The handbook “Digital Ethics” provides an overview of the challenges and special features of ethics in the digital space. Prof. Nicola Döring from the Media Psychology and Media Design Group at TU Ilmenau has contributed a chapter on the Ethics of Digital Pornography.
The chapter examines the question of how digital pornography should be judged ethically. It shows that in the current social and academic debate, pornography is judged to be both moral and immoral. Corresponding assessments are justified both deontologically, based on the ethics of duty, and consequentially, in terms of the ethics of responsibility for outcomes. The article explains the ethical argumentation patterns and the political demands derived from them. It also explains the conditions under which production, content and use of pornography can be regarded as ethically justifiable.
Döring, N. (2024). Digitale Pornografie [Digital Pornography]. In P. Grimm, K.E. Trost, & O. Zöllner (Eds.), Digitale Ethik [Digital Ethics] (pp. 357-368). Baden-Baden: Nomos.