[WikiEN-l] Re: Writing about sexual topics responsibly is not censorship

Mon Feb 14 13:23:29 UTC 2005

Skyring said:
>
> Well, no. All we need do is have some sort of flag for explicit images
> and make sure that these are handled appropriately. It could be
> completely transparent to the user through using cookies. I don't want
> to ban such images, nor do I think it is possible to stop children
> viewing them. I just want a way to stop wowsers equating Wikipedia with
> porn and demonstrating this on prime time TV.

There is no way to stop them doing that except to have extremely strict
control of all sexual topics on Wikipedia.If you have a strong stomach
look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_punch  That article has been
on Wikipedia since July.  No illustration is necessary, the description of
the act alone would tell most parents that Wikipedia is not child-safe. 
For this reason I think the argument for appeasement is a bust.  We're
making an encyclopedia and we should make decisions on an
article-by-article basis. Does this article serve a useful purpose?  Does
this illustration improve the article's usefulness to someone who wants to
know about the topic? Does this link provide relevant information at an
acceptable signal-to-noise ratio?