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I'm still confused about the purpose behind these laws. Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Because there's now

I'm still confused about the purpose behind these laws. Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Because there's now two whole generations of kids who have grown up watching porn (my generation, and the one after). So far younger people don't seem any more fucked up than people were before, only the older people seem to be getting worse.

chillingeffect 1y ago
Not sure if youd find me me smart or stupid, but in my immediate experience a youth in my circle was influenced negatively by porn. It won't be every kid, and yes his parents should have watched him, better, but they have little influence over him from the grave.
throwawaygmbno 1y ago
There's quite a few accounts on here that will argue in good faith and bad faith that people enjoying oral, anal, gay, bi, or any kink has already ruined society, whether it's solely via porn or real life. The argument usually starts with an assumption that nobody did those things before and it's obvious that life was better before for everyone when those things were viewed as shameful. Personally I think it's been known for centuries that sex is a pleasurable activity and controlling pleasure is a good way to control people.
- gaoryrt 1y ago
  Mostly agree, but oral is good.
StanislavPetrov 1y ago
>So far younger people don't seem any more fucked up than people were before, only the older people seem to be getting worse. If you look at levels of depression, sexual disfunction the steep drop in relationships and dating among younger people and other metrics you could argue the exact opposite, although obviously there are other factors (social media, ect) in how "messed up" generations are besides the widespread watching of porn by children.
- tokioyoyo 1y ago
  > there are other factors (social media, ect) "Other factors" is doing a heavy lifting here. I don't have a skin in this game, but politicians are scared to touch the elephant in the room (smartphones + social media), because they know they'll get a flack instantly. I don't think porn consumption among teenage girls are high, yet their depression rates are high as well.
  - refactor_master 1y ago
    If you go one level up in "abstraction" for what these platforms include, then e.g. Instagram immediately springs to mind. But since they've long since washed their hands, having banned nipples.
  - Gigachad 1y ago
    IMO social media is far more damaging than porn
  - StanislavPetrov 1y ago
    No skin in the game here either. I'd agree that smartphones and social media are also very damaging. >I don't think porn consumption among teenage girls are high, yet their depression rates are high as well. That isn't what the data says. >Seventy-three percent of the respondents (75 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls) said they had watched online pornography. The average age they started was 12. Many began younger. >Seven in 10 who admitted they had watched porn intentionally said they had done so in the past week. >Four in 10 said they had watched pornography, including nudity and sexual acts, during the school day. Almost half said they had done so on school-owned devices. >Of those who watched the past week, 80 percent said they had seen “what appears to be rape, choking, or someone in pain.” >Fewer than half (43 percent) said they had discussed pornography with a trusted adult. (Robb and Mann, 2023). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/raising-kind-kids/202305/new-report-finds-most-teens-watch-online-pornography https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/raising-kind-kids/20... I'm certainly no puritan, but it seems absurd to me to suggest that this early and mostly ubiquitous exposure to (often violent) pornography doesn't have a significant negative effect on the developing minds of children. Edit: Just to be clear, my contention that children watching pornography is harmful to their development is in no way an endorsement of the crusade to force users to link their IDs to their online accounts under the fig leaf of "protecting children" (the universal trope used to deprive people of their rights).
o11c 1y ago
> Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? This absolutely is a real problem, especially for younger kids. Have you talked to a teacher? Think things like "a kindergartner runs around grabbing teachers' tits and saying "I want to ..." lines you'd expect from a rape work like 50 Shades of Gray. It is neither in the child's interest nor in the interest of society at large to let that happen. And for every case that's as obviously bad as that one, who knows how many come off as creeps or even manage to appear normal from the outside, while suffering the trauma internally? Remember, the status quo on the Internet is no control at all. Real-world sex businesses aren't allowed to get away with that, why should the Internet be exempt from laws? Just because the government is slow and incompetent to get started doesn't mean we can stick with "self-regulate, aka no regulation at all". We can argue about exactly what the law should be, and we can argue how it should be implemented, but there absolutely must be something.
- edgineer 1y ago
  Bad influences come in many forms, and remedies aren't always laws.
  - o11c 1y ago
    Then why has nobody proposed an alternative remedy in all these years? Sure, a law won't automagically fix everything. But it provides the starting point that almost every individual or group action must rely on.
    - pas 1y ago
      A lot of people proposed alternative remedies, shitty parents shouldn't let their kids see porn. (Then of course the trick is that older kids will show porn to younger ones just to mess with them. Of course ID requirements won't fix this.)
  - happytoexplain 1y ago
    Very well said, and true. However, the post the parent was replying to said, "Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up?", which represents an unreasonable absolute.
lanfeust6 1y ago
I started watching in my early teens. It did, in fact, mess me up. I overconsumed, would explore increasingly more intense material for the dopamine hits, and couldn't stop. It fucked years of my life. That said, these laws are bad and counterproductive. They create more (worse) problems than they solve. What I went through could have been averted if I understood the health impacts and risks. Back then, no one knew, and no one talked about it. I also don't know how representative my particular case was. I endured many years of chronic insomnia, anxiety, self-loathing and depression.
kubbelz 1y ago
>Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Is there anyone stupid enough to think that it won't?
happytoexplain 1y ago
The fact that you believe there simply is no argument on the other side regarding porn (not censorship) - implied by the assertion that one must be "stupid" to believe that watching porn can be detrimental for children - is exhausting.
burnt-resistor 1y ago
It's that people are so stupid as to ostensibly outsource parental responsibility to a dystopian, dysfunctional government to encroach on the rights of everyone because "think of the children". "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin
113 1y ago
> Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Not only this but there seems to be no one on mainstream platforms putting forward the argument that what will mess kids up is a lack of access to sex education, which the bill also restricts.

chillingeffect 1y ago

Not sure if youd find me me smart or stupid, but in my immediate experience a youth in my circle was influenced negatively by porn. It won't be every kid, and yes his parents should have watched him, better, but they have little influence over him from the grave.

throwawaygmbno 1y ago

There's quite a few accounts on here that will argue in good faith and bad faith that people enjoying oral, anal, gay, bi, or any kink has already ruined society, whether it's solely via porn or real life. The argument usually starts with an assumption that nobody did those things before and it's obvious that life was better before for everyone when those things were viewed as shameful. Personally I think it's been known for centuries that sex is a pleasurable activity and controlling pleasure is a good way to control people.

gaoryrt 1y ago
Mostly agree, but oral is good.

StanislavPetrov 1y ago

>So far younger people don't seem any more fucked up than people were before, only the older people seem to be getting worse. If you look at levels of depression, sexual disfunction the steep drop in relationships and dating among younger people and other metrics you could argue the exact opposite, although obviously there are other factors (social media, ect) in how "messed up" generations are besides the widespread watching of porn by children.

tokioyoyo 1y ago
> there are other factors (social media, ect) "Other factors" is doing a heavy lifting here. I don't have a skin in this game, but politicians are scared to touch the elephant in the room (smartphones + social media), because they know they'll get a flack instantly. I don't think porn consumption among teenage girls are high, yet their depression rates are high as well.
- refactor_master 1y ago
  If you go one level up in "abstraction" for what these platforms include, then e.g. Instagram immediately springs to mind. But since they've long since washed their hands, having banned nipples.
- Gigachad 1y ago
  IMO social media is far more damaging than porn
- StanislavPetrov 1y ago
  No skin in the game here either. I'd agree that smartphones and social media are also very damaging. >I don't think porn consumption among teenage girls are high, yet their depression rates are high as well. That isn't what the data says. >Seventy-three percent of the respondents (75 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls) said they had watched online pornography. The average age they started was 12. Many began younger. >Seven in 10 who admitted they had watched porn intentionally said they had done so in the past week. >Four in 10 said they had watched pornography, including nudity and sexual acts, during the school day. Almost half said they had done so on school-owned devices. >Of those who watched the past week, 80 percent said they had seen “what appears to be rape, choking, or someone in pain.” >Fewer than half (43 percent) said they had discussed pornography with a trusted adult. (Robb and Mann, 2023). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/raising-kind-kids/202305/new-report-finds-most-teens-watch-online-pornography https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/raising-kind-kids/20... I'm certainly no puritan, but it seems absurd to me to suggest that this early and mostly ubiquitous exposure to (often violent) pornography doesn't have a significant negative effect on the developing minds of children. Edit: Just to be clear, my contention that children watching pornography is harmful to their development is in no way an endorsement of the crusade to force users to link their IDs to their online accounts under the fig leaf of "protecting children" (the universal trope used to deprive people of their rights).

o11c 1y ago

> Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? This absolutely is a real problem, especially for younger kids. Have you talked to a teacher? Think things like "a kindergartner runs around grabbing teachers' tits and saying "I want to ..." lines you'd expect from a rape work like 50 Shades of Gray. It is neither in the child's interest nor in the interest of society at large to let that happen. And for every case that's as obviously bad as that one, who knows how many come off as creeps or even manage to appear normal from the outside, while suffering the trauma internally? Remember, the status quo on the Internet is no control at all. Real-world sex businesses aren't allowed to get away with that, why should the Internet be exempt from laws? Just because the government is slow and incompetent to get started doesn't mean we can stick with "self-regulate, aka no regulation at all". We can argue about exactly what the law should be, and we can argue how it should be implemented, but there absolutely must be something.

edgineer 1y ago
Bad influences come in many forms, and remedies aren't always laws.
- o11c 1y ago
  Then why has nobody proposed an alternative remedy in all these years? Sure, a law won't automagically fix everything. But it provides the starting point that almost every individual or group action must rely on.
  - pas 1y ago
    A lot of people proposed alternative remedies, shitty parents shouldn't let their kids see porn. (Then of course the trick is that older kids will show porn to younger ones just to mess with them. Of course ID requirements won't fix this.)
- happytoexplain 1y ago
  Very well said, and true. However, the post the parent was replying to said, "Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up?", which represents an unreasonable absolute.

lanfeust6 1y ago

I started watching in my early teens. It did, in fact, mess me up. I overconsumed, would explore increasingly more intense material for the dopamine hits, and couldn't stop. It fucked years of my life. That said, these laws are bad and counterproductive. They create more (worse) problems than they solve. What I went through could have been averted if I understood the health impacts and risks. Back then, no one knew, and no one talked about it. I also don't know how representative my particular case was. I endured many years of chronic insomnia, anxiety, self-loathing and depression.

kubbelz 1y ago

>Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Is there anyone stupid enough to think that it won't?

happytoexplain 1y ago

The fact that you believe there simply is no argument on the other side regarding porn (not censorship) - implied by the assertion that one must be "stupid" to believe that watching porn can be detrimental for children - is exhausting.

burnt-resistor 1y ago

It's that people are so stupid as to ostensibly outsource parental responsibility to a dystopian, dysfunctional government to encroach on the rights of everyone because "think of the children". "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin

113 1y ago

> Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Not only this but there seems to be no one on mainstream platforms putting forward the argument that what will mess kids up is a lack of access to sex education, which the bill also restricts.