Public porn

[Nearly Sane]

Modern problems. I do wonder how we compare this to all the people I saw reading 50 Shades


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38611265

[jeremyp]

Modern problems. I do wonder how we compare this to all the people I saw reading 50 Shades


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38611265

An interesting problem. It would certainly make me uncomfortable if somebody next to me was doing it but does it do any real harm? The article asks "what if a child had seen it?" Well what? I expect there would have been a certain amount of embarrassment all round for everybody except the child and that would be that.

Personally, I'd never watch anything that was more than a PG (or 12A at the most) in public not because I think anybody would get harmed but out of respect for parents who don't want their children seeing that stuff.

[Shaker]

BBC article with responses from various members of the public: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38638339

Gutter-minded as ever, one entirely unintentionally funny reply made me smirk:

I went to McDonald's one evening with my wife and children. I sat at a large table while my wife and children went to the counter. A group of children aged between 12 and 14 were watching porn on a large iPhone with the sound on. I asked them to switch it off and received a cold shoulder. I insisted since I had young children or I would report them to the manager. Happily they switched it off before my children came.

Sorry, couldn't help it.

[Aruntraveller]

Tut tut Shaker.

Time to reinstate the much-missed Ketty's 'norty step'.

[Brownie]

I'd feel uncomfortable with someone watching porn sitting next to me but it sounds as though the bloke thought no-one else would see, being as it was on his 'phone.

[Shaker]

I think the central issue here is that in the absence of sound, by watching somebody watching porn you're trespassing on their private activity. Sound makes a difference because with sound you're inflicting it on everyone within earshot, but otherwise if somebody next to you is (silently) watching porn and you're watching it/them watching it, you're visually eavesdropping (so to speak) on their activity, to which the answer surely ought to be look elsewhere. Lots of people complain that with electronic gadgets such as smartphones and ipads etc. people on public transport are all locked into their own little bubble. Maybe so, but you can't have it both ways - you can't complain about that and at the same time moan that they're watching something you don't want to see. You have no reasonable ground (IMO) to complain that somebody is watching sonething that they want to watch but which you find objectionable - if you are watching it over somebody's shoulder you are, again, committing the visual equivalent of eavesdropping.

[Rhiannon]

I'd worry about sitting next to someone who can't last a fifteen minute bus ride without needing a porn fix. But equally I'm more than capable of not looking once I know what he/she is viewing.

[Brownie]

Yes, I agree with all that.

[jeremyp]

Lots of people complain that with electronic gadgets such as smartphones and ipads etc. people on public transport are all locked into their own little bubble. Maybe so, but you can't have it both ways - you can't complain about that and at the same time moan that they're watching something you don't want to see.

Yes you can, it's them in the bubble not everybody else around.

Lots of people get upset or uncomfortable when other people are watching porn in public. If nothing else, it's a matter of courtesy not to do it.

[Shaker]

Yes you can, it's them in the bubble not everybody else around.

Lots of people get upset or uncomfortable when other people are watching porn in public. If nothing else, it's a matter of courtesy not to do it.

I remember in the good old days when it were all fields round here and reading a newspaper/book over somebody's shoulder was considered bad manners. Isn't not-looking-at-something-not-yours-and-not-meant-for-you a matter of courtesy as well? If you're watching porn on a smartphone or a tablet, it's presumably meant for you, not the rubbernecker behind or next to you who has the option to look elsewhere. At their own gadget, perhaps.

[jeremyp]

I remember in the good old days when it were all fields round here and reading a newspaper/book over somebody's shoulder was considered bad manners. Isn't not-looking-at-something-not-yours-and-not-meant-for-you a matter of courtesy as well?

It's much more difficult to ignore a moving image than written text, especially if they have the sound up.

[Shaker]

It's much more difficult to ignore a moving image than written text, especially if they have the sound up.

Sound's a dfferent issue as I acknowledged in my earlier post. But otherwise I don't see what's so difficult to ignore.

[Rhiannon]

On balance I'm inclined to agree with Jeremy. On a recent train journey the bloke across the aisle and a row or two down from me was playing Candy Crush on a large iPhone - there was no noise but he held it in front of his face and it was visible if I looked vaguely forwards. Ok, so if it had been porn I could have looked away but there were only four or five people in the carriage and I would have been uncomfortable. It is a courtesy thing but I also think people have the right to feel safe when travelling, and I can see that for victims of sexual assault someone viewing porn in a confined public space such as a train carriage could be triggering.

[Dicky Underpants]

Sound's a dfferent issue as I acknowledged in my earlier post. But otherwise I don't see what's so difficult to ignore.

I'd certainly get more irate at intrusive sounds - tinny, overamplified headphones - or the ultimate horror, using electrical devices with the speakers turned on, and no headphones at all. Naturally enough, you never hear Mozart being inflicted on you and your fellow passengers.

It ought to be a matter of courtesy not to watch porn on a bus or train if there is someone sitting beside you, though.

I wonder if one could give a medical estimate as to which is the more medically damaging to the person using the device? The sound levels some people inflict on themselves certainly has made a whole generation of young people to some degree prematurely deaf - but estimating the damage that obsessive porn-watching does to a person is much more difficult to judge.

[Rhiannon]

Depends on what you define as 'medically damaging' I guess.

The effects of porn addiction on the young.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32115162

With regards to adults, I've seen and heard interviews with both men and women who have said that porn stopped them from having normal sex and relationships - there's at least one still on the Beeb website. I adore music with a passion, it's one of the most important things in my life but I regard being able to have normal, loving relationships as more important - it's a no-brainer.

[Shaker]

It ought to be a matter of courtesy not to watch porn on a bus or train if there is someone sitting beside you, though.

Why?