Pornography is powerful stuff, and as long as there is demand for it, there will always be a supply. Better software tools may help check the worst abuses, but there will never be a switch that will cut it off entirely – not without destroying the unbridled expression that is the source of the Internet’s (and democracy’s) greatest strength.
Predictor: Elmer-DeWitt, Philip
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Time magazine, Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes about “Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway,” a research article based on research completed at Carnegie-Mellon by Martin Rimm. It was said to be an impetus for Senator James Exon’s Communications Decency Act. Elmer-DeWitt writes: ”This is the flip side of Vice President Al Gore’s vision of an information superhighway linking every school and library in the land. When the kids are plugged in, will they be exposed to the seamiest sides of human sexuality? Will they fall prey to child molesters handing out in electronic chat rooms? … Pornography is powerful stuff, and as long as there is demand for it, there will always be a supply. Better software tools may help check the worst abuses, but there will never be a switch that will cut it off entirely – not without destroying the unbridled expression that is the source of the Internet’s (and democracy’s) greatest strength.”
Date of prediction: July 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Pornography
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn – It’s Popular, Pervasive and Surprisingly Perverse, According to the First Survey of Online Erotica. And There’s No Way to Stamp it Out
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/166/445/35880842w2/purl=rc1_EAIM_0_A17128890&dyn=6!xrn_27_0_A17128890?sw_aep=ncliveec
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty