The Online Services Bill: Theories and Evidence of Pornographic Harm

Sandy, G.A.

On the 1 January 2000, the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Bill 1999 came into force. It aims to censor online what is currently censored offline. Information Technology Professionals should be concerned about censorship of the internet both in their capacity as a member of the profession and as a citizen. The Bill is mainly aimed at pornographic content, and how a society treats it is a good test of its openness. The paper addresses the primary research question - 'Is censorship of internet pornography justified?' Five theories about pornographic harm are distilled from an analysis of a multi-disciplinary literature, including the parliamentary debates on the Bill, and the hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Information Technologies. The research findings on pornographic harm are also summarised. The conclusion of the analysis is that censorship of internet pornography by the Australian Government is not justified on three grounds. First, suppressing speech that is offensive to some members of society, even the majority, is inconsistent with free speech that characterises an open society. Second, the research findings do not support the view that pornography directly causes harm. Third, pornography may confer positive societal benefits for both men and woman.

Cite as: Sandy, G.A. (2001). The Online Services Bill: Theories and Evidence of Pornographic Harm. In Proc. Selected papers from the 2nd Australian Institute of Computer Ethics Conference (AICE2000), Canberra. CRPIT, 1. Weckert, J., Ed. ACS. 46-55.

(from crpit.com) (local if available)