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Arkansas Proposes Requiring ID to Watch Porn Online
- hanwhi 4y agoI guess inflation is solved if this is what they're thinking about.
- anoonmoose 4y agoArkansas can't do much about national/global inflation individually, but they're also 49th outta 50 states in health care, 41st in education, 41st in economy, 43rd in infrastructure, and 48th in crime, so it's not like they've shown themselves to be particularly capable in matters they do have some influence either
- stirfish 4y agoGive them some credit, Arkansas is #2 in teen pregnancy! Mississippi just edged them out of #1 in 2020.
- arein3 4y agoThat's one way to increase population growth.
- LinuxBender 4y agoThis seems to be popping off in each state back-to-back so I again assume this is some start-up company lobbying to get some tax dollars. There are better options that do not involve distributing PII to even more places. [1] As a side note, I would love to be a fly on the wall when they try to legislate this on sites like and similar to 4chan. I suspect Tor onion sites will suddenly become very popular despite their slowness. [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34726754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34726754
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ericcumbee 4y agoHonestly this sounds like the work of a guy by the name of Chris Sevier. He was a lawyer but was disbarred after being ruled mentally incompetent to practice law. He sued for the right to marry his laptop. He has been pushing a variety of bills like this. https://abovethelaw.com/tag/chris-sevier/ https://abovethelaw.com/tag/chris-sevier/
- frob 4y agoGiven the current political climate, I would say it's less likely to be because of some start up and more likely to be part of the wider GOP effort to claim the world is full of predators who are trying to corrupt your child's innocence and groom them into sexual beings before their time. They're using the same augument to ban drag and any books the governor's team hasn't preapproved in Florida. We're entering satanic panic 2.
- LinuxBender 4y agoIt does seem to be starting in the conservative states probably because they would be most open to it. It's also being proposed in the UK. You could be right. Either way this should be stopped because when it reaches critical mass then it's just a matter of time before it becomes federal law. Should that come to pass I would hope they lean towards empowering parents by using the RTA header vs. some 3rd party site that would initially used to protect children and then more controls get added quarterly to protect the next thing and then the entire internet goes the way of Twitter.
- cmh89 4y agoThe right-wing morality police wont be happy until we all live in a christian nationalist theocracy. We are living in scary times. The vagueness of the bill is a feature, not a bug. Vague laws exist so the enforcers can target their enemies rather than have a fair execution of the law.
- golemotron 4y ago> The right-wing morality police wont be happy until we all live in a christian nationalist theocracy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_views_on_pornography#Anti-pornography_feminism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_views_on_pornography#...
- bastardoperator 4y agoThat's a cute but silly comparison, how many feminists in the Arkansas house backed this bill? You're also assuming all porn is heterosexual... Next?
- golemotron 4y agoThe point is that we should all be more concerned with the question of whether it is a problem than whether our favorite bad guys think so.
- cmh89 4y ago[dead]
- bastardoperator 4y agoIt's a problem because people who are supposed to be focused on the betterment of their lousy state are instead engaged in a culture war. That's what makes them bad guys... and that fact that anything Arkansas implements will be bypassed in seconds with a VPN. So why waste the Arkansas tax dollars debating this stupid idea when they're near dead last in healthcare and education?
- PartiallyTyped 4y agoWhy am I not surprised that the "think of the children" line comes up with everything except gun control with inherently authoritarian measures in favor of tracking and control?
- jrm4 4y agoYep. This is always how it goes. Definitely one of my "I can't believe we still have to do this" politics things.
- DrThunder 4y agoThere is no state that allows someone under 18 to buy a firearm.
- pjc50 4y agohttps://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/19/us/virginia-school-shooting/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/19/us/virginia-school-shooti... (of course the kid didn't buy it, but the considerations are pretty similar for people preventing children from accessing other things)
- DrThunder 4y agoOk, let's look at the equivalency here since you seem intent on comparing porn access to gun access. Let's drop all FFL requirements for firearm purchases and we'll just let people click a tick box on a website saying they're over 18. After that we'll deliver the firearm straight to there front door. All that's being asked here is that we actually ENFORCE the 18 year old age limit for porn. Also, many states have laws that require gun owners to store their guns properly etc. and a kid just grabbing an improperly stored gun is illegal, therefore punishable by law. There is no repercussion for illegal porn access and no onus on the porn provider to stop children from accessing it.
- PartiallyTyped 4y agoThat's not a particularly good position. There is no state that allows someone under 21 to buy alcohol/booze, but somehow teenagers do actually find alcohol, how very peculiar. Furthermore, with a lower limit to 18, there's still an overlap with seniors who turn 18 soon before graduating, thus the argument in that regard is not particularly convincing either. If you peruse through [1], you will find that in a non insignificant number of cases, the perpetrator was an adult. This then suggests that in the remaining cases the perpetrator was a teenager or a child, thus rendering the argument not particularly convincing. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States_(2000–present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_th...
- spicyusername 4y agoRegardless of whether or not I agree with requiring an ID, I do think we should try to do a better job of preventing young children from prowling the darker corners of the internet.
- grugagag 4y agoBest way through sex ed imo rather than leaving them on their own to bump into predators or other sick stuff
- DrThunder 4y agoHow does sex ed stop them from looking at porn incessantly? The issue here isn't that they need to know how reproductive parts work, it's that easy access to porn is unhealthy for a developing brain. Constant dopamine hits like that have been proven to lead to all sorts of mental health issues.
- Loughla 4y agoGood sex ed. isn't just the mechanics of the body. It's also healthy habits, dangers, and pornography education as well. The problem is, when people hear sex ed. they immediately think of 7th grade and the basketball coach awkwardly holding a banana talking to the class before getting a stick of deodorant.
- DrThunder 4y agoAgain, you're not addressing the issue, which is the unhealthy rewiring of the brain. Nothing you've presented with sex ed would counteract that. You also seem to think children have fully developed brains and are able to discern the difference between unhealthy fake porn and reality. This a scientifically, objectively wrong stance.
- grugagag 4y agoEven if they can’t discern they could at least have the information on what’s healhy and what’s not. Without sex-ed they’re risking getting bad information and even if their abilities to discern start getting better they’d have a corrupted baseline of what is normal/healthy.
- colpabar 4y agoI'm conflicted on this. Online porn is way to easy to access online, and there's no way it's good for children. And before I get called a puritan, I want to make it clear that I'm not talking about sites like onlyfans or even a mainstream production company likes brazzers. There is some truly horrific porn out there that is a single google search away. You can watch women being beaten, gagged, urinated on, made to vomit. You can find upskirt videos, revenge porn, "consensual nonconsent" that really makes you wonder if the women involved knew what they were consenting to. You can even find beastiality, which I thought was illegal! Truly disgusting things that children should not be able to access are readily available for anyone of any age to see through a google search. That being said, I don't trust porn sites to handle IDs safely, and I would never want to give mine to them. But maybe that's a good thing if it keeps people out and hurts the disgusting people who produce this stuff.
- grugagag 4y agoYes I agree, it’s not just porn but very sick stuff out there. I think sex ed is the solution, young people need to know that disgusting stuff is not normal and how to avoid it. The dangers lie in monkey see monkey do type of behavior and the behavior gets normalized. Having said that, requiring ID is not a good solution and likely not to work
- DrThunder 4y agoYou're talking about having an adult conversation with a fully developed brain. Your logic doesn't apply to children. What you're suggesting doesn't fully work on a young undeveloped brain. This is the equivalency of telling a teenager that drugs are bad. Kids, especially teenagers aren't rational. This is why we have laws in place that don't treat them like adults until they're at least 18 and sometimes 21. The idea that you're going to just sit them down and re-educate them appropriately when there's essentially unlimited access to this stuff is pure silliness.
- dpkirchner 4y agoSeems like only mainstream production companies would bother adhering to the regulations, meaning all of those other examples would remain available to everyone. That'd increase the ratio of freely available "bad" porn to "good" porn. Perhaps there are good intentions behind this law --although I suspect it comes from pressure by hate groups -- however this is not the way. Seems like involving parents and educating kids is the best option.
- mistrial9 4y agothis 'P' product is addictive and should have some kind of safety regulations IMHO
- bibanez 4y agoIMO good sex ed basically eliminates all the negative effects of hard porn. Letting pornsites handle IDs just seems like a recipe for disaster
- jdmtheNth 4y agoLike that fellow that claims children are sexual beings from birth? He wants to start sex ed at 3.
- _zn02 4y agono, not like that fellow you didn't name and made an unbelievable and unsourced claim about
- jdmtheNth 4y agoTake your pick; it seems to be a progressive plank that children should be having sex: https://twitter.com/i/status/1624391129259966467 https://twitter.com/i/status/1624391129259966467 https://thepostmillennial.com/philadelphia-quaker-school-sex-ed-teacher-says-porn-literacy-necessary-for-students-who-are-sexual-beings-since-birth https://thepostmillennial.com/philadelphia-quaker-school-sex... https://nypost.com/2022/12/02/planned-parenthood-director-bill-taverner-claims-kids-are-sexual-beings-from-birth/ https://nypost.com/2022/12/02/planned-parenthood-director-bi...
- _zn02 4y agoIf it's a progressive plank, surely you can provide an example of an actual progressive politician making the argument, yes? Instead of two private, non-elected people, that no one who doesn't have an agenda to push has ever heard of? You know, something to tie it to actual progressives, so that it doesn't just look like you're nutpicking.
- ccn0p 4y agoi hate being the source person but that's a pretty grand hyperbolic statement lacking details... mind expanding beyond just an opinion?
- jrm4 4y agoI appreciate there is an arguably good intention here -- but nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING, good can come from this. This doesn't work, it never has, and is nearly solely for the purpose of overreach and control.
- drewcoo 4y ago> absolutely NOTHING, good can come from this Possibly NAS sales will be up as people do massive downloads instead of "watching online?"
- jrm4 4y agohaha, 100% fair.
- kelseyfrog 4y agoYep, I'd much rather protect my kids from censorship than the things bring censored.
- mmcgaha 4y agoWe did a good job keeping our kids away from porn on our home network but my 11-year-old daughter was shown porn by one of her friends during a sleep over. This was years ago before unlimited phone data and before pornhub was doing mainstream advertising. I cannot imagine how a parent can keep their children safe today.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> cannot imagine how a parent can keep their children safe today Is there evidence such prohibition keeps kids safe? It’s the environment I grew up in. But the kids who had healthy home environments where such topics weren’t taboo seemed to have a leg up.
- zirgs 4y agoWhen I was a kid - it was not possible to access hardcore porn with one click. Even adults could not do it back then.
- notinfuriated 4y agoIt's a bit of a leap to assume that not wanting or allowing your 11-year-old to watch pornography means that such topics (presumably, sex) are completely "taboo" in the home.
- deleted 4y ago
- DrThunder 4y agoI think we do need to do something to keep children away from it. Yes, this is mostly on the parents but there has to be some lawful consequence put on these sites. I'm not sure that Arkansas has the best method here, but at least they're proposing something. This is not just a right-wing Christian morality stance. There's a myriad of studies showing the increasingly harmful affects of letting young brains just access porn whenever they want. It rewires their brains in some pretty negative ways. This along with social media, and the trend of just letting small children play on tablets all day long need to stop.
- aww_dang 4y agoAnother instance of the digital ID meme. Obscenity and "Think of the children" is a tried and true strategy. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_INSIGHT_REPORT_Digital%20Identity.pdf https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_INSIGHT_REPORT_Digital%20I...
- arein3 4y agoDigital id is dangerous if mandatory. There are multiple materials already restricted on the internet.
- dbg31415 4y agoIf you want this to get shot down, just hire some people with a fake French accents to make commercials praising the good people of Arkansas for being more progressively European. https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230207-france-to-introduce-new-system-to-restrict-porn-access-by-minors https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230207-france-to-introduce-ne...
- submeta 4y agoWhat I miss in these kinds of discussions is this: Porn portrays a very distorted view of sexuality. It often objectifies and marginalizes women, portraying them as mere objects for male pleasure. Men frequently dominate women in these movies, perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes. Now, imagine a minor growing up with exposure to these images. How will this affect their behavior towards girls and their understanding of sexuality? Pornography often portrays an unrealistic and distorted view of sex and relationships, which can lead to unhealthy and unrealistic expectations. Limiting access to porn can help promote a healthier and more realistic view of sexuality. So yes, I strongly believe we should limit access to porn.
- mbork_pl 4y agoI would even say that I can see no reason creating/distributing/etc. of pornography should be legal at all.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoThat's how I feel about the Fast and the Furious movies.
- ben_w 4y agoI've never been moved in the slightest by the trailers for the franchise, and so never bothered watching them. "Saw" on the other hand? For that franchise, I find even the adverts disturbing… though not as disturbing as the logical conclusion that a significant number of people must be responding to those adverts with "that looks interesting, I desire to spend two hours looking at cinematic footage of the content that this image or clip only hints at".
- bastawhiz 4y ago> Men frequently dominate women in these movies, perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes. As a lifelong homosexual, I strongly disagree with your notion that all porn promotes harmful stereotypes against women. In fact, I would argue that 100% of the porn I've watched in recent memory includes no forms of gender-based power dynamic. > Now, imagine a minor growing up with exposure to these images. How will this affect their behavior towards girls and their understanding of sexuality? This is the job of a parent. If parents don't want to acknowledge that their children are watching porn and being exposed to ideas that are harmful (for whatever you deem harmful), the parents are negligent in teaching the kids to be respectful, empathetic young adults. > Limiting access to porn can help promote a healthier and more realistic view of sexuality. Banning porn doesn't stop this. In fact, it makes the problem worse! You can't stop people from making or covertly distributing porn. It's physically impossible without turning off the internet. All you're accomplishing is making the problem less visible and more taboo to discuss. See: decades of "the war on drugs" As well-intentioned as I think you are, there's zero evidence to suggest limiting access to porn will do any good at all and mountains of evidence to suggest the contrary. And all to avoid having difficult conversations about sexuality with minors.
- JumpCrisscross 4y agoCan’t wait to see what Little Rock does with a list of Arkansans who visit LGBT+ sites.
- krapp 4y agoYeah, I suspect tracking down "sexual deviants" is the true motivation behind laws like this. There will probably be state mandated "corrective procedures" in the future.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- locustous 4y agoPorn is bad for kids. But sure how good the execution on this might be but I approve of the sentiment.
- tzs 4y agoTrying to limit children's access to internet porn by making porn sites verify ID probably won't be too effective, because a significant fraction of internet porn is on sites that are not in the US (about 40% in 2013 [1]). If this is something a state wants to do it might be more effective to come at it from the other end. Parents can install parental control software on their home computers and on their kid's devices. Schools can do similar on their computers. Places that provide computers for public internet access would probably need to do age checks. Kids could still get access to porn the traditional way of course. Make friends with kids whose parents are less restrictive and get them to get porn for you. That could be handled the way it has always been--declare the other kids bad influences and forbid your kids from seeing them. It could also be handled by making it so that if your kids give other kids porn without their parents permission its treated the same as if your kids are giving alcohol to other underage kids. I.e., it is a failure of the parent's duty to supervise their child and they might be fined. [1] https://www.statista.com/chart/1383/top-10-adult-website-host-countries/ https://www.statista.com/chart/1383/top-10-adult-website-hos...