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Social media is more damaging to kids than porn

by JSR_FDED 11mo ago

earlyreturns 11mo ago
Porn is a special subset of social media.
- balamatom 11mo ago
  And social media is a special subset of porn.
SoftTalker 11mo ago
Damaging in different ways. I'm not sure you can say one is worse. Sure most kids can look at naked people and not be too affected, we all have the same parts. But beyond that, a lot of really harmful behavior is depicted in some porn and kids are not really mature enough to understand that in real healthy relationships people don't actually have sex like that. Both porn and social media can be addictive and unhealthy if they become a substitute for interacting with real people. And this also happens with adults not just kids.
- tete 11mo ago
  > a lot of really harmful behavior is depicted in some porn and movies, and kids shows, and in fast food ads and in sitcoms and in comics and even in some churches, even in children's books and school books, and famously in Disney movies I am sometimes wondering if the whole "shielding" can be counterproductive. If you look at perpetrators and victims backstories it was either absolute lack of parenting (nobody to talk to) or it was households where everything was taboo. Eg. "hardcore Christians" and such. And I worry that the whole "everything is taboo" might turn out badly. Sure, I totally wished it was like "shield till they are 16/18/21" and then it will all be fine, but then we will end up with 16/18/21 year olds who will lose all hope when they first come across anything that might make them uncomfortable or in general cannot deal with. I also dislike the notion of other people deciding how to love each other. Sounds scary. But I really would wonder if children who cannot judge stuff end up watching some BDSM and suddenly think it's normal to be violent. Like even relatively young children witness or are involved in fights in kindergarten. Doesn't mean they'll end up having issues with violence. Different story if they learn it's the only way to get respect. But I really don't think you can equate that with a child coming across porn or non vanilla porn. It feels like the same story as "ego shooters will make everyone think it's okay to shoot people". Pretty sure that a big part of people here played ego shooters. On top of that I think creating the mindset that sex is something bad, to maybe be ashamed of, etc. is a good thing. I really do think that makes people not speak out when something is wrong. It creates that whole taboo. We don't have that with other crimes that we allow children to witness in media. Theft, violence, etc. No I don't think children should watch pornography. However the whole "you cannot even speak about sex" and it's all way worse than weapons seems to feed the "bad porn" to some degree.
knallfrosch 11mo ago
Facebook is over 20 years old and has never enforced its minimum age (13 years.) I, for one, would have started with legal threats and financial penalties long ago. But it just won't happen. So I'm fine with technical solutions. Facebook is able to sell you ads based on your favorite shoe lace colour. They ban terrorists, bots, porn and people named "Mark Zuckerberg" all the time. Noone can claim it's too hard for them to ban minors under 13.
- balamatom 11mo ago
  Granted, your favorite shoe lace colour does say a whole lot about you.

Social media is more damaging to kids than porn

earlyreturns 11mo ago

Porn is a special subset of social media.

balamatom 11mo ago
And social media is a special subset of porn.

SoftTalker 11mo ago

Damaging in different ways. I'm not sure you can say one is worse. Sure most kids can look at naked people and not be too affected, we all have the same parts. But beyond that, a lot of really harmful behavior is depicted in some porn and kids are not really mature enough to understand that in real healthy relationships people don't actually have sex like that. Both porn and social media can be addictive and unhealthy if they become a substitute for interacting with real people. And this also happens with adults not just kids.

tete 11mo ago
> a lot of really harmful behavior is depicted in some porn and movies, and kids shows, and in fast food ads and in sitcoms and in comics and even in some churches, even in children's books and school books, and famously in Disney movies I am sometimes wondering if the whole "shielding" can be counterproductive. If you look at perpetrators and victims backstories it was either absolute lack of parenting (nobody to talk to) or it was households where everything was taboo. Eg. "hardcore Christians" and such. And I worry that the whole "everything is taboo" might turn out badly. Sure, I totally wished it was like "shield till they are 16/18/21" and then it will all be fine, but then we will end up with 16/18/21 year olds who will lose all hope when they first come across anything that might make them uncomfortable or in general cannot deal with. I also dislike the notion of other people deciding how to love each other. Sounds scary. But I really would wonder if children who cannot judge stuff end up watching some BDSM and suddenly think it's normal to be violent. Like even relatively young children witness or are involved in fights in kindergarten. Doesn't mean they'll end up having issues with violence. Different story if they learn it's the only way to get respect. But I really don't think you can equate that with a child coming across porn or non vanilla porn. It feels like the same story as "ego shooters will make everyone think it's okay to shoot people". Pretty sure that a big part of people here played ego shooters. On top of that I think creating the mindset that sex is something bad, to maybe be ashamed of, etc. is a good thing. I really do think that makes people not speak out when something is wrong. It creates that whole taboo. We don't have that with other crimes that we allow children to witness in media. Theft, violence, etc. No I don't think children should watch pornography. However the whole "you cannot even speak about sex" and it's all way worse than weapons seems to feed the "bad porn" to some degree.

knallfrosch 11mo ago

Facebook is over 20 years old and has never enforced its minimum age (13 years.) I, for one, would have started with legal threats and financial penalties long ago. But it just won't happen. So I'm fine with technical solutions. Facebook is able to sell you ads based on your favorite shoe lace colour. They ban terrorists, bots, porn and people named "Mark Zuckerberg" all the time. Noone can claim it's too hard for them to ban minors under 13.

balamatom 11mo ago
Granted, your favorite shoe lace colour does say a whole lot about you.