Internet for Porn ?

“The Internet is for Porn*” (A track from the hit play, AvenueQ, hit musical)

(really catchy tune watch/listen )

This may come as a suprise but pornography was a major factor in the success of the Internet. The porn industry donated innovation, money and technology – a lot of which we are using today. Your knee jerk reaction may be “not me – I don't have anything to do with that sort of stuff “ but then you will go off and Skype someone or watch a live clip on CNN online. Where do you think online chat originated from? What about streaming video? And pay per use online services?

Oh yes – the porn industry has touched all spheres of online life. It seems the porn industry is a major innovator of new technologies and has been through the ages. In fact there is a book written by Patchen Barss on the subject; its called “The Erotic Engine - How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google”. In it he mentions how “From cave painting to photography to the Internet, pornography has always been at the cutting edge in adopting and exploiting new developments in mass communication”.

So is my subject true? Well it certainly seems that way in some respects...

If one looks at the stats that are released by various sources it appears as if a significant amount of web searches are in fact porn related. However this is a simplistic view – the online porn industry cannot be ignored for its contribution to the Internet as a whole, but subsequently the Internet has evolved enough for the statement to be too flippant and thus incorrect.

In fact there is almost an entire industry created around products that stop people being able to surf porn (amongst other content) in the work place and at home. For home use you can usually contact your Internet Service provider for this type of functionality. This is sort of like using your parental control functions on your DSTV decoder but usually comes at an extra charge. Otherwise a simple google for “URL filtering” or “filtering web content” will come up with some available software packages.

So is the Internet for PORN ? You tell me...

BTFD (ByteBoy thought for the Day)

There is an old proverb, "there is nothing new under the sun." If this holds true - then porn has always existed but like so much of our history it was not outwardly exposed. It is only with the advent of the Internet and modern communication that people have become informed of all types of happenings worldwide. So if porn enhances communication all round - then maybe its not all that bad ???

Oh come on comment!!!

ByteBoy OUT!!!