Brandon McGinley says Americans may use a lot of porn, but we are still ashamed of our use of it — and now, Google’s decision to ban sexually explicit ads could be a turning point in the pornification of our pop culture. Excerpt:

Google is arguably the most powerful corporation in the world, and in the online advertising space it is inarguably the behemoth. This move is a cultural censure of pornography more important than just about any legislation or court decision could ever be.

This marks the first time in recent years that a corporation of such power and prestige has arrayed its forces against those of sexual liberation. [Emphasis mine — RD]

Now, pornographers will always find creative ways to drive traffic to their product, so the impact of Google’s decision on the accessibility of porn will not be great. It is what this move signals about acceptability that is important. By specifically isolating it from all other online content, Google is affirming what we desperately don’t want to be true, but suspect is true: porn is qualitatively different from other forms of digital entertainment.

Read the whole thing. 

Thank you, Google. With this move, you are making the world a better place.