Did you know that in Iceland the printing and distribution of pornography is illegal? In fact, if caught, offenders can be imprisoned for up to six months.
Well, Iceland may now become the first Western country to ban Internet pornography.
According to a recent article in The Telegraph, “The government is considering introducing Internet filters, such as those used to block China off from the worldwide web, in order to stop Icelanders [from] downloading or viewing pornography on the Internet.”
These proposals are expected to become law later this year.
According to Professor Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality, “Iceland is taking a very progressive approach that no other democratic country has tried.” She continued, “It is looking a[t] pornography from a new position—from the perspective of the harm it does to the women who appear in it and as a violation of their civil rights.”
Dines, a self-professed feminist, is affirming what the Church has always known: that pornography “offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2354).
It seems Iceland, perhaps unknowingly, is responding to the Church’s teaching that “civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials” (CCC 2354).