There were no national boundries. It was also fairly exclusive. Without easy tools like the WEB, it required some skill. Over the years I have seen it grow and grow. Easier access and easier tools have accelerated the growth.
Freedom is apparently scary to some folks.
With freedom comes responsibility, personal responsibility, and some seem to not want to take on the responsibility. The internet is no different. It is truly international. We cannot make it illegal for a WEB site in, say, Germany to publish porn, or anything else. Nor should we.