Pornography is in the eye of the beholder and what is regarded as pornography changes over time and between cultures and, even, between generations. But the definition of pornography remains the same: any image, conduct or words that offend public decency.

So, whether something is pornographic depends on the opinion of judges (however that is defined). So, in this respect, pornography is like synchronised swimming: one person’s approval is another’s disapproval.

When a teenager finds something funny or mildly titillating that same person, twenty or thirty years older, would probably find the same material offensive or unworthy of attention. That is the same for images and text. D H Lawrence’s last novel, Lady Chatterly’s Lover was banned in the UK as pornographic although current thinking is that that was an excuse and the scandalous aspect was that Lady Chatterlee had an affair with her gamekeeper. Substitute “pool cleaner” and such thinking would wipe out half of Hollywood’s romances.

Some might think that comment means that pornography is the preserve of the young, the stupid or the rebellious and is therefore something that can be outgrown or the use of which can be cured. And there is a huge body of evidence that a significant number of under-thirties claim an addition to sexual pornography on the internet. There is also evidence that there is a fascination which may not be, technically, an addiction to violent pornography. This situation is confused by an actual addiction to playing video games as distinct from the addiction to their content.

But studies do not say that pornography is the province of the young. It is clear that it is not so much the desire to view pornography that changes as the nature of the pornography that is viewed. There are, of course, those with a passing interest who may watch a video or look at some static images from time to time and at the other end of the scale are those who by various definitions and to various degrees are addicted to pornography. It is this latter group that enters a world of ever more explicit and abusive material.

In fact, even the most cursory glance over the sentencing judgments of a sexual offenders all over the world shows a high correlation between collections of both static and moving images and physically abusive relationships. As expected, the internet has provided a conduit for such abuse through live video and the development of high quality mobile phone cameras and 5G has resulted in an explosion of abuse by remote control.

But, as always, the tech is agnostic and we have had on-screen sex-to-order through the tv and telephone for decades. The development into abuse is inevitable if the tech is to be available at all.

Pornography is literally as old as the hills

Pornography is not new: it has been reported that a grotesque figure of a woman, found in Germany, is carved from a mammoth’s tusk and is at least 35,000 years old. It has been described as pornographic because the breasts and genitalia are highly exaggerated while limbs are diminished.

Scientists elsewhere seem to agree that some wall paintings are older and equally sexualised.

So, from drawings on cave walls through clay figures and carved bone and ivory through printed images, early devices to create the impression of moving images, to film and video in its various formats.

Animated, cartoon, videos are nothing new and in Japan Hentai is a significant sub-culture of Manga and it is published in hentai doujinshi (magazines ) and online. Like much art, there are those that create it and make it publicly available.

Home-made pornography is an enormous market and, like all so-called social media, participants are always looking to out-do existing material which creates a race to the extreme, even violent and abusive. This is not the private viewing of sex-to-order rape of children and abuse of animals. This is the internet’s equivalent of top shelves in magazine shops, where the only barrier to entry is that the visitor must click a button to declare he, or she, is at least 18 years old. Those posting videos on one of the most popular sites are required to meet the following requirement: “Content involving underage persons, animals, rape, incest, violence, blood, shitting, vomit, drunk, drugged, passed out or sleeping persons, and any content shot and/or shared without consent of the persons appearing in it is strictly forbidden”

One of the features of such sites is the aggressive, even abusive language used to promote videos.

Another is the proportion of girls, in particular, that look very young so that even if the age condition are met, the impression of child abuse is strong.

The sharp end of child abuse is in pornography, too, where there is an industry of web-enabled cameras and high definition phones coupled with fast internet to provide abuse to order. Let’s not beat about the bush. Victims, both children and others, die. And they die horrible, painful deaths, often alone with untreated injuries.

Drawing a line from titillation to violent abuse.

Pornography is pornography. It is usually thought of as sexual (indeed, supposedly authoritative bodies claim that is all it is) but it violence can often be regarded as pornographic. Indeed, some have accused Quentin Tarrantino of creating pornographic violence while other say that it is so excessive that it is almost cartoon-like. In fact, his film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood specifically uses this tool to argue against Hollywood’s glorification of violence.

There has long been a debate over violence and abuse in video games. A Policy Statement by American Academy of Pediatrics in the in the journal “Pediatrics” in August 2016 said “exposure to media violence is becoming an inescapable component of children’s lives. With the rise in new technologies, such as tablets and new gaming platforms, children and adolescents increasingly are exposed to what is known as “virtual violence.” This form of violence is not experienced physically; rather, it is experienced in realistic ways via new technology and ever more intense and realistic games. The American Academy of Pediatrics continues to be concerned about children’s exposure to virtual violence and the effect it has on their overall health and well-being.”

That article refers to US Congressional hearings on the potential links between television violence and homicides. That was in 1952. The Policy Statement makes sombre reading as do documents referred to.

Pornography is wider than some people say

Some groups minimise the range and nature of pornography. One, life coaching group BTR.org, attempt to make a point that it is a domestic abuse issue, saying “When women are betrayed by a partner who secretly uses pornography, the immense agony and devastation they feel is often  minimized by others who say things like, “it’s just porn.”” That suits the narrow agenda of the group but it is as far from the reality of pornography in the real world as it is possible to get.

So, society accepts sexual and violent images but “how” sexual and violent is acceptable depends on a huge range of factors. Mainstream publishers of books, films, TV programmes and games include sex and violence up to the point where they think they might create an outcry then take a tentative half-step further in the hope that a little synthetic outrage or even condemnation from a proponent of a fundamentalist interpretation of a religion will get them some media coverage.

But the world is changing very fast and all the (even notional) systems and controls are breaking down. But it’s OK because Big Tech is on it, right?

What could possibly go wrong?

A website says "We believe in freedom of speech. AI technology should be for everyone, and its use case to be decided by each mature, individual adult. So that means we don't actively censor or filter AI. So any topic can be discussed without running into a wall." 

Stay with this:

1. pornography has always been and always will be one of the primary drivers for new technology (with money and weapons). 

2. There are many people, men and women and those who "identify" as something else which seek ways to satisfy their fantasies.

3. Those fantasies are satisfied by on-line chat, sexting, whatsapp, etc. video conferencing, facebook live, telegram groups and dark web streaming and image exchanges, for example.

4. Pornographic images (a term that changes: some prehistoric art that is today described as pornographic was almost certainly not seen as such when it was created) are often the product of a creative process.

5. Tools are used to support fantasies from furry handcuffs and fake nurse's uniforms at one end of the scale, via children's clothes for adults to the much more sinister child sex dolls which are banned in a number of countries.

6. Online sexual perversion extends the late night tv "my friend will spank me for ten dollars" into the realm of the most heinous acts against, inter alia, babies and animals. 

What if.....

a computerised moving image, designed by your most vile fantasies, could be displayed on a screen and perform whatever you want in lifelike, real-time action?

Three months ago, this writer wrote that such was less than one step away. Now it’s here and it's not on the dark web - some of it is free and accessible to all. 

We are not going to publish the web addresses that allow users to stitch together different forms of computer-generated products.

And those perverts who, for example, are being hunted by INTERPOL 's dedicated unit, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and many more agencies around the world have free and unrestricted access to them through a company that claims it is providing uncensored online chats in the mainstream web. 

All those monsters need now is a bank of images that can be used to build the scenes demanded. 

And it doesn't take much imagination to work out where they will come from.

They will come from the same sources as are currently providing live streaming of videos of child abuse – or from photographs taken in your, yes your, local shopping centre or outside your child’s school. And from your child’s facebook, instagram, tiktok etc.

“Nothing is more private than running Al locally on your own device.”

As if that’s not all disturbing enough, the last great filter, that of using such software through an online service has just fallen away: now a censor-free text to image engine embedded in a downloadable app is available for Windows and Mac.

Absolutely not abstract art.

The highly sexual nature of some of the work of Salvador Dali straddled the border between cartoon and abstract.

But as pornography website Instagram (say what?) carries photographs and videos of a computer generated “glamour model) it’s already there, in your face. See https://www.instagram.com/emilypellegrini/ And yes, Emily Pelligrini’s also the girl next door, the girl from the office down the hall and a not very convincing biker chick and seems to have inflatable boobs. This is the public face because “her” real home is on a paywalled porno site called Fanvue.

It is far from abstract. It is photo-realistic to the point that many real people look more fake.

But even more dis-concerting are the sample videos provided by “her” creator on TikTok : utterly natural movement, all generated from prompts provided to the computer by a viewer, do more than preface the potential for harm, they lay it out with total clarity.

So, with superb image quality, believable movements and freedom to make it do anything a paying party wants, there is no point in thinking there is time to act against the use of computer generated imagery as a gateway to real world sexual abuse and violence.

The tech is amazing, wonderful, fascinating and all the good things anyone can say.

The people who will use the tech will include some of the worst monsters on the planet.

And there is currently no incentive for those owning and operating the generative tech to prevent such material reaching the outside world.

That, perhaps frustratingly, is a legal, not a tech problem.

The Financial Crime Connection

The production, publication, dissemination and/or possession of pornography is in most countries an offence. Where such activity generates some kind of benefit, then prima facie it falls within the scope of laws to combat financial crime. Whether it is a predicate crime depends on local law.

The pornography industry, from strip clubs to hard-core material generates extraordinary sums of money.

But a significant part of the online business does not generate a benefit in the sense that laws intend. Online and person-to-person exchange of material is, sentencing judgments show, more prevalent than paying for origination or for a product.

This is, obviously, invisible to the banks, money transfer agents, etc. which are from time to time held up as facilitators of this trade. The transactions that they do see are a very small tip of a very large iceberg and they are usually easily explained away as something else.

If not the money, then what?

So here, the real question is “should we expect the platforms that generate offensive material to be liable?”

The obvious answer is “yes”. But, as attempts to require platforms to prevent the publication of fraudulent advertising and fake news have shown, the platform simply don’t.

Nigel Morris-Cotterill is a financial crime risk and compliance strategist with a long background in the development and application of computing. 

First published in the-yuan.com in December 2023