PORNO MONDO

If any of my kids are reading this be warned - I am about to refer to sex.

Right - that's got rid of them.

I've often said that if I didn't live in England I'd probably live in Amsterdam. It's a lovely place in its own right but I really like their laid back attitude to sex, drugs and life in general.

There's a lot of fuss being made at the moment about so called Mummy-porn with the recent publication of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by E. L. James. This, in case you just returned from another planet, is a graphic sex novel which seems to have taken the fancy of ladies of a certain age. 

This puts me in mind of the time (1960) when Penguin books were finally allowed to publish 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' which D. H. Lawrence had written way back in 1928. This also contained explicit sex references and was privately published abroad but our own censorship laws prohibited us from buying it from the local bookshop.

I have no idea whether James' novel is any good or not but I am delighted that our society has matured enough to allow us to choose whether or not to read it.

I am also pleased that it is read openly rather than under the bed sheets which is where I perused Lady Chatterley as a wildly hormonal teenager. 

UNDER THE COUNTER

"Daddy?

"Yes Jenny."

"Why is that shop empty?"

"Oh, it's probably because of the financial recession. Lots of shops are closing down".

"No, it's open and people are buying stuff but the shelves are all empty."

"Oh right, well then it's restricted sales. It's stuff which is put out of sight because the government says so - like pornography for instance".

"Daddy?...What's a 'tobacconist'?"

"It's a shop that sells cigarettes and tobacco."

"Well that's what that empty shop was."

"Oh yes, well smoking is very bad for you so the government want all tobacco products put out of sight of children. That's what I meant by 'restricted sales'."

"Daddy?...What's 'pornography'?"

"It's pictures of ladies boobies. Pornography magazines are put on the very top shelf in shops."

"Is that so you don't have to bend down to see them in case you hurt your back, Daddy?"

"No, it's so they are out of sight of little girls like you."

"Well when I grow up I don't want to ever smoke cigarettes."

"I'm very glad to hear that Jenny."

"...and I certainly shan't be growing any boobies."

OPEN INTERNET?

If you are of a nervous disposition or easily upset I advise you not to read on. I'm serious.

My friends regard me as strong-stomached. Its true. I can indulge in 'toilet humour' whilst having a meal without any difficulty. In fact if someone were to vomit next to me I would carrying on eating - and yet.........

I vividly remember going to watch 'The Exorcist' in 1974. As I left the cinema I felt waves of utter disgust at what I had seen. I had a strong feeling of revulsion and I remember thinking that whoever had made the film had done so with the single intent to shock the viewer. In my case it worked. That was the moment when I parted company from the whole genre of the horror film. The experience is branded on my soul. I wish I had never seen the film. In the 36 years since that day I have never felt that way again despite seeing and reading all manner of disgusting things........until now.

I have always been a strong supporter of 'the open Internet'. I am aware that there are some horrors on it such as disgusting pornography for instance, but as far as I know, these items are only available on closed sites for which you have to subscribe. Like the pin-up magazines on the top shelf, they are out of our reach and our eyes shouldn't alight on them unless we're searching them out. Not so.

When I read that an international conference was taking place behind closed doors to discuss the future of the Internet, I was worried. However, after my recent experience I now feel that the Internet does need to be policed to prevent certain images being freely available.

I stumbled upon a news report from 2009 of a missing 6 year old girl in Sri Lanka. She had been abducted from her school and brutally murdered. Her remains were found in a bag near the roadside and there were vivid photographs of her little body which had just started to decompose. Her arms were taped behind her back and her ankles taped together to prevent movement. The same strong tape had been used to cover her eyes so that she could not see and her mouth so that she could not scream and her nose too so that she could not breathe. If this description disturbs you, imagine what seeing the actual photographs did to me.

I wish I had not seen these images and I firmly believe that they should not have been placed on a freely available internet news site.

One other thing is clear. The emergency service personnel who have to deal with this as part of their job, deserve our greatest respect and our sincere thanks.