Senators: Steer clear of porn

No matter what you're into, the Internet has something to suit your needs — including all types of porn.

But it's not fetishes and role playing that's gotten a rise out of a few senators, it's the hardcore stuff.

Think of Rihanna's "S&M" except multiplied by 100; we're talking rough, raw, unadulterated sex with whips, gags and violence. We don't mind that it's out there but apparently a bunch of senators do.

These politicians want hardcore pornography taken off the Internet and its producers thrown in jail or slapped with a large fine. The problem is, they say, that this simply hasn't been happening under the Obama administration.

If you can remember back to the eight-year Bush era, you'll recall that a special Justice Department unit called the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force was created in an attempt to remove obscene material off the Internet.

Current Attorney General Eric Holder has dissolved this task force, not because he's a pervert or anything, but because the Justice Department's resources are limited, and he believes obscenity cases would better be handled by the U.S. Attorney's offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

It's not that Holder doesn't want obscenity to be prosecuted; it's just that he wants someone other than the Justice Department to do it. But, of course, that's not good enough for the 42 senators who wrote a letter to Holder begging him to prosecute more adult pornography cases because, according to Sen. Orrin Hatch, not a single case has been brought up since the Obama administration began.

The reason why? They've been focusing their efforts on prosecuting child pornography instead of so-raunchy-it-makes-you-blush sex between two consenting adults, according to the Department of Justice's official response to the angry letter.

Child pornography is always both disgusting and illegal but some worry that obscene pornography that shows simulated rape or violence may lead to actual rape and violence, as well as the maltreatment of women. A legitimate concern, of course, but it also seems like a pretty broad speculation to make.

There are plenty of mentally sound adults who enjoy pornography and don't go about committing acts of violence in the bedroom or otherwise; watching porn is a perfectly normal thing.

People surfing the Web need to realize that the Internet is full of some really disturbing things so every time you sit down in front of a computer screen, exercise some caution. Hardcore pornography isn't going to just pop-up on your browser, you have to go looking for it.

For each case of obscenity that's brought into court the jury must decide if the material "violates community standards, is patently offensive and lacks serious, artistic, scientific, political or literary merit," in accordance with federal law.

If something is so atrocious that a jury of 12 people agrees, then delete it from the website and hope no one ever sees it again. However, we don't think major department resources should be spent on juries debating whether or not bestiality or something of the like has serious "artistic, scientific, political or literary" value.

There's always going to be content out there that offends someone, no doubt about it. In extreme cases, hardcore pornography should be prosecuted as obscenity but even then that image or video can still be hosted on another website, making it nearly impossible to permanently delete something off the Internet.