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I assume if you mention US political party names on HN, you get a pile of downvotes immediately, valid point or not. I'm not aware they're trying to make it ac

by Syonyk 2y ago

I assume if you mention US political party names on HN, you get a pile of downvotes immediately, valid point or not. I'm not aware they're trying to make it actively illegal, though. Just at least marginally age gated to adults, which is far from the current situation of "If you have a browser and can type something that a search engine can correct into a porn search, you can access as much extreme content as you want, as long as you want, from wherever you want!" The average age of boys being exposed to porn is about 13, and the bottom end of the bell curve is disturbing.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
talldayo 2y ago
> The average age of boys being exposed to porn is about 13, and the bottom end of the bell curve is disturbing. The bottom end of the bell curve is a distraction. I remember kids sneaking porno mags into their backpacks in middle school and charging kids dimes and nickles to take a look. I watched Indiana Jones, James Bond and other pulpy films that pile sex onto the narrative with no adult supervision. I read books with chapters dedicated to graphic sexual depictions and violent conflict before I turned 15. The problem, as always, comes down to parenting. If you don't trust your child's own authority to select content that is healthy for them, then it's your responsibility to hire a babysitter or deliberately prevent them from using the internet. It's like complaining that your kid might cut off a finger because you gave them a jigsaw.
- Syonyk 2y ago
  And you see no functional difference between "peaking at a still image in a magazine, which even the hardcore versions are tame by modern internet porn standards" and "an infinite stream of videos of whatever sounds interesting at the moment"? They're not the slightest bit the same in terms of impact on human brains.
  - talldayo 2y ago
    I see the difference, I just don't see how to stop it. If you want your kid to not have access to infinite videos where they choose what plays next, don't give them access to the internet, period. Problem solved, I just stopped them from learning swear words and atheism too. There's just no situation where you give kids access to the internet while also removing porn from it. It just doesn't work like that. It's either that all internet binging is harmful, or none is. No law will ever succeed at depriving kids from using the internet to watch sex videos. We know this because you can't outlaw kids from watching sex scenes in movies or sex chapters in books, either.
    - bdangubic 2y ago
      every “what is good for the kids” problem is solved in the same way - good parenting. ban books - political theatre. ban nudity/porn - political theatre. and why focus on sex? if I give my kid unsupervised access to the internet she can be subjected to endless stream of beheading videos and much much worse than that… I would HOPE AND PRAY she watches porn vs. other shit that is out there is kids are allowed unsupervised access
  - jillyboel 2y ago
    Let's ban tiktok, youtube and facebook first then.
    - Syonyk 2y ago
      Good. I'm onboard with that. They're human-toxic systems that optimize "hours on screen" over literally anything else that might be good for people.
  - eesmith 2y ago
    Earlier you wrote "The average age of boys being exposed to porn is about 13". Now you say "infinite stream of whatever sounds interesting at the moment". Those are two quite different things. To start with, just because a kid saw pornography doesn't mean it was wanted. From a 2007 paper, "Forty-two percent of youth Internet users had been exposed to online pornography in the past year. Of those, 66% reported only unwanted exposure." (From "Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users") In quite a few countries, the way to watch porn as a teen is to set your alarm for 1am and watch soft porn on regular broadcast TV.
ryandrake 2y ago
Age Gating is very often the "foot in the door" towards the goal of total prohibition. This is a tried and true strategy for normalizing banning things that were not previously banned: Initially get the public to accept it "for the children." Once you have the technical infra in place to ban XYZ for some users, you are 99% of the way (and one stroke of the pen) towards effectively banning it outright.
bdangubic 2y ago
what else is disturbing to 13-year old boys? lets give a list here and see whether that is age-proof in ANY way/shape/form? while I do not disagree with you in general the current “war on porn” in the America is a political theatre. no one gives two shits what might be disturbing to 13-year boys, it is all just political theatre

by Syonyk 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

talldayo 2y ago

> The average age of boys being exposed to porn is about 13, and the bottom end of the bell curve is disturbing. The bottom end of the bell curve is a distraction. I remember kids sneaking porno mags into their backpacks in middle school and charging kids dimes and nickles to take a look. I watched Indiana Jones, James Bond and other pulpy films that pile sex onto the narrative with no adult supervision. I read books with chapters dedicated to graphic sexual depictions and violent conflict before I turned 15. The problem, as always, comes down to parenting. If you don't trust your child's own authority to select content that is healthy for them, then it's your responsibility to hire a babysitter or deliberately prevent them from using the internet. It's like complaining that your kid might cut off a finger because you gave them a jigsaw.

Syonyk 2y ago
And you see no functional difference between "peaking at a still image in a magazine, which even the hardcore versions are tame by modern internet porn standards" and "an infinite stream of videos of whatever sounds interesting at the moment"? They're not the slightest bit the same in terms of impact on human brains.
- talldayo 2y ago
  I see the difference, I just don't see how to stop it. If you want your kid to not have access to infinite videos where they choose what plays next, don't give them access to the internet, period. Problem solved, I just stopped them from learning swear words and atheism too. There's just no situation where you give kids access to the internet while also removing porn from it. It just doesn't work like that. It's either that all internet binging is harmful, or none is. No law will ever succeed at depriving kids from using the internet to watch sex videos. We know this because you can't outlaw kids from watching sex scenes in movies or sex chapters in books, either.
  - bdangubic 2y ago
    every “what is good for the kids” problem is solved in the same way - good parenting. ban books - political theatre. ban nudity/porn - political theatre. and why focus on sex? if I give my kid unsupervised access to the internet she can be subjected to endless stream of beheading videos and much much worse than that… I would HOPE AND PRAY she watches porn vs. other shit that is out there is kids are allowed unsupervised access
- jillyboel 2y ago
  Let's ban tiktok, youtube and facebook first then.
  - Syonyk 2y ago
    Good. I'm onboard with that. They're human-toxic systems that optimize "hours on screen" over literally anything else that might be good for people.
- eesmith 2y ago
  Earlier you wrote "The average age of boys being exposed to porn is about 13". Now you say "infinite stream of whatever sounds interesting at the moment". Those are two quite different things. To start with, just because a kid saw pornography doesn't mean it was wanted. From a 2007 paper, "Forty-two percent of youth Internet users had been exposed to online pornography in the past year. Of those, 66% reported only unwanted exposure." (From "Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users") In quite a few countries, the way to watch porn as a teen is to set your alarm for 1am and watch soft porn on regular broadcast TV.

ryandrake 2y ago

Age Gating is very often the "foot in the door" towards the goal of total prohibition. This is a tried and true strategy for normalizing banning things that were not previously banned: Initially get the public to accept it "for the children." Once you have the technical infra in place to ban XYZ for some users, you are 99% of the way (and one stroke of the pen) towards effectively banning it outright.

bdangubic 2y ago

what else is disturbing to 13-year old boys? lets give a list here and see whether that is age-proof in ANY way/shape/form? while I do not disagree with you in general the current “war on porn” in the America is a political theatre. no one gives two shits what might be disturbing to 13-year boys, it is all just political theatre