Wikipedia under fire for showing dressed-up porn
September 9th, 2008 - 2:41 pm ICT by ANI
- Melbourne, Sept 9 (ANI): The biggest multilingual free-content encyclopaedia on the Internet, Wikipedia has come under fire for allowing pornographic images and videos in its articles.
In fact, some of the site’’s own editors have confessed that the objected content is dressed-up porn.
Using Wikipedia, instead of dictionaries, for looking up dirty words can expose children to images and videos of masturbation, “hardcore” sex and orgies, according to child protection campaigners.
One entry on the site shows an 18-second video of a man ejaculating, and that too, without any warnings or age verification.
While one page results in showing various photos from the sets of both a heterosexual and homosexual “hardcore” pornography films, another page features several images of masturbation.
Despite it being used by millions around the world, Wikipedia has been questioned since a long time for the accuracy and appropriateness of its content
According to a Wikipedia editor, who wants to get the ejaculation video removed has said that the concerned clip is “overkill”.
“A video of a woman giving herself a breast exam would be educational and … a video of a man giving himself a testicle exam would be educational” in relevant articles. Images alone are not enough for those processes, but a video of a man ejaculating - when there is an image that shows it stage by stage - is not needed, News.com.au quoted the user, as saying.
Childwise head Bernadette McMenamin said that sex education is “a good thing”, but an overt display of sexualised images in an online encyclopaedia “crosses the line”.
“Does that mean that when you type in ”murder”, you should actually see someone murdering someone else? Do we really need to see a woman masturbating on Wikipedia? Do we really need to see so many seconds of ejaculation?” she said.
Wikipedia however, has no policy of no censorship in the contents posted on the pages.
“Obviously inappropriate content (such as an irrelevant link to a shock site, or clear vandalism) is usually removed quickly. However, some articles may include objectionable text, images, or links where they are relevant to the content - such as the articles about the penis or pornography,” said the site. (ANI)
Related Stories
- Is Wikipedia heading for bust? - Aug 05, 2009
- Censoring of Wikipedias naked girl page leaves users fuming - Dec 08, 2008
- Bid to curb false Wikipedia info - Aug 27, 2009
- Polanski's Wikipedia page locked after "edit war" over child sex controversy - Sep 29, 2009
- Wikipedia tightens editing policy to prevent online vandalism - Aug 27, 2009
- Wikipedia turned into a 5000-page, 1ft 7ins thick book - Jun 17, 2009
- Britannicas answer to Wikipedia: a website that allows users to post content - Jan 23, 2009
- The World Wide Wiki - symbol of community effort in cyberspace - Jun 08, 2008
- Montauk Monster: The mystery creature found in panama - Sep 21, 2009
- Internet watchdog lifts Wikipedia ban - Dec 10, 2008
- National
Posted in National, |