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Tolerance lies at the heart of this question, and to ask whether the viewing of porn should be permitted is to miss the point altogether. In our emancipated age, women are no more entitled to govern their men's viewing habits than men are to shackle their women to the kitchen sink. Tangled as the ethics of pornography are, the differences in male and female sexuality have more bearing on this debate. Even if they're lucky enough to have equality of opportunity in the workplace and the bedroom, typical heterosexual partnerships plainly have different needs and expectations.

In the Western world at least, pornography has made a dramatic rise from the gutter in the last decade or so, propelled by widespread access to the internet. This rise is not simply a matter of accessibility; for many, porn has shucked off its image as something furtive and unwholesome. The perverse corollary to this is the rise of gonzo' porn, the democratisation of the blue movie. Anyone with access to a laptop and a camcorder can sell their sexual wares to the world. Even the most ardent libertarian would have to admit that as a result, hideous abuse and exploitation have found a safe and lucrative medium in which to proliferate.

The internet has liberated many of our interactions from the manners and scruples of our nations, neighbourhoods and sometimes even our families. In what it says about our tastes and preferences, it is Mr Hyde to our offline Jekyll. For men at least, the prevalence of cyber-sex in web-traffic must mirror subconscious processes pretty well. As it might be for children set loose in a sweet shop after the staff have locked up and gone home for the weekend, limitless access can become limitless demand.

Often, but not inevitably, men crave frequent gratification without emotional investment. Even within a loving relationship, sex and love are more likely to be divisible for men and indivisible for women. The hackneyed idea that men fall in love to get laid while women fall into bed to get love is stereotypical and doesn't address the complexities of our lives; yet crude as they are, some stereotypes are built on truth.

Anthropologists, psychologists and biologists could debate this issue for the rest of time, but nobody could dispute that men are overwhelmingly in the majority as makers and consumers of porn. Speaking as a man who was once 18, having an active libido isn't unlike being chained to a madman. Even the most cerebral man can find himself contorting logic and

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