Will Porn Become Illegal In Russia?
April 13, 2015
Russia doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation when it comes to sex and relationships. For a start, LGBT people do not seem to have the same rights as others, despite the fact that what happens behind closed doors between two consenting (same sex) adults was decriminalised in 1993. Gay men and lesbian women are just not accepted.
So, it should hardly be surprising that Russia also has a thing against porn… but it seems this agenda may be leading them to criminalise it completely.
Conservative opinions
Russia has become known for the conservation opinion of its people. A study conducted back in 2013 proved this, as 27% of Russians thought that gay people needed some kind of psychological treatment to “fix” them. With a further 16% believing that gay people “should be isolated from society”, it is hardly surprising they view porn in the same conservative way.
Even the Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown just how conservative he is, having once famously said that “on the internet 50 percent is porn material.”
We know this isn’t true. In fact, a study back in 2010 proved that only 4% of the internet contained pornographic material. Surprising, yes, but that hasn’t changed the conservation way in which some Russian people look on all things taboo.
If anything, it has simply secured it in their minds that it should be gone from our lives completely. Clearly, they haven’t found to good porn.
Banning porn
The Russian website Izvestia today reported that a district court in Tatarstan has made moves to ban 136 porn sites. That might not sound too bad, but the wording and language used in this ruling makes us think that they might be trying to make all Internet porn illegal.
The court has passed orders for the federal government’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor to put 136 websites onto the Internet blacklist if, within 3 days, they “fail to purge themselves of all pornographic content”.
Asking websites to remove pornographic content is a bit much… especially considering one of the websites at risk of being blacklisted in Russia is the site xHamster.
The aim seems to be to “crack down on Internet porn”. Will it actually work?
Fighting against porn
While we might be thinking that this law won’t even get the chance to pass through, prosecutors are fighting for it, and they are fighting hard.
For a start, they have said international treaties “constitute an integral part of Russian law” and that, when domestic legislation is in conflict with international obligations, the international obligations will take priority.
You might think that this is good news, but the prosecutors went on to talk about the Convention for the Suppression of the Circulation of Obscene Publications, which was signed in 1910, and international agreement that was signed in 1923.
Both of these agreements effectively ban not only the production and distribution of porn, but also the possession of it!
Not just porn at risk
Of course, it isn’t just porn at list. In order to put together their extensive 136-strong list of websites to blacklist, they used Yandex (the leading search engine in Russia) to find the websites.
Sure, because no-one in the offices will have ever even looked at the websites before! In fact, I’m surprised they even know what to search!
They used terms relating to porn, such as “porno video” and “porn video” to find the “unfavourable” websites and add them to the list. However, if this ban does come into place, it isn’t just porn websites at risk.
Apparently, the district attorney’s office has admitted that they also searched for things such as “Kazan prostitutes”. Yes, sex workers are now also at risk of losing work because of the attitude some people have about sex and pornography.
The future of porn
While this request will mean that Roskomnadzor will have to do something about the sites, it doesn’t necessarily mean we will see them banned throughout Russia. At the moment, it is still unclear as to whether they will enforce the blocking of these websites in just Tatarstan, where it all began, or if it will spread across the country.
However, given the way that the prosecutors are tackling this issue, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went beyond these 136 websites to try and stop all porn websites in Russia. Soon, no-one in Russia will be able to jerk off to a woman being bent over and fucked from behind.
What do you think about this situation? Are they blowing things out of proportion to try and get rid of the adult industry, and will it even work? You can let us know what you think about it by leaving a comment in the box below.
For now, I can’t help but feel sympathy for the Russian people. They might soon be deprived of porn… what a sad day that will be!
Since then she has gained a fine reputation with her blogs on sex advice, sexual health and amusing news stories from around the globe. She is also a campaigner for the rights of sex workers from all over the world.
In her spare time, Lara keeps herself active by going running, and is something of a film buff. She also loves to go travelling.
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