Censorship is irrational

What I must do To win this debate I must prove that some form of censorship is not irrational. Although censorship of cusswords is silly, I will argue some nudity censorship makes sense. I needn’t even rebut my opponent’s case but merely provide an argument that some pornography should be prohibited. My opponent’s arguments against this are that children already know what sex organs look like and that it doesn’t make sense to prohibit people from seeing human nature. Note that censorship does not necessarily entail a ban, but a restriction. All I have to do is prove that some type of pornography is wrong and should be partially censored—to children, or in general (e.g. have to call your ISP to get porn. UK did this). C1) Child pornography should be censored Child pornography is nude content—exactly what we are debating. I am arguing that censorship should remain in place for child porn and is not irrational. a) Children cannot consent This is pretty self-explanatory. Even if you think a 13, 14, 15, 15, or 17 year old can consent—can an 8 year old? Honestly it seems odd to assume a 13 or 14 year old can rationally consent for sexual activity. Pornography like this, although censored, still exists—and for good reason. There is, at some point, an age where a child cannot consent. Children who are young should not be exploited. b) Child porn = likelihood of rape Unless my opponent wishes to contest this, child porn in and of itself often includes molestation or rape. But people who watch child porn may become desensitized to the idea and eventually act upon those urges. Child porn should be censored if nothing else to reduce child rape-rates. It is pretty obvious that child nudity should be censored—thus, censorship is not irrational. C2) Pornography should be censored a) Pornography increases the rape rate and abuse rate A meta-analysis of all of the studies finds that pornography consumption increases violence rates. “[T]he current results showed an overall significant positive association between pornography use and attitudes supporting violence against women in nonexperimental studies. In addition, such attitudes were found to correlate significantly higher with the use of sexually violent pornography than with the use of nonviolent pornography, although the latter relationship was also found to be significant.” [1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...] Another study found that women of women has found that violence against women is higher in the group which indulges pornography compared to those who do not. “[T]he partners of the battered women read or viewed significantly greater amounts of pornographic materials than did the partners of the comparison group. In addition, 39% of the battered women (in contrast to 3% of the comparison group) responded in the affirmative to the question, "Has your partner ever upset you by trying to get you to do what he'd seen in pornographic pictures, movies, or books?" It was also found that battered women experienced significantly more sexual aggression at the hands of their partners than did the women in the comparison group.” [2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...] b) Pornography harms the actors Although more porn actors are not victims of human trafficking many of those who are trafficked are forced to do pornographic scenes. “Many traffickers are found with filming equipment and cameras to create and sell pornography.” [3. http://www.internetsafety101.org...] Of 200 prostitutes surveyed, a quarter of them say abuse they have encountered has been related to pornography through accounts of the man making references to pornography. Other studies expand upon this conclusion, “a number of studies using representative samples of men have found a link between pornography consumption and higher levels of sexual aggression on the part of men. … after viewing pornographic images, men looked at women more as objects than as humans.” [3] c) Pornography harms the viewers “[A] number of the men whom he treated in the mid- to late- 1990s had become so dependent upon pornographic images to become sexually aroused that they were no longer attracted enough to their wives to have intercourse with them. Moreover, research suggests that exposure to pornography decreases sexual satisfaction with one’s partner for both men and women. … chronic pornography use is associated with depression and unhappiness. … internet pornography is increasingly a feature of divorce cases.” [3] Thus, I conclude that some censorship is not irrational. Although pornography arguable should not be prohibited, it definitely should be controlled and, especially child pornography, should be censored no matter what.