Insufficient Authority - Do not open this thread

[wolf]

Originally Posted by richlevy

In general, is there any knowledge that is so destructive to the human soul that an argument could be made that it should be forbidden?

Personally, I feel that way about my social security number, but darn little else. Okay, the launch codes for the US nukes. That's probably about it. And that thing from back in high school. No one needs to know about that.

There are obscenity laws which operate against specific types of information, but it's not clear if they exist to protect the viewer.

If that sort of content is available only on demand, rather than accidentally, I don't have a problem with that, just so long as no other laws are broken ... toiletcam and other voyeuristic sites where the person being filmed isn't aware of it, or porn shots involving minors who cannot consent ... that's content that shouldn't be available under any circumstances.

Putting aside all of these issues and just focusing on the reader/viewer/listener, is there any kind of information which is so damaging that it should ethically be banned from being shown to a competent adult?

As in my statement above, it's not just about the recipient of the information ... the source itself may be illegal in some way.