On a more serious note, I'm quite surprised, in this day and age, that this topic has centred so much around sex.
There's no doubt that images can be extremely offensive. In Australia we seem to be less 'religion obsessed' than America. Less prudish, perhaps. On free-to-air public TV broadcasts, almost anything goes except erect penises and 'real' sexual intercourse (as opposed to simulated sexual intercourse).
However, we do have consideration for the frail at heart, for those of a nervous disposition who have perhaps led a very sheltered life, and even for those who may not have led a particularly sheltered life but who consider certain objects as sacred and not for public view. I'm thinking here of Aboriginals who are offended if personal artifacts of their ancestors are publicly displayed, such as dug-up skeletons perhaps thousands of years old.
One has to be sensible about such a mix of different sensitivities. Few of us want to live in a 'nanny' state where we are all treated like children. In Australia, we not only have a variety of classifications for broadcast material, which give a fair indication of possible offensive content, such as; nudity, strong sex, violence, drugs, foul language etc. (in short, all the good things in life. Just kidding ), but such programs are broadcast late in the evening when all good, dutiful children should be in bed.
It's a compromise, of course. It has to be in a free liberal society.
Sometimes, of course, the ends justify the means. It's okay to show images of starving kids in Africa (and that surely must be extremely upsetting for most of us) because it's going to bring in donations which (hopefully) will help those kids.
It's not okay to show real footage of road accident victims, moaning and groaning in a horrible manner, severed limbs, smashed faces and blood pouring everywhere, because that's too close to home. It would certainly encourage people to drive with more care, but it would also nauseate too many viewers. Might even cause some viewers to never drive a car again.
Okay! After so much pontificating, you will understand I hope , that you cannot escape another image from me, to demonstrate a point.
The nude females in a suggested lesbian embrace, in Michael's review of the HP printer, are very small beer in the general scheme of things. People who get offended by this should take a hard look at themselves. There are far more important things to get offended about in this world.
However, as a humorous antidote to any such offense in that printer review, I offer the following image, which I took in Kagbeni, Nepal. This statue is in a public place where kids of all ages play.
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