internet porn

[demiromi]

when is internet porn illegal? my partner regularly accesses internet porn, despite the fact i have issues with this. The issues are that he uses the household computer (which is in my name, as is the internet access) and it is also the computer that the kids use. There has been one incident where he has not cleared the history well enough & one of the kids brought up a porn site by accident, luckily i was there at the time and our doughter saw nothing untoward. He seems to see no problem with this & if I put a parental control on he will just take it off. As i have no reason to believe he is into child porn, is he doing anything illegal?

[teag1rl]

I don't think porn is illegal, but it's only a step away, things are going in this country..

[RevFunk]

I think the issue is you need to have serious words with your partner

[R1Geezer]

Set it up as multi user, is it Vista? XP? anyway they you can sssign net nanny to the kids so even if a porn site get's acessed it'll get blocked.

also use Firefox, it stops most hijacks, pop ups etc that porn sites tend to do.

[bednobs]

internet pron becomes illegal or at least morally questionable when it involves people who are or appear to be under the age of consent (not sure of the actuall age but to take into account differen t"consent" ages round the world i would say 18)

also when it becomes obscene - to this i would add animals
Or if it shows abuse of vulnerable/non consenting participant.
My personal weirdometer would start to wobble at scenes depicting violence or inflicting pain but i dont think thats illegal (except those sandpapering balls blokes got charged and arrested even though they consented)
So to sum up: i dont actually know the answer. As others have said though, i think the problem lies with you two not communicating or not appreciating the other's point of view more though

[Postdog]

There's bestiality too - I know it's an offence for real, not sure about viewing.

Tend to agree with the concensus tho - there is another issue here that ought to be sorted.

[Whickerman]

I'm one of the people who feels that porn is normal, healthy activity for us males - we get turned on differently to women, and the images are what's fun for us (that's also why we generally like the light on!).

Now let me clarify - I'm talking about consenting adults being filmed here only. you shouldn't have any issues with the legality of this.

As to whether this is healthy for your relationship - that's up to you. It's healthy for mine, but we have different values. Certainly it seems you need to talk to your partner, but if you treat this as if he's cheating on you you may end up in a situation you're unhappy with.

My tip? Have him use a personal pc, not the family one. And in private, and when you're not in the house - i think that's a fair compromise? But that's just me.

[Twenty20]

I dont have a problem with porn, but if a child is able to view it then its a definite no-no. I would be very concerned that your partner doesnt see this as a problem. I think, as a minimum, you need separate accounts on the computer but maybe your partner should just be more responsible. I would find his attitude alarming and it would raise severe doubts with me as to his suitability as a parent.

[daffy654]

My partner occasionally looks at porn on the family PC(he's not allowed near mine) but he always does a disc clean up and removes browsing history etc afterwards.He doesn't store any downloads on it as our 10 year old son uses that PC a lot. I am not exactly happy that he looks at porn but I have accepted the fact that most men do it and tend to just ignore the fact now.

[andy-hughes]

I can only really add to the answers previopusly given.

As far as simply viewing pornography, there is unlikely to be any seerious issues here legally - the powers-that-be are really only interested in people who download material - i.e. save it to a computer hard-drive for collection or dosemination, and that is normally confined to the more serious end of the system - as already delineated by previous correspondents.

However, I do think you have a serious issue with the fact that your partner is showing blatent disregard for you as his partner, and for your children. That is less about whaty he actually looks agt, than the fact that he appears indifferent to his responsibilities to you as his partner, and to your children.

I think you need to have a serious talk with him, not in the area of pornography, but about his attitude to you and the children, and his relationship with you. That to me is the serious matter here.

[lady_p_gold]

There is probably not a man alive and a great percentage of women that have not looked at porn, in fact it is almost impossible to avoid these days as my stepfather found out when he googled something for the crossword about nymphs the other day .... what you must do is decide as a household what are the rules, if it is your computer then put a password on it, or make him enter with a password so that only he can access whatever it is he has been accessing . And no, I don't think it is illegal unless it involved children etc. you could always check with the police.