watched a 12 year old dance, will be aware that impressionable minds are continually being sexually assaulted by those in the worlds of music and fashion. It is a plain fact that ‘sex’ is used to sell products.
However, that does not excuse parents from their lack of supervision over their childrens’ internet surfing.
Governments around the world would collectively orgasm over the chance to control, and censor, the content available on the internet. Using children, animals or porn as an excuse is always a good emotional starting point.
Until I began writing this post I had been puzzled why so many MPs have claimed back the cost of iPads during the past financial year. Maybe, they’ve all been practising their ‘stumbling’ on Google.