Uploaded December 2010 | Updated September 2026, 28 minutes ago
The proposed law has been criticised for being illiberal, impractical and unfeasible, but is supported by people with a religious agenda under the tired auspices of 'protecting the children'. The thing is, there is very little evidence that children need this much protection. Certainly violent media content can be damaging to certain individuals some of the time, but happy, healthy adolescents are not going to start killing prostitutes because you can do so on Grand Theft Auto, nor will they turn into sexual deviants because they've viewed pornography.
A somewhat jocular analogy would be that of the fat kid. If you feed a fat kid fatty food, he's going to get fatter, but ice cream for dessert isn't going to destroy most children.
Unfortunately, a lot of people, going along with the latest hip moral panic, will try to tell you that playing Manhunt is going to turn your child into a monster. This is simply not the case. And yet I'm still surprised when I encounter mature adults who still think that Jamie Bulger's killers watched 'Child's Play 3' and in a zombie like daze went out and committed murder.
The proposed law on pornography here in the UK is ridiculous, and the way that it is being talked about by certain people shows a serious ignorance of the facts of media effects theory.
BBC article - 'Internet porn block 'not possible' say ISPs'
bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12041063
Safermedia (formerly known as mediamarch)
mediamarch.org.uk/welcome.htm
Open Rights Group - 'Default Censorship is a Poor and Ineffective Idea'
openrightsgroup.org/blog/2010/default-censorship-is-a-bad-idea
BBFC entry on 'On Deadly Ground'
bbfc.co.uk/BVF064852
BBC Article -- 'Musician 'had murderous thoughts''
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/6756863.stm
BBC Article -- 'Police Reject Game Link to Murder'
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3538066.stm
Asian Youth Murdered by a Psychotic Racist in British Young Offender's Institution
wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/mub-n11.shtml
BBC Article -- 'Robert Stewart's Path to Murder'
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4022807.stm
Fatal Addiction: Ted Bundy's Final Interview
pureintimacy.org/piArticles/A000000433.cfm
Television Viewing and Aggressive Behaviour During Adolescence and Adulthood
http://daphne.palomar.edu/pjacoby/Television%20Viewing%20and%20Aggressive%20Behavior.pdf
Television Violence and Behavior: A Research Summary
ericdigests.org/1994/television.htm
The Impact of Video Games on Children
pamf.org/preteen/parents/videogames.html
The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility,
Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance (2nd link down)
tinyurl.com/3ykgdus
The Effects of Video Games on Children -- What Parents Need To Know
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0816/is_6_21/ai_n9772319/pg_2/?tag=content;col1
A Meta-Analysis of the Published Research on the Effects of Pornography
ccoso.org/library%20articles/Meta-analysis.pdf
Article by Miranda Suit for the MailOnline -- 'I know what internet porn does to children - and it terrifies me'
dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1332842/Why-wont-Google-protect-children-porn.html
The proposed law has been criticised for being illiberal, impractical and unfeasible, but is supported by people with a religious agenda under the tired auspices of 'protecting the children'. The thing is, there is very little evidence that children need this much protection. Certainly violent media content can be damaging to certain individuals some of the time, but happy, healthy adolescents are not going to start killing prostitutes because you can do so on Grand Theft Auto, nor will they turn into sexual deviants because they've viewed pornography.
A somewhat jocular analogy would be that of the fat kid. If you feed a fat kid fatty food, he's going to get fatter, but ice cream for dessert isn't going to destroy most children.
Unfortunately, a lot of people, going along with the latest hip moral panic, will try to tell you that playing Manhunt is going to turn your child into a monster. This is simply not the case. And yet I'm still surprised when I encounter mature adults who still think that Jamie Bulger's killers watched 'Child's Play 3' and in a zombie like daze went out and committed murder.
The proposed law on pornography here in the UK is ridiculous, and the way that it is being talked about by certain people shows a serious ignorance of the facts of media effects theory.
BBC article - 'Internet porn block 'not possible' say ISPs'
bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12041063
Safermedia (formerly known as mediamarch)
mediamarch.org.uk/welcome.htm
Open Rights Group - 'Default Censorship is a Poor and Ineffective Idea'
openrightsgroup.org/blog/2010/default-censorship-is-a-bad-idea
BBFC entry on 'On Deadly Ground'
bbfc.co.uk/BVF064852
BBC Article -- 'Musician 'had murderous thoughts''
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/6756863.stm
BBC Article -- 'Police Reject Game Link to Murder'
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3538066.stm
Asian Youth Murdered by a Psychotic Racist in British Young Offender's Institution
wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/mub-n11.shtml
BBC Article -- 'Robert Stewart's Path to Murder'
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4022807.stm
Fatal Addiction: Ted Bundy's Final Interview
pureintimacy.org/piArticles/A000000433.cfm
Television Viewing and Aggressive Behaviour During Adolescence and Adulthood
http://daphne.palomar.edu/pjacoby/Television%20Viewing%20and%20Aggressive%20Behavior.pdf
Television Violence and Behavior: A Research Summary
ericdigests.org/1994/television.htm
The Impact of Video Games on Children
pamf.org/preteen/parents/videogames.html
The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility,
Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance (2nd link down)
tinyurl.com/3ykgdus
The Effects of Video Games on Children -- What Parents Need To Know
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0816/is_6_21/ai_n9772319/pg_2/?tag=content;col1
A Meta-Analysis of the Published Research on the Effects of Pornography
ccoso.org/library%20articles/Meta-analysis.pdf
Article by Miranda Suit for the MailOnline -- 'I know what internet porn does to children - and it terrifies me'
dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1332842/Why-wont-Google-protect-children-porn.html
