Internet Pornography and Censorship

Pornography is sexually explicit material, such as pictures, videos, or even writing, whose primary cause is to cause sexual arousal. The current pornography law states: “For the purposes of this Act, any publication a dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, or of sex and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence, shall be deemed to be obscene. Or; for the purposes of this Act, any matter or thing is obscene where a dominant characteristic of the matter or thing is the undue exploitation of any one or more of the following subjects, namely, sex, violence, crime, horror or cruelty, through degrading representations of a male or female person or in any other manner.” Maximum sentences of ten years for its production and distribution, and five years for simple possession, are prescribed.” (The)The law regarding this material is as follows: "a photographic, film, video or other visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means (i) that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of 18 years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity or (ii) the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of 18 years." Upon breaking this law, there is a sentence of up to five years in prison. Within three years of tracking, police have made 27 arrests and seized 84 computers with millions of images however; most of these people only get house arrest or more conditional sentences. It has gotten to a point, that there are just too many people to prosecute, and so many get off short of the deserved sentence-5 years-. (CBC)

There are offices of recognition, and people who analyze pornography, to first, make sure it is actual pictures, not digitally created ones, and also to make sure the material is counted as explicit. Pictures and documents are sent in, to be analyzed for one hundred percent certainty; the photos are real, and not photo shopped, or computer-generated. Before an arrest, or even and accusation can be made, the police must first make sure the material is actually against the law. This costs millions of dollars every year, to keep this program running. Before the ruling in 2002, all pictures were sent in, and all would be charged.