John Lee wrote: As I said, in Europe and Australia, you guys are probably used to depictions of lifelike nudity and didn't really notice the image, but the same cannot be said for those of us from America and Asia. I agree with John it is clearly a cultural problem. Yet it is a curious paradox that so much pornography comes from America, the nation that got so up-tight last year about exposed breasts in TV. The press there evidently became very shrill, while in the UK we have our 'Page 3 girls' in main-stream tabloids. I must confess I laughed when I read the original story, but I am concerned that attempts will be made to impose these up-tight values on the rest of western society. That there are cultural differences is clear from a study of erotica. Chinese erotica is far kinder and consenual that Japanese, with its emphasis on violence. Yet these are both Asian countries. Modern Japanese pornography makes great use of the airbrush, of course, from the little I have seen on the web. Until this thread began I was not aware of the Autofelletion image but remember the shock I felt when looking up some months ago an innocuous topic and was confronted with an image from Goatse, put there by a Troll which I promptly deleted, not just reverted. And I pride myself on being a liberal! I am sure somebody will now say I was wrong and I ought to have gone through VfD procedures first.:-) I can well imagine the reaction we are going to get if we don't get our act together and devise a policy we all can live with. It strikes me it falls into two halves, in no order: 1) We need to have a policy or policies which preserves Wikipedia'a reputation as a vehicle for liberal values, and does not make us liable for a concerted attack by bigots, with all that means in wasted energy for the management. [Jimbo et al] This might mean working up a policy to make sure that editors work in a self-disciplined way. After all, we have NPOV and 'No original research' now. While technical fixes to turn images on or off are fine, more thought could also be given to the choice of images in the first place. But I do accept this is very difficult in the area of sex, which ranges from loving consensual behaviour on the one hand through BDSM to pure violence and bestiality at the other. 2) We also need to be able to protect the young and the vulnerable adult who ARE upset by images like these, which in my view OUGHT to be on WP. For the latter maybe something like the system UK newsagents have, with the raunchy stuff being on the 'Top shelf' , and everything else lower down where even children can reach it. But there is, in my view, no easy answer. A final thought is that a number of our editors are youngsters, one or two not yet in their teens. How do we stand in regard to their parents on this? Tony Woolrich (Apwoolrich) -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.8 - Release Date: 14/02/2005