DUBLIN, Ireland—Ministers in the Irish government are considering restrictions on certain categories of pornographic content in the same format as the United Kingdom.
The Irish Independent reported over the weekend that Jim O’Callaghan, Ireland's justice minister, is developing legislation to be introduced to the Dáil Éireann, Ireland's parliament, to target what he and the national government consider to be "extreme or violent" pornography, and further criminalize such content's possession, production and distribution.
He insinuated that violent porn is rife with the "use of knives" and "with strangulation threats to the point of causing or nearly killing someone." O’Callaghan stressed in the report that the government doesn't intend to enforce "a sense of moral prurience," but that he believes minors and younger adults over the age of majority need protection from such "influence."
“It’s on the basis that this is very damaging to young people who are looking at this and thinking ‘this is how human sexuality operates’—it’s not, and we need to protect them from it,” O'Callaghan explained. The report by the Independent points to the recent efforts to prohibit consensual choking and certain "taboo" categories of pornography.
He stressed that this effort before parliament will not come in the format of emergency legislation, noting that he wants to strike the right balance. O'Callaghan said, "I know on an emergency basis, legislation can be introduced, but something like this needs to be considered.
"We need to think of the available defences to it, obviously for artistic purposes or for films,” he added. “I think it is necessary to introduce it and start it in order to protect young people, teenage children, young men and women as well. People are getting a distorted view of what human sexuality is about.”
