In a case of censorship for an ostensibly good cause — but censorship nonetheless — Iceland may soon become the first Western nation to use Internet filters to ban its citizens from viewing or downloading online porn.

The ban would likely resemble the Great Firewall of China used to block Chinese citizens from accessing many sites around the web, but would only apply to pornography. It could also make it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards to access pay-for-porn sites, according the Daily Mail newspaper.

Ogmundur Jonasson, Iceland's interior minister, is drafting legislation that would introduce the ban. He argues that easy access to online porn increases the frequency and severity of sexual violence against women and causes longterm damage for children who view it at an early age.

Jonasson has reportedly assembled task forces to figure out how best to handle the logistics of banning access to pornographic photos and videos via the proliferating plethora of Internet-connected devices. Icelandic law already bars the printing and distribution of porn, according to the Mail, but has not yet been updated to account for smut's modern widespread Internet availability.

"At the moment, we are looking at the best technical ways to achieve this," an advisor to Jonasson told the Mail. "But surely if we can send a man to the moon, we must be able to tackle porn on the internet."

Professor Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston, for one, supports Iceland's proposed ban.

"It is looking a pornography from a new position — from the perspective of the harm it does to the women who appear in it and as a violation of their civil rights," she says. "It also approaches porn from the point of view of children who are having their sexuality hijacked at a young age by brutal sexual imagery."

Should countries ban their citizens' access to online porn? Let us know in the comments.

Image via iStockphoto, MarsBars