This week I have noticed in the news a lot of talk about porn, from Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia trying to remove porn from the site and receiving strong backlash from volunteer editors, to Steve Jobs getting into an e-mail debate over freedom from porn with a Gawker blogger. Of course my interest has been heightened by the recent move by Japan (where I live), to block the criminalization of child pornography to which we have responded with an online petition to the prime minister @hatoyamayukio. (Please take a moment to sign it when you finish reading.)

The common theme in all three of these stories is that technology is changing the way that we interact with pornography. Whereas those seeking pornography before the rise of the internet sought it out in disreputable looking stores that were clearly labeled as “Adult” and mainstream distributors kept the magazine’s covers hidden on the higher shelves, now the internet is rife with it and one wrong click can expose much more than a peek inside a magazine at the supermarket ever revealed.

What is most concerning about the Wikipedia revelation is that there are pornographic images on a site that our children are being sent to by their teachers to research school projects. It is commendable that Jimmy Wales had the good sense to try to take them down and lamentable that this caused dissent within the editorial community and curtailment of his editorial power.

Apple’s Steve Jobs, likewise, realizes that most consumers do not want to have to wade through pornographic content, or even suggestions of it, to access legitimate applications. He has wisely kept control over what is allowed to be placed in their store and has seen it meet huge financial success. He called it “freedom from porn” in the e-mail exchange. Like all freedoms though, it is meaningless unless it is protected. So Apple protects their store from offensive material.

Japan’s block of legislation to protect children from being exploited by pornography is also deeply connected with technology, namely the very popular and lucrative anime publishing and film industry and concerns that tighter pornography laws would cut into profits. But it also is a deep misunderstanding of today’s hyper-connected world. “The Internet has radically changed how child pornography is reproduced and disseminated, and, according to the United States Department of Justice, resulted in a massive increase in the “availability, accessibility, and volume of child pornography.” (Wikipedia)

The United Kingdom Children’s charity NCH have stated that demand for child pornography on the internet has led to an increase in sex abuse cases, due to an increase in the number of children abused in the production process. In a study analyzing men arrested for child pornography possession in the United States over a one year period from 2000 to 2001, most had pornographic images of prepubescent children (83%) and images graphically depicting sexual penetration (80%). Approximately 1 in 5 (21%) had images depicting violence such as bondage, rape, or torture and most of those involved images of children who were gagged, bound, blindfolded, or otherwise enduring sadistic sex. More than 1 in 3 (39%) had child-pornography videos with motion and sound. 79% also had what might be termed softcore images of nude or semi-nude children, but only 1% possessed such images alone. Law enforcement found about half (48%) had more than 100 graphic still images, and 14% had 1,000 or more graphic images. Forty percent (40%) were “dual offenders,” who sexually victimized children and possessed child pornography.

These sad statistics exist because the technology has made it possible and lax laws in countries like Japan and Russia allow exploiters to evade law enforcement. However, the bottom line in each of these cases needs to be the protection of children from seeing content that is inappropriate and suffering abuse from the hands of those who would exploit them. Companies like Apple, non-profits like Wikipedia, and nations like Japan all must be accountable to ensure that their products, programs and laws do not lead to the harm of the world’s children.

I am not so naive as to think that pornography will ever be eradicated from the internet, but it needs to be clearly marked as such, with safeguards to permit only adults entrance, and it needs to be closely monitored by law enforcement so that children are not exploited. Our first commitment as responsible members of society is to protect our children. Please join us in showing the Japanese government the opinion of the world concerning this grave matter – sign the petition and add your voice today.