A marathon U.S. House of Representatives debate on the Stop Online Piracy Act took an unusual detour: into the popularity of online porn.

A two-day debate in the House Judiciary committee--which has been postponed until at least next Wednesday and perhaps until 2012--was interrupted by the appearance of the popular meme "The Internet is for Porn."

Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat who presumably knows his way around the Internet better than any other member of Congress (he founded BlueMountainArts.com), was the committee member who decided to bring up the prevalence of online porn. (See CNET's Q&A with Polis earlier this week.)

A "high percentage" of the Internet's use is for porn, Polis said. It's "a pornographer's wet dream!"

Polis then offered an amendment that would stop the Justice Department from using SOPA's vast powers to aid adult industry businesses who happen to hold valid copyrights. "Pornography should not be the focus of the attorney general's protection," he said.

Reality star Kim Kardashian is being urged to back gay marriage after filing for divorce.

The 31-year-old Kardashian, star of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, on Monday filed for divorce from her husband of 72 days, NBA star Kris Humphries, 26. The pair married after dating for about 9 months. Their lavish (read $10 million) August wedding became endless fodder for tabloids and was documented in a two-part television special watched by more than 4 million viewers titled Kim's Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event.

Kim and her sisters, Khloe and Kourtney, have previously endorsed marriage equality and have posed for the NOH8 Campaign, which raises awareness and funds for gay rights causes, including ending Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban.

However, Kim Kardashian's short-lived nuptials have sparked outrage among gay couples who are denied the right to marry.

China says it has shut down 50 websites that were found distributing pornography and "vulgar" content, as Beijing authorities continue their push to police the Internet.

The official Xinhua news agency quotes an unnamed official from the State Internet Information Office as saying the microblogs also were  found carrying information on prostitution and illegal advertising for sex-related drugs and productions.

The report says the shutdowns were triggered by public complaints. It did not say when the complaints were filed or when the shutdowns occurred.

If there is a God somewhere around us, he's permitted pornography as a way of celebrating his creations! Right? Not according to the UK's Christian "Mothers' Union," which is exactly as fun as it sounds: they've negotiated a porn blockade.

Under the new system, the Guardian reports, porn-seekers will have to manually opt-in to receive titillating websites—that's right, they'll be blocked by default. The initiative's meant to keep little kids away from porn. Which, sure, probably isn't a bad idea. But it's a parent's job, not a centralized opt-in server's job. This also means that adult customers of the four (large) ISPs affected—BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin—will have their names associated with the HELLO, YES, I'D LIKE TO MASTURBATE WITH MY COMPUTER list. The privacy risks here are huge. What if that list were to leak? It's nothing to be ashamed of, but not something you want floating around, either. And in England, maybe now it is something to be ashamed of.

Source: Gizmodo

Cicciolina to get €39,000 a year for serving one term as an MP in Italy's Radical party.

She is famed for being the first woman to uncover her breasts live on Italian television, for recording a song entirely about the male organ, and for offering sex to Osama bin Laden (in return, she said, for giving up terrorism).

But now Ilona Staller, better known as Cicciolina, is the unlikely centre of a bitter row over the cost to ordinary Italians of the perks enjoyed by their country's tens of thousands of politicians. It emerged on Monday that the Hungarian, who starred in almost 40 hardcore pornographic movies, will soon be enjoying a €39,000-a-year (£34,000) pension, provided by the taxpayers of her adoptive homeland.

The stipend, which is for life, is her reward for labouring as a member of parliament for all of five years, from 1987 to 1992. Staller was elected for the libertarian Radical party and sponsored a number of mainly sex-related bills, including one to set up "love parks and hotels".

Her entitlement is no different from that of any other one-term politician in Italy. But their pensions have come under resentful scrutiny at a time when politicians are seeking painful sacrifices from the rest of society to prevent a Greek-style debt crisis: last week, parliament gave final approval to an austerity package that includes an increase in VAT and provision for big cuts in income tax allowances.

Good quality and comprehensive education programmes in schools can delay the first time a teenager has sex and reduce risk-taking behaviour, international studies show.

Their findings are backed by Family Planning chief executive Jackie Edmond who said programmes were most effective when they began before a young person first has sex.

"Comprehensive sexuality education aims to equip children and young people with the knowledge, skills and values to have safe, fulfilling and enjoyable relationships and to take responsibility for their health and well-being."

"Because sexuality education is much more than 'the birds and the bees' it should start young."

Ms Edmond said good sexual education programmes were age-appropriate and build up information and skills over the years.

They should also look at attitudes and values, knowledge and skills such as decision making, communication and resisting pressure.

She said sexuality education was also more effective when home and school contributed.

"Parents are the first sexuality educators of their children"