These days it almost seems as though the internet is synonymous with pornography. When the internet is mentioned on television, there is usually pornography displayed or mentioned. One reason why internet pornography is so popular is because the internet provides anonymity to it's patrons, allowing them to be freed of social constraints. There is an evident lack of leadership on the internet allowing anarchy to rule the citizens of the internet community. Because of this lack of social control, sexual deviance is rampant on the internet.
In this paper, the reader will learn about sexual deviance and the internet. After thoroughly explaining what sexual deviance is and the kinds of acts that can be considered in this category, this paper will delve into the legal issues surrounding sexual deviance. The paper will then transfer the idea of sexual deviance over to the internet and the laws that are applicable to the internet will be discussed. Since this is a sociological paper, it will conclude with a discussion of how sexual deviance on the internet can be explained in sociological terms by relating this issue to the social control theories of Durkheim, Marx, and Weber.
[...] The Internet and Sexual Deviance Most of today's college students probably do not remember how they passed time or did research before the internet came about. The internet, also known as the world wide web or cyberspace, is simply a large network of computers used for numerous pursuits, including communication, commerce, and information. The internet had nearly 37 million connected computers as of July 1998, and grows at an alarming rate of almost fifty percent a year (Casanova). The internet can be accessed by anyone who has a personal computer with an internet connection provided by an ISP, or internet service provider. [...]
[...] Conclusion Sexual deviance is not a new phenomenon, but its varied forms on the internet are. Sexual deviance on the internet has been able to grow and survive for numerous reasons as shown, including the anonymous nature of the internet, the easy accessibility, and the low cost of using the internet. Knowing this, it is fairly easy for one to apply the social control theories above to sexual deviance on the internet in order to explain in sociological terms why deviance has been able to thrive. [...]
[...] Cybersex occurs when two or more online users exchange sexual fantasies with each other using text and other media. Online chat rooms are a boom for this activity. Many people who participate in cybersex begin in a chat room and move into one- on-one situations via email. Sometimes this online relationships cross over into the real world and lead to actual sexual encounters between the participants (Griffiths). There are several reasons why this form of behavior thrives on the internet. [...]
[...] When a person deviates from the collective consciousness, they are either made to feel bad or start a movement that will change the collective consciousness for everyone (Stockard 134). The problem with the internet is that there can be no collective consciousness. The anonymity that is granted to the internet user places them in a state of anomie. Durkheim defined anomie as a condition of relative normlessness in a whole society or in some of its component groups. Since the internet is a global community with little to no regulation, there is no set of norms for users to conform to. [...]
[...] “Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state 3. “Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” (Harrison and Gilbert 137-148). One of the most common forms of obscenity is pornography. Harrison and Gilbert define pornography as “Depictions of erotic acts intended to cause sexual excitement” (Introduction). Under the Miller decision detailed above, states were given the power to make laws regulating pornography if they believed it was obscene. [...]
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