I was an active user of pornhub when I was 14 years old
I was a teenager before the modern internet, so at 14 I got my porn from BBSes and friends sharing floppy disks. There was plenty of awful/illegal shit on BBSes. But they weren’t regulated, so no one did anything about it.
You cannot ban teenagers from accessing porn. Full stop.
You can ban teenagers from using safe sites that follow the rules. That will force teenagers off responsible sites like PornHub and move them to shady sites that don’t follow rules and have shit like child pornography.
They know this already. This is not a new subject, this has been going on for decades and every time it ends the same and it keeps coming back because they only need to win once. Once porn becomes illegal, good luck making it back legal again
And that depends on what asshole you’re dealing with, the religious virtua signalling asshole or the “must monitor and control all citizens always” type asshole.
The latter does the same shit, just for slightly different reasons. assholes sometimes have similar goals and all.
Either way, it’s NEVER about actually protecting the children because fuck children, no politician has ever actually cared for a child (far and few exceptions excluded)
Basically, if a politician talks about protecting children, they’re lying, period.
Also agreed, it is insanely hard to legalize stuff after it was made illegal for stupid emptionalized reasons. Various drugs, gay marriage, equal rights, abolition of borders etc.
Exactly. There’s a reason prostitution is called “the world’s oldest profession”. People have biological needs. Banning kids from using legitimate porn sites isn’t going to undo millions of years of evolution.
There’s a reason prostitution is called “the world’s oldest profession”.
Yes, it’s because it’s a lazy, overused sentence that people like to quote without thinking. There’s no solid ground to claim that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession.
People have biological needs.
Those “biological needs” aren’t porn. You can masturbate without porn. You can fantasize without porn. You can have sex without porn. And so on.
I’m not saying that this is a good measure, but “teenagers are interested in sex” ⇒ “we shouldn’t restrict what sexual media teenagers have access to” isn’t a very sound argument.
legitimate porn sites
“Legitimate” porn sites are all full of things I really wish I hadn’t seen as a middle schooler who was barely starting to get curious about sex. Or even as a high schooler who was decidedly interested in sex, actually.
That will force teenagers off responsible sites like PornHub and move them to shady sites that don’t follow rules and have shit like child pornography.
Or to places like 4chan and Xitter, sites that host actual nazi shit in addition to porn. I was ideologically groomed by the far-right, and nazi propaganda is worse than porn IMHO to developing minds. I barely managed to escape.
Parental responsibility? Plenty of resources on the internet to block adult sites at the router and on device. If that’s to technical they can get device lockers and only let their kids use them in communal areas of the home and lock them up otherwise.
There are so many options for parents that actually care that the idea the only solution is a government nanny on the internet is the height of ridiculous.
You can’t force anyone to care about anything all you can do is educate them. After that if they do nothing then they clearly don’t care if little Johnny or Susie are having personal time while browsing porn.
Most importantly of all the government has no business knowing what legal porn each adult does and does not consume in the name of “protecting children”. It is the same bullshit argument governments use as a reason to require encryption backdoors.
So should the supermarket check the ID before selling alcohol, or is it the parent’s responsability too?
Jokes aside, I think the problem is that most parents are not technically capable of configuring a router at home, and even if some did, as most don’t kids would just go to those homes or use those phones to watch it, I guess?
Like I get it, but this will never work, unless you force every parent to visit classes about phone and router configuration.
So should the supermarket check the ID before selling alcohol, or is it the parent’s responsability too?
Horrible comparison since the supermarket/liquor store doesn’t enter your info into a database but just checks your DOB to make sure you are old enough. At least in the US.
Jokes aside, I think the problem is that most parents are not technically capable of configuring a router at home, and even if some did, as most don’t kids would just go to those homes or use those phones to watch it, I guess?
Hence my inclusion of a nontechnical option: device lockers. As far as kids using someone else’s device at someone else’s home you can’t protect kids from everything everywhere all the time. You can talk to the parents of other kids and explain what you do and why. You could even offer your technical expertise, if you have it, to do the same for them or share links to device lockers.
I didn’t downvote but the reason is probably because you’re blaming porn for your issues like it was only an issue because of your age.
If you became an addict because of porn at 14, not seeing porn until you’re 18 wouldn’t have changed anything, except delay that problem for 4 years. That’s it. People don’t just become addicts if they’re only a certain age range, the problem is much deeper than that.
Yes, it is okay for teenagers to watch porn. Pretty much everyone did, at least everyone I know. None of these people have any problems because of it. There certainly are people with unhealthy relationships to porn, but the same can be said about basically all things. You wouldn’t ban video games because gaming addicts exist, would you?
A ban such as this only makes sense for things without any upside, like gambling. But exploring your own sexuality is a natural and healthy thing to do. Porn is an easy way to do that.
Why do you wish it was less accessible? I was in the same boat but I feel it was largely a source of sexual satisfaction and even education in some cases. And today I have many and very healthy relationships with women, just to preempt those questions.
Despite decades-long moral panic around this topic, I haven’t found much evidence for pornography harming young people, maybe aside from some niche issues that are not well-addressed with this type of legislation.
Based on my reading, porn addiction isn’t a real medical condition and is largely driven by internalized or external stigma around porn usage. Usually, but not always stemming from a religious worldview that shames people for masturbating or having an interest in sex outside of the context of heterosexual marital procreation.
There could be small numbers of people who truly have an unhealthy relationship with porn, but if so, they are greatly outnumbered by the people I described above, such that I haven’t found research on their experiences.
There will always be a way to access it. The more they try to stop it, the less legal it becomes and the more illegal the content might become.
There is only one true solution and that is to hold parents accountable and to educate the kids on the risks. Everything else is just bullshit and only helps to destroy the privacy of adults.
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I was a teenager before the modern internet, so at 14 I got my porn from BBSes and friends sharing floppy disks. There was plenty of awful/illegal shit on BBSes. But they weren’t regulated, so no one did anything about it.
You cannot ban teenagers from accessing porn. Full stop.
You can ban teenagers from using safe sites that follow the rules. That will force teenagers off responsible sites like PornHub and move them to shady sites that don’t follow rules and have shit like child pornography.
This and to add to this:
They know this already. This is not a new subject, this has been going on for decades and every time it ends the same and it keeps coming back because they only need to win once. Once porn becomes illegal, good luck making it back legal again
And that depends on what asshole you’re dealing with, the religious virtua signalling asshole or the “must monitor and control all citizens always” type asshole.
The latter does the same shit, just for slightly different reasons. assholes sometimes have similar goals and all.
Either way, it’s NEVER about actually protecting the children because fuck children, no politician has ever actually cared for a child (far and few exceptions excluded)
Basically, if a politician talks about protecting children, they’re lying, period.
True. Damn.
Also agreed, it is insanely hard to legalize stuff after it was made illegal for stupid emptionalized reasons. Various drugs, gay marriage, equal rights, abolition of borders etc.
I grew up in the 1970’s and 80’s. Even then porn wasn’t hard to find.
Exactly. There’s a reason prostitution is called “the world’s oldest profession”. People have biological needs. Banning kids from using legitimate porn sites isn’t going to undo millions of years of evolution.
Yes, it’s because it’s a lazy, overused sentence that people like to quote without thinking. There’s no solid ground to claim that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession.
Those “biological needs” aren’t porn. You can masturbate without porn. You can fantasize without porn. You can have sex without porn. And so on.
I’m not saying that this is a good measure, but “teenagers are interested in sex” ⇒ “we shouldn’t restrict what sexual media teenagers have access to” isn’t a very sound argument.
“Legitimate” porn sites are all full of things I really wish I hadn’t seen as a middle schooler who was barely starting to get curious about sex. Or even as a high schooler who was decidedly interested in sex, actually.
Or to places like 4chan and Xitter, sites that host actual nazi shit in addition to porn. I was ideologically groomed by the far-right, and nazi propaganda is worse than porn IMHO to developing minds. I barely managed to escape.
Parental responsibility? Plenty of resources on the internet to block adult sites at the router and on device. If that’s to technical they can get device lockers and only let their kids use them in communal areas of the home and lock them up otherwise.
There are so many options for parents that actually care that the idea the only solution is a government nanny on the internet is the height of ridiculous.
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You can’t force anyone to care about anything all you can do is educate them. After that if they do nothing then they clearly don’t care if little Johnny or Susie are having personal time while browsing porn.
Most importantly of all the government has no business knowing what legal porn each adult does and does not consume in the name of “protecting children”. It is the same bullshit argument governments use as a reason to require encryption backdoors.
That’s very true.
So should the supermarket check the ID before selling alcohol, or is it the parent’s responsability too?
Jokes aside, I think the problem is that most parents are not technically capable of configuring a router at home, and even if some did, as most don’t kids would just go to those homes or use those phones to watch it, I guess?
Like I get it, but this will never work, unless you force every parent to visit classes about phone and router configuration.
I’m from the US where the drinking age is 21. A lot of my friends growing up bought illegal drugs because they were easier to get than alcohol.
To buy beer, you had to find someone’s older brother and convince him to buy it for you, or find homeless guy and give him some money.
Or you could just hit up Nathaniel on the street corner to get some weed or ecstacy. Nathaniel didn’t give a shit about your ID.
Horrible comparison since the supermarket/liquor store doesn’t enter your info into a database but just checks your DOB to make sure you are old enough. At least in the US.
Hence my inclusion of a nontechnical option: device lockers. As far as kids using someone else’s device at someone else’s home you can’t protect kids from everything everywhere all the time. You can talk to the parents of other kids and explain what you do and why. You could even offer your technical expertise, if you have it, to do the same for them or share links to device lockers.
I didn’t downvote but the reason is probably because you’re blaming porn for your issues like it was only an issue because of your age.
If you became an addict because of porn at 14, not seeing porn until you’re 18 wouldn’t have changed anything, except delay that problem for 4 years. That’s it. People don’t just become addicts if they’re only a certain age range, the problem is much deeper than that.
Debatable. I had no phone or TV as a child and now I am addicted years later. But my developing brain grew up not needing these stimuli.
This is pretty important, so a delay might be very helpful
didn’t you just provide anecdotal evidence for their point rather than against?
Yes they did, but also contextualized that even if the addiction occurs later, the delay has value.
Addiction is not binary.
oh now i get what they were saying.
Yes, it is okay for teenagers to watch porn. Pretty much everyone did, at least everyone I know. None of these people have any problems because of it. There certainly are people with unhealthy relationships to porn, but the same can be said about basically all things. You wouldn’t ban video games because gaming addicts exist, would you?
A ban such as this only makes sense for things without any upside, like gambling. But exploring your own sexuality is a natural and healthy thing to do. Porn is an easy way to do that.
Oh they tried so often it’s a fecking meme at this point and they won’t stop.
Well, yes. But it hasn’t worked yet because it is so fucking dumb.
Why do you wish it was less accessible? I was in the same boat but I feel it was largely a source of sexual satisfaction and even education in some cases. And today I have many and very healthy relationships with women, just to preempt those questions.
Despite decades-long moral panic around this topic, I haven’t found much evidence for pornography harming young people, maybe aside from some niche issues that are not well-addressed with this type of legislation.
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Based on my reading, porn addiction isn’t a real medical condition and is largely driven by internalized or external stigma around porn usage. Usually, but not always stemming from a religious worldview that shames people for masturbating or having an interest in sex outside of the context of heterosexual marital procreation.
There could be small numbers of people who truly have an unhealthy relationship with porn, but if so, they are greatly outnumbered by the people I described above, such that I haven’t found research on their experiences.
There will always be a way to access it. The more they try to stop it, the less legal it becomes and the more illegal the content might become.
There is only one true solution and that is to hold parents accountable and to educate the kids on the risks. Everything else is just bullshit and only helps to destroy the privacy of adults.
Tell us how your guilt and shame forces you to make decisions for others.
This is a strange matrix of control you’re suggesting, and I want to understand it.
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