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To respond to your edit here are some general statistics about sexual assault in the US: https://legaljobs.io/blog/sexual-assault-statistics/ https://legaljobs.

To respond to your edit here are some general statistics about sexual assault in the US: https://legaljobs.io/blog/sexual-assault-statistics/ https://legaljobs.io/blog/sexual-assault-statistics/ In terms of increase with the availability of pornography, take a look at this chart: https://www.statista.com/statistics/191137/reported-forcible-rape-cases-in-the-usa-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/191137/reported-forcible... You can see that the number of rape reports have almost doubled since the invention of web pornography.

Aachen 4y ago
Not sure why this got a downvote. I was going to say that this shows only reports without estimating the proportion of unreported rape over time (I tried for the last ~10 minutes to find it myself but no dice), but it's a constructive comment.
- AlecSchueler 4y ago
  It got a downvote because I was speaking against pornography in a heavily male and internet dependant environment.
  - anigbrowl 4y ago
    I didn't vote either way, but your argument assumes causality without considering other factors (like lower social stigma for reporting rape and higher social expectations of police responsiveness). In general, it's much easier to repot rape and sexual assault and have the report taken seriously than it was 10, 20 or more years ago. I think you should consider the possibility that your argument was deficient instead of making assumptions based on tropes. Communities are not monolithic and HN is less monolithic than most. For example, I differ strongly from you in not believing in censorship in the name of protecting youth, but I also differ from a lot of people here in saying that tech companies have massively failed to deal with the distribution of CSAM.
    - AlecSchueler 4y ago
      Yes I agree with what you're saying and thank you for calling it out. It's just that I've had many similar discussions to this in many different environments and it's easy to become jaded.
mdorazio 4y ago
> You can see that the number of rape reports have almost doubled since the invention of web pornography. This is the worst case of cherry picking data I've seen in a long time. First, if your supposition is true then why would the number have dropped with the rise of internet pornography from the late 90s all the way through 2012? Second, what's the per-capita rate instead of absolute number? Third, what other confounding factors are there (did the reporting method stay the same)? This chart tells me nothing except that something weird happened after 2012 and that's it.
fzeroracer 4y ago
This is one of the worst possible arguments I've seen on HN. I'm not going to address the morality issue at stake here, but you've fallen into one of the most common traps when it comes to trying to compare rates of reports over a period of time which is that population also grows. From 1990 to 2020 the US population grew from 250 million to 330 million. Additionally, as the chart you pointed out the FBI changed its definition of what constitutes rape in 2013, hence the rise in reported rape from that year onwards.

Aachen 4y ago

Not sure why this got a downvote. I was going to say that this shows only reports without estimating the proportion of unreported rape over time (I tried for the last ~10 minutes to find it myself but no dice), but it's a constructive comment.

AlecSchueler 4y ago
It got a downvote because I was speaking against pornography in a heavily male and internet dependant environment.
- anigbrowl 4y ago
  I didn't vote either way, but your argument assumes causality without considering other factors (like lower social stigma for reporting rape and higher social expectations of police responsiveness). In general, it's much easier to repot rape and sexual assault and have the report taken seriously than it was 10, 20 or more years ago. I think you should consider the possibility that your argument was deficient instead of making assumptions based on tropes. Communities are not monolithic and HN is less monolithic than most. For example, I differ strongly from you in not believing in censorship in the name of protecting youth, but I also differ from a lot of people here in saying that tech companies have massively failed to deal with the distribution of CSAM.
  - AlecSchueler 4y ago
    Yes I agree with what you're saying and thank you for calling it out. It's just that I've had many similar discussions to this in many different environments and it's easy to become jaded.

mdorazio 4y ago

> You can see that the number of rape reports have almost doubled since the invention of web pornography. This is the worst case of cherry picking data I've seen in a long time. First, if your supposition is true then why would the number have dropped with the rise of internet pornography from the late 90s all the way through 2012? Second, what's the per-capita rate instead of absolute number? Third, what other confounding factors are there (did the reporting method stay the same)? This chart tells me nothing except that something weird happened after 2012 and that's it.

fzeroracer 4y ago

This is one of the worst possible arguments I've seen on HN. I'm not going to address the morality issue at stake here, but you've fallen into one of the most common traps when it comes to trying to compare rates of reports over a period of time which is that population also grows. From 1990 to 2020 the US population grew from 250 million to 330 million. Additionally, as the chart you pointed out the FBI changed its definition of what constitutes rape in 2013, hence the rise in reported rape from that year onwards.