Wetlook World Forum

When you're photographing, distributing images, or viewing them, it is a matter of intent. Do you photograph with the INTENT to provide sexual arousal for the viewer? Do you view the content with the INTENT to be sexually aroused? Are you distributing images where there is such intent? The trouble is, the law is based upon objective proof, and intent can be hard to prove or disprove. Without proof of intent, all that can be done is establish the objective facts - age of majority and consent of the subject, explicitness of the images, and age of majority of the viewer (if the images are explicit). Everything else is assumption. The question is, do you make conservative assumptions in an attempt to protect "vulnerable" individuals by labelling something as indecent or pornographic, and condemn anyone involved in its creation, distribution and consumption, denying their rights as unique individuals? Or do you make more liberal assumptions, allowing individuals to express their individuality and wait for demonstrable harm before making any condemnations? How much freedom should we be willing to give up for the sake of protecting ourselves from one another? Who is empowered to make such decisions and who is empowered to apply them?

As to the matter of the library. I wonder what sort of material is in their collection. Is it "sanitized"? Are there any books on human sexuality? Is there any contemporary erotic fiction? Anything on the Kinsey report? Masters and Johnson? Do they have "Catcher in the Rye"? "Catch 22"?

Perhaps the issue is this: if the computers are in an open area, ANYONE can see what comes up on your screen. Library staff would rightly be concerned about complaints from parents of young children. Their computers are a limited resource, presumably there for research purposes. I could understand them getting annoyed at you using them for purely "recreational" purposes, especially if someone else is being turned away. IF noone else is being offended because of what they happen to see as they walk by, and noone is being inconvenienced because you are tying up a computer, then it is down to an overly prudish attitude amongst your library staff.