ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the management and zoning of online sexual culture the web sites which make up the pornosphere. It explores the concept of community standards, which has been a central part of the management of sexually explicit materials in the offline world, and asks what it might mean to talk about community standards on the Internet. China, for example, which outlaws pornography, nonetheless has the greatest number of consumers of online porn in the world, and a thriving pornosphere of sexual communities that exist outside the law. By contrast, images of rough sex may be found without any intent to engage with BDSM, or the community standards of negotiation and consent that it provides. Policing the former means preventing young people from accessing information about sex that they are actively seeking out. The concept of community standards has been an important one in policing the exchange and consumption of sexually explicit materials across physical borders.