Pornography Should be Regulated

When deliberating over whether access to pornography should be prohibited, four areas of contention must be elaborated upon and evaluated critically to provide a sensible basis on which a judgement can be made. Firstly, it must be concluded whether pornography can be classed as a form of speech, and whether it enjoys the same protections as art and literature under the principle. Secondly, works such as those of Catherine MacKinnon can be drawn upon to offer a feminist perspective of the effects of pornography on the treatment of women within modern democratic society. Moreover, the principles of Devlin and Feinberg offer relevant acumen regarding the criminalisation of pornographic media. Overall, this essay will argue that whilst access to pornography should not be entirely prohibited; publications that depict ‘extreme’ situations should be subject to regulation and restriction.

Freedom of speech is archetypally recognised as a basic human right in free and democratic societies. When contending whether speech that may be deemed offensive should be safeguarded one may refer to the judgement of Redmond-Bate v. DPP:

"Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence..."

Any speech therefore, however disagreeable it may be; that does not incite violence must be allowed in our society. One must then consider whether pornography may be classed as speech. Nadine Gourgey argues that speech is not solely defined as the communication of information, but rather encompasses any act made by a party that which can be viewed and comprehended by another. Gourgey states that if porno...

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...d, John Stuart Mill and the Harm of Pornography, “Ethics”, vol. 102, n. 3, 1992, pp. 534-55

John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women, 1869

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 s 63(6)(b)

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 s 63(7)

Stevens J, Opinion of the Court, Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997) [1]

Obscene Publications Act, 1959 s1

Lord Devlin P. The Enforcement of Morals, 1959

JS Mill, On Liberty in JS Mill, On Liberty, Considerations on Representative Government, 158

Barnett H, Introduction to Feminist Jurisprudence, Cavendish Publishing, (1998), 281

Yien Ee C., Pornography: Women Matter, UCL Jurisprudence Review, (2002), 148

Dworkin A., ‘Against the Male Flood’ (1985) Harvard Women's Law Journal 8,

ibid, 10

N. Gourgey, Pornography and Freedom of Speech, Ent. Law Review, 1997

ibid, 90