Deeper Down The Rabbit Hole Episode 154: Jerry Barnett Discusses Porn Panic! Sex and Censorship in the UK
Dec 11, 2016
01:10:30
Jason M. Colwell welcomes Jerry Barnett to the show, to discuss his book Porn Panic! Sex And Censorship In The UK.
Jerry had been a political activist since first attending anti-racism protests as a teenager in the late-70s. He became a software engineer and technical consultant in working for a decade for a number of leading technology brands.
In the mid-1990s with the onset of the Internet, he saw an opportunity to set up a web software business, finding work with the online adult entertainment industry, which represented the largest and most profitable online business at the time. He later set up his own successful pay-per-view service.
As a participant in adult entertainment, Jerry saw first-hand how the British censorship state, aided by morality campaigners, was trying to regain control of a medium that reduced their power, influence and financial gain. The UK is the most censored society in Europe, but censorship laws designed for a world of cinema, TV and video no longer worked in the digital age, and vested interests were determined to seize back their power.
He has been previously chairman of the Adult Industry Trade Association, and a previous member of the Policy Council of US-based industry body, the International Foundation for Online Responsibility.
After closing his business in 2012, he founded the Sex & Censorship campaign, with the aims of countering misinformation about sexual expression in the media, opposing the drive towards more state censorship and defending sexual freedom. He believes that the dangerous drive towards censorship is really not about porn: that just makes for a convenient excuse.
Jerry had been a political activist since first attending anti-racism protests as a teenager in the late-70s. He became a software engineer and technical consultant in working for a decade for a number of leading technology brands.
In the mid-1990s with the onset of the Internet, he saw an opportunity to set up a web software business, finding work with the online adult entertainment industry, which represented the largest and most profitable online business at the time. He later set up his own successful pay-per-view service.
As a participant in adult entertainment, Jerry saw first-hand how the British censorship state, aided by morality campaigners, was trying to regain control of a medium that reduced their power, influence and financial gain. The UK is the most censored society in Europe, but censorship laws designed for a world of cinema, TV and video no longer worked in the digital age, and vested interests were determined to seize back their power.
He has been previously chairman of the Adult Industry Trade Association, and a previous member of the Policy Council of US-based industry body, the International Foundation for Online Responsibility.
After closing his business in 2012, he founded the Sex & Censorship campaign, with the aims of countering misinformation about sexual expression in the media, opposing the drive towards more state censorship and defending sexual freedom. He believes that the dangerous drive towards censorship is really not about porn: that just makes for a convenient excuse.