Internet law

[gaz_farr]

Hi

Please solve a dispute for me.

Is it illegal (in the UK) to look at porn websites? What is the law about looking at them?

I heard it is illegal to download porn but that would technically mean looking at the sites is illegal.

How are offenders caught?

Thanks

[andy-hughes]

All the advantages we all enjoy on the information superhighway are driven by the pornography industry - that's how massive and powerful it is.

If you are a 'viewer', you are among millions of others, the the 'authorities' have neither the time, resources, or interest in chasing you.

If you download onto your PC, you are still among millions of individuals, and again, highly unlikely to be troubled, although i would stress that both actions are actually against the law.

You will be caught and prosecuted if you download or share child pornography, especially if you use your credit card to pay for access to paedophile sites - as happened to Pete Townesnd from The Who, although he escaped prosecution.

In these instances, the police are able to track credit card transactions, and it its these individuals, and the owners of such sites, that attract their closest attention, and legal action where possible.

If you are downloading massive amounts of pornography, you could attract attention, but the millions of people who look at, as opposed to downloading, adult images, are likely to be left alone.

I present these facts as information - and reiterate that accessing pronography via the web is illegal - the rest is up to the individual.

[fo3nix]

There's nothing illegal about pornography.

The only sites that are illegal to browse in the UK are those that contain material which is itself illegal: i.e. child porn, etc.

[mycatis]

Thats what I thought fo3nix - "normal" pornography isn't illegal just the stuff you mentioned