No Porno Here! Sorry!

   For the last couple of days, I have been seeing the following message whenever I log on to Blogger, the website offered through Google which enables (allows?) me to produce both "Neanderings" and "Strides":

Adult content policy on Blogger

Starting March 23, 2015, you won't be able to publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity on Blogger.

Note: We’ll still allow nudity if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts.

   Well, my first thought was that I didn't really have too much to worry about, neither of my blogs are rife with nudity or sexually explicit material. I'm quite happy and comfortable talking about sex but I don't remember any of my posts containing what I think Blogger might find objectionable.
   To be on the safe side, though, I went on my list of blog posts and perused the titles. The only one which really jumped out at me was a post I wrote a little over three years ago, titled "Sex". If you want, you can read it here.
   I used the word "Sex" more as a social experiment than anything. I was curious as to whether or not a mildly suggestive title would generate a larger amount of pageviews. Well, it generated a hugely larger amount of pageviews over a relatively short matter of time. I can't say as it surprised me! In this post, there were several pics of scantily clad men and women in different poses, embracing. A quick look at these to refresh my memory and I was pretty sure Blogger was not going to have a problem, especially within that context.
   Now whether or not this post offered a "substantial public benefit" in any of those categories or not is up for debate. I like to think my random blog posts would substantially benefit the whole world if I could just get that kind of readership but, according to my stats for that particular post, only 68 people have viewed it. Or one person viewed it 68 times, who the hell really knows? I guess the point is that neither of my blogs are going to rock the world regardless of the filth I might end up infusing them with!
   I also wonder if Blogger, along with perusing the pics, is also reading the posts. Could there not be actually more offensive stuff in the written part than on the pictorial side...? What if, in a post, I have nothing but pics of cute little bunnies and kitty cats but in text all I write about is how much I hate fucking goddamn bunnies and kitty cats? (sorry for the language, just trying to make a point...and, by the way, I love bunnies and kitty cats)

   I guess the real point in all of this is that someone is paying attention to what we blog about and is quite prepared to curtail our (and your ) experience based on pretty subjective criteria. I also don't know who, ultimately, makes the decision---I can't imagine one person being able to keep track of all of Blogger's writers. Which means that groups of people must be applying what their interpretation of someone else's interpretation of "explicit" actually is. Unless everyone is sitting around a table, passing nude pics back and forth, hoping for a consensus (and would this make for a long meeting or a short one?)
   Is this censorship? Yep. So am I pissed off about this? Nope. If I was paying good money to a website so that I could use all its resources for my blogging and then that website turned around and tried to arbitrarily restrict what I could put into my blog then I would be more than pissed off. Blogger, however, lets me blog for free and beggars can't be choosers, can they? Can they....?
   So I'm glad I don't have the job of trying to figure out what stays and what goes on Blogger these days. On the other hand, if I did have that job, likely just about everything would stay---it takes a lot for me to find something offensive about nudity. We are not born with clothes on, after all.
   Ironically, these new guidelines come to us through Google, an entity I would suggest has led more people to images of nudity than any other in the history of the world. And not only has it directed us to sexually provocative images, it has also pointed the way to things I would suggest are truly obscene. When, with a single click, you can watch a man being burned alive in a cage, it's a little hard to handle Blogger trying to restrict what might be only brief views of naked body parts.
   So I will continue to do what I do here on "Neanderings", regardless of what happens after (magical) March 23, 2015. I would really rather offend people with words than pictures anyway, it takes a little more craft!