Channel Seven’s Sunrise spoke with Media Studies Professor Karen Brooks this morning about the Wikipedia sex topic uproar. There wasn’t any web bashing or family frothing though as one comes to expect from morning tele. Brooks instead spoke about the importance of supervising children’s Internet use and the need for clear communication between parents and children. Like me, I don’t think Mel was expecting such a reasoned approach.
My only complaint is that Brooks refers to the content as pornographic at the end of the interview. The images and footage aren’t on there to arouse, they are there to educate and inform. Explicit they may well be, but they are not pornographic.
Watch it below thanks to the NoCensorshipAus YouTube Channel:
2 comments
Colin says:
Sep 10, 2008
I’m also glad she talked up parental supervision. After all, if Wikipedia was “cleaned up”, much more explicit material is available within 10 seconds via google.
I found the suggestion that an article on masturbation isn’t at all appropriate for teenagers to be a bit silly though, unless teenagers have changed a lot since my day.
However, I think there’s some room for legitimate debat – perhaps the Wikipedia editors might, in some cases, make questionable choices because of their determination not to be censored, or because of their enthusiasm for a particular subject. (See the talk page on “Hardcore Pornography” – I think you can make a case that an article describing what hardcore pornography is doesn’t need actual hardcore porn in there inside the article.) Is it wrong for the editors of an encylopedia to bear in mind the traditional expectations and uses of their work (inside schools, for instance), and make decisions bearing that in mind? In a few cases, I don’t think it’s a clear-cut case of puritanism/censorship vs the freedom of information, rather one of taste in some cases. Not so much the articles on sexual health, but the articles on porn and fetishes are usually well illustrated.
Mike says:
Sep 10, 2008
All valid points Colin. Wikipedia relies a lot on enthusiasm and when it comes to say a subject like Bondage, naturally those contributors who enjoy such a lifestyle will be tolerant of more explicit images on wiki pages related to it. The average joe might find the wiki page for it shocking.
That’s not a bad thing though, just something that needs to be considered. Wikipedia presents raw information that you won’t find in Encarta, who would have it otherwise (well, we know who).
There are ways to turn off images at the moment, but it’s likely going to confuse many people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Options_to_not_see_an_image
A system where flagged images are hidden until clicked seems like a good idea to me (and it part already exists). A simple age verification system like YouTube perhaps. Anyone who wants to view it still can, but it won’t be displayed to everyone off the main wiki topic page.