A new documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Insex.com, one of the early websites. (NSFW) Co-directors Anna Lorentzon and Barbara Bell look at Insex, the people behind it, and the forces that ultimately brought it down. The stuff that Insex did tends to make even hardcore kinksters flinch a bit. However, as one reviewer points out, they at least put the activities into context, showing the performers both in the scenes (which include drowning and suffocation--some of this stuff may really hit some triggers for some people), as opposed to the notorious anti-porn documentary, The Price of Pleasure, which showed sex and kink without exploration of the performers' lives offscreen. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is that they ultimately were shut down not by obscenity laws, but by federal authorities who used the PATRIOT Act to claim that hardcore porn funded terrorism.
posted by Stochastic Jack on Sep 8, 2009 - 99 comments

Journalist's efforts to rescue teen from porn questioned. Kurt Eichenwald, author and NYT journalist discovered teen Justin Berry prostituting himself online and intervened, financially and legally. Eichenwald even appeared with Berry on Oprah. Two years after his initial expose was published, his life is in ruins. [more inside]
posted by Locative on Oct 30, 2007 - 33 comments

The Internet is for porn. Never before in the history of humanity have men (let's be honest - it's mainly men) had such open access to depictions of attractive body parts in intimate physical interactions. Every taste, every fetish and every perversion is catered to. Some people think there's too much.. Some people think there's still not enough. Others wonder why all this pornography can't be a bit... sexier? And in a few small corners of the Internet, there are communities of people who still remember what the word "erotic" used to mean, before it became a synonym for tasteless trashy rutting and spyware infested digital prostitution. [Almost all links are NSFW. None are pornographic. And I like good porn.]
posted by thparkth on Jul 30, 2007 - 222 comments

Pr0n at Work = Addiction? Spawning from such cases as a recent lawsuit with IBM over employee termination due to online sex chatting at work, recent debate over whether Internet abuse is a legitimate addiction, akin to alcoholism, is heating up. Attorneys say recognition by a court—whether in this or some future litigation—that Internet abuse is an uncontrollable addiction, and not just a bad habit, could redefine the condition as a psychological impairment worthy of protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Businesses would be required to allow medical leave and provide counseling. The condition could even make it into the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, making it a full-blown neurosis. It wouldn't be a complete surprise, with a recent Stanford study showing that 14% of people state it would be "hard to stay away" from the net for a few days in a row.
posted by PreacherTom on Dec 14, 2006 - 49 comments

Thinking of a career change? These days anyone can set up a website and become a porn star. With the internet fundamentally changing the industry, could pornography be becoming mainstream? Pornography is one of the world's most profitable industries.
posted by halekon on Mar 4, 2005 - 50 comments

A new twist on paying for Internet porn Although no mention of porn in the CNN story. Anyone ever been threatened like this?
posted by Samuel Farrow on Dec 29, 2003 - 18 comments

Clone blogs: spurious blogs that look real, but exist solely to purvey smut in a very shady way. They're becoming ever more clever, those spammers.
posted by moonbird on Nov 17, 2003 - 32 comments

So I Google search on the SoBig virus' affinity for UDP port 8998, and the possibility it may be downloading additional programs this afternoon(actually, right about now). Great, more filters on the routers. Hang on, what's this result on that first search? A link to PornResource? Why, it appears to be a news and technical site for porn site operators. News, guides, interviews, top designers, host reviews, even a message board. Of course, a site billed as "The Standard for Up-To-Date Adult Webmaster News" is NSFW. Unless you are BossHawg, of course.
posted by dglynn on Aug 22, 2003 - 10 comments

Jpeg Baby. I remember when I first came and downloaded you. [flash song & video]
posted by srboisvert on Jun 1, 2003 - 8 comments

Remember the little fiasco of those child/preteen "model" sites? Well, finally the husband and wife of one of the children have been sent to jail. Two more site operators have cases pending against them. Nude videotapes of the girl found in the couples home is what they were finally convicted for, not the web site itself.
posted by geoff. on Aug 5, 2002 - 28 comments

Congress is legislating free speech on the internet again. Passed shortly after the Communications Decency Act was thrown out by the Supreme Court, the Child Online Protection Act isn't as broad as the CDA but does it still go too far in an effort to protect children? Shouldn't parents be responsible for their own children?
posted by pooldemon on Nov 29, 2001 - 5 comments

John Ashcroft on web porn: "I am concerned about obscenity and I'm concerned about obscenity as it relates to our children". I'm curious what those of you who are more on the conservative/libertarian side of things think about this. Are there special exemptions to the concept of free speech when it comes to this type of content? [more]
posted by owillis on Jun 11, 2001 - 40 comments

Nordstrom, J.C. Penney, and FTD take some advice from Yahoo's porn advocates and drop Christian on-line store because of its connections to the American Family Association. Just Surreal. Or The Power of Porn?
posted by skallas on Jun 3, 2001 - 8 comments

Meatfilter? Mistyped URL's usually serve you up a porn site, annoying ads, or endless spawning windows. This one though, gave me a chuckle.

note: you probably don't want to click on any of the links 'cept for the meatfilter one
posted by skwm on May 14, 2001 - 25 comments

Most Arab country net traffic headed for porn sites... I'm not surprised. But not for the same reason's that are put forth in the article... More inside. [Via ObscureStore]
posted by silusGROK on Apr 24, 2001 - 20 comments

The semantic web Might make the internet obsolete but what about my porno?
posted by Postroad on Apr 13, 2001 - 5 comments

Porn on the net is not a problem. Readers chime in on an opinion column with opinions of their own. My favorites "All one has to do if you don't want to read such garbage is to delete it when you first sign onto the Internet" (this guy obviously has no clue how the web works) and "Is there software I can buy to block out you?" In this article, Porn site supporters and detractors both seem to agree that users have to go out of their way to see pornographic content on the web. You have to click on the link to see porn. Funny how the writer of the original article couldn't figure that out. Is porn really that much of a problem on the web, or are some people just too embarrased to admit that due to some curiosity, they wanted to follow the links?
posted by mathowie on Jun 24, 2000 - 11 comments

Potential Employment: Here is a chance to show what you are made of. Quit your high paying job you have now, for one that will give you the opportunity to "help the children."
posted by brent on Feb 12, 2000 - 0 comments