5 ms·

> "We – children and adults alike – need to learn about the damaging psychological, social and physical effects of online porn." Let me tell you where the real

> "We – children and adults alike – need to learn about the damaging psychological, social and physical effects of online porn." Let me tell you where the real damage comes form... Parents and holier-than-though leaders traumatizing children by constantly telling them to be ashamed of their bodies and sexuality. Children aren't generally interested in porn. They see it, say "eeewww" and move on. There are no "effects" until the adult in the room freaks out.

xupybd 13y ago
LOL I call bs on that comment. I'm not too sure any 13 year old boys are going to say eeewww.
- alan_cx 13y ago
  Indeed. Back in the day we had paper rounds. The best ones were were some "old perv" got a monthly porn mag with his paper. On that day, lads would be last for school, due to exhaustion...
nemof 13y ago
whilst I strongly disagree with the filtering, it's utter bs, it's also untrue that porn isn't having an affect on younger generations. The real thing that needs to be happening is an honest and frank discussion about sex and sexuality, which is a pretty tall ask in the UK as we're quite prudish in some respects. We'd rather legislate against smut then talk about it. As to the affect that I alluded to. When children get their sex education from porn, you get teenage boys thinking that anal's the norm. This isn't just a theoretical, this is something I know teacher friends have had to deal with in school, getting approached for help by teenage girls having to cope with this kind of thing. Also, I've no idea where you get the idea that children aren't interested in porn. Perhaps not when they're 7, but when they're 12 or 14 they definitely are.
- jeswin 13y ago
  Most 14 year old boys would have watched porn. Some of them might regularly watch porn. Amongst my friends I can't think of anyone negatively influenced or affected by this. No big deal.
  - untog 13y ago
    How old are you? I'm 29, and also recall that when I was in my teenage years we all saw various bits of pornography- magazines, a few extremely slow loading web pages, but nothing like what is available today. As nemof described, a lot of porn today is much more extreme than that, and could give teenagers a very skewed sense of "normal" sex. I'm not advocating filtering internet content, but I think it's at least worth discussing what effect this might be having on teenagers today, and not just dismissing it with "my [entirely different] situation was fine".
    - MisterWebz 13y ago
      And movies give a skewed sense of how the real world works. And advertisements tell you you're ugly and need to buy products to become prettier. These things affect children too, probably way more than porn. Should we ban those too or at least be able to opt out of those?
      - untog 13y ago
        Should we ban those too or at least be able to opt out of those? Sigh. Stop being hyperbolic. I said in my post that I am not advocating blocking them, but having a conversation about the effects they have. So, to answer you, yes- I think we should talk to our teenagers about advertising and movies too. Thing is, we already often do that, but sexual stuff tends to be discussed a lot less.
        Dylan16807 13y ago
        Hyperbole? I would love the ability to opt out of advertising. Or maybe bans on advertising in public.
      - 13y ago
- michaelt 13y ago
  The Radio 4 series Analysis [1] had an interesting episode on this - still available as a podcast, title "Pornography: what do we know?" I encourage you to give it a listen as it's an interesting program. To vastly simplify and summarise, the reporter's conclusion is the evidence to show it causes serious and direct harm is weak. [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/analysis http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/analysis

xupybd 13y ago

LOL I call bs on that comment. I'm not too sure any 13 year old boys are going to say eeewww.

alan_cx 13y ago
Indeed. Back in the day we had paper rounds. The best ones were were some "old perv" got a monthly porn mag with his paper. On that day, lads would be last for school, due to exhaustion...

nemof 13y ago

whilst I strongly disagree with the filtering, it's utter bs, it's also untrue that porn isn't having an affect on younger generations. The real thing that needs to be happening is an honest and frank discussion about sex and sexuality, which is a pretty tall ask in the UK as we're quite prudish in some respects. We'd rather legislate against smut then talk about it. As to the affect that I alluded to. When children get their sex education from porn, you get teenage boys thinking that anal's the norm. This isn't just a theoretical, this is something I know teacher friends have had to deal with in school, getting approached for help by teenage girls having to cope with this kind of thing. Also, I've no idea where you get the idea that children aren't interested in porn. Perhaps not when they're 7, but when they're 12 or 14 they definitely are.

jeswin 13y ago
Most 14 year old boys would have watched porn. Some of them might regularly watch porn. Amongst my friends I can't think of anyone negatively influenced or affected by this. No big deal.
- untog 13y ago
  How old are you? I'm 29, and also recall that when I was in my teenage years we all saw various bits of pornography- magazines, a few extremely slow loading web pages, but nothing like what is available today. As nemof described, a lot of porn today is much more extreme than that, and could give teenagers a very skewed sense of "normal" sex. I'm not advocating filtering internet content, but I think it's at least worth discussing what effect this might be having on teenagers today, and not just dismissing it with "my [entirely different] situation was fine".
  - MisterWebz 13y ago
    And movies give a skewed sense of how the real world works. And advertisements tell you you're ugly and need to buy products to become prettier. These things affect children too, probably way more than porn. Should we ban those too or at least be able to opt out of those?
    - untog 13y ago
      Should we ban those too or at least be able to opt out of those? Sigh. Stop being hyperbolic. I said in my post that I am not advocating blocking them, but having a conversation about the effects they have. So, to answer you, yes- I think we should talk to our teenagers about advertising and movies too. Thing is, we already often do that, but sexual stuff tends to be discussed a lot less.
      - Dylan16807 13y ago
        Hyperbole? I would love the ability to opt out of advertising. Or maybe bans on advertising in public.
    - 13y ago
michaelt 13y ago
The Radio 4 series Analysis [1] had an interesting episode on this - still available as a podcast, title "Pornography: what do we know?" I encourage you to give it a listen as it's an interesting program. To vastly simplify and summarise, the reporter's conclusion is the evidence to show it causes serious and direct harm is weak. [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/analysis http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/analysis