South African Politicians Want To Ban All Porn Online

from the how-do-you-define-porn dept

What is it with politicians who don’t understand basic concepts? Apparently, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs in South Africa, Malusi Gigaba, thinks that it’s possible to ban online porn. When people pointed out that it’s just not that easy, he responded thusly:

“Cars are already provided with brakes and seatbelts… There is no reason why the internet should be provided without the necessary restrictive mechanisms built into it….”

Well, actually, Mr. Gigaba, there are plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons. Brakes and seatbelts have pretty easily defined tasks: slowing a car down and preventing you from flying forward in the event of a sudden stop. You can engineer that easily. What you can’t engineer is a definition of porn that works. What is pornography? To each person it might be entirely different. How do you build a system that knows?

Furthermore, of course, there’s a question of why you would even want to do so. That’s not made at all clear in the article, but if you’re talking about consenting adults trying to find some porn online, what’s the problem with that?

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Comments on “South African Politicians Want To Ban All Porn Online”

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56 Comments
jane says:

Re: Re: South Africa and Porn

that is a very stupid thing to say. do you even know how many people watch porn? if every one who did was a serial rapist, then we wouldnt have any social or government structure. this country would be a version of a bad old zombie movie. you seem very uninsightful and i recomend that you do a little research before commenting again.

Adam (profile) says:

I've got an idea...

“Furthermore, of course, there’s a question of why you would even want to do so. That’s not made at all clear in the article, but if you’re talking about consenting adults trying to find some porn online, what’s the problem with that?”

I don’t know. Ask Steve Jobs? Apparently he’s decided to protect Apple customers from the porn monster as well. Maybe South Africa can make a business deal and become Apple-exclusive!

Gonzobot says:

Re: Porn???

Obviously, the problem isn’t as bad as you think, if they are concerned about pornography in other countries.

Oh, wait, no, the SOLDIERS around there believe that by RAPING A BABY GIRL, you can CURE YOUR AIDS. The AIDS that you were given so you could help reduce ‘unwanted’ population.

Read: Soldiers with AIDS raping women, children, and BABIES, is cheaper than the bullets to simply shoot them to death. And PORN is a bigger problem to the people in charge.

theinterpreter says:

RE: South Africa & Porn

Maybe the politicians are under the impression that porn is like second-hand smoke. Just smoke it because second hand is worse: just sex people, porn is more harmful.

Apart from the seat-belt analogy being fairly weak, I think “time” would be better than “porn”. Thanks to South Korea & USA we’ve seen that excessive time spent on the internet causes obesity, kills babies, and causes stupidity.

Anonymous Coward says:

>”Cars are already provided with brakes and seatbelts… There is no reason why the internet should be provided without the necessary restrictive mechanisms built into it….”

Humans are already provided with death by natural causes… There is no reason why large corporations based on monopolies should exist without similar mechanisms built into them, as well as something DMCA-style to prevent large corporations from cracking these mechanisms…

DH's Love Child says:

Re: Why?

“Why is it that the only requirement for office is to be a good enough liar and hustler? Shouldn’t we demand some minimum qualifications such as, perhaps, a brain functioning at an adult level? Is that too much to ask?”

um… apparently, YES! People with brains functioning at an adult level are smart enough to stay the hell away from politics.

Pher says:

As a South African I can agree with most of the comments. We have way worse problems than porn, in fact it’s proven that easy access to porn reduces violent crime against women. (http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/1961to1999/1999-pornography-rape-sex-crimes-japan.html)

Just like everyone else in the world we also do not understand the logic of our politicians. With a president that has more than 3 wives, accused of rape and corruption and has completely uneducated underlings: Julius Malema, who publicly makes violent hate speech against whites on a regular basis. They even have a song about killing whites and goes on excursions to Zimbabwe and other countries run by corrupt dictators for “training”. With all of this BS, we all (whites, blacks and others) sit here an wonder if there aren’t any more pressing issues to attend to.

But I guess everyone has asshole politicians who don’t know what the fuck they are doing

Natas says:

Sorry guys!!

This is one of the many occasions where I have to admit that I am embarrassed to admit that I am South African. Please don’t think that we are ALL backwards! Most of the backwards people are all in Parliament, government institutions.

The other day, there was an article in one of newspapers that was about how 90%, yes 90%, of PM’s in our parliament, and other government officials had NO idea how to use a computer! So please, when you hear one of government officials talking about the electric internet… just ignore them..please

theinterpreter says:

no worries south african people

For all the South African’s saying they are embarrassed to say they are from their home country, DON’T!! If people were to be based & judged on their political leaders, everyone’s screwed.

Look at the USA. How many backwards people does it have in politics? Too many! Same goes with most every country. It’s just part of being a politician. 🙂

cams (user link) says:

why ban porn

I can understand wanting to ensure minors have a harder time gaining access or makeing harser peneltys for people making or viewing child porn. But as an adult I feel it is my right to chose weather I want to watch porn or not. And for him to think he can ban porn is a joke in its self. But then again its just another politicin trying to control people and hold them to his standers

Sifiso Daniel khumalo (profile) says:

I'm looking for job to do porn

I know i’m still young and i have no choose I’ve been in abuse problem on sexually so many times that why i decide too be come a porn worker but if the is industry outside there who need some one, who have time and be come to him a sport that is me i’m available even for single womens out there, medium and fat ones i’m here i love it and i’m also hipper to do it come on.

Sifiso Daniel khumalo (profile) says:

I'm looking for job to do porn

I know i’m still young and i have no choose I’ve been in abuse problem on sexually so many times that why i decide too be come a porn worker but if the is industry outside there who need some one, who have time and be come to him a sport that is me i’m available even for single womens out there, medium and fat ones i’m here i love it and i’m also hipper to do it come on.

Werner says:

Ban porn... carefully....

I dont mind this ‘clever’ Malusi Gigaba banning porn, but god hears me, if his so-called porn filters mistake my downloads / uploads as porn, and they are not, we will see each other more in court than what he will spend time in his bed. And by the way, it’s not porn that causes child & women rapes. Stop looking for the fault in the wrong places. Up your governments policing, mr Gigaba. Give your convicted rapists the penalties they deserve, mr Gigaba. Tell your government to stop wasting money on crap, mr Gigaba, then, yes then maybe then we’ll see child & women rapes, and not only those, but all other serious crimes decrease. In other words mr Gigaba, tell your government to start doing their job…

PS. Let’s start converting these soon to be ‘white elephants’ stadiums into prisons.

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