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What are your thoughts on restricting children’s access to pornography online? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

188 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There are a lot of GOP-controller legislatures in the USA pushing through so-called “child protection” laws, but there’s a toll in the form of impacting people’s rights and data privacy. Most of these bills involve requiring adults to upload a copy of their photo ID.

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[–] fubo@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Some principles and things to note:

Adults' expression to one another must not be restrained to only what is suitable for children.
Sexuality is a normal thing that most people are interested in. It is not inherently illegitimate, deviant, or corrupting.
Children and adolescents who are kept in ignorance and fear of sexuality are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse by adults.
Anonymous and pseudonymous speech are necessary to the freedom of a free society.
The chief threat of sexual abuse to children does not come from anonymous or pseudonymous speakers on the Internet, but from family members and acquaintances — especially those with authority over the child. As such, if the question is "Who should be subject to greater scrutiny, to prevent child sexual abuse?" the answer will be "parents, guardians, teachers, youth pastors, etc." at a much higher priority than "anonymous and pseudonymous Internet users".
Identification requirements for speakers or audiences are a necessary step to violent and unlawful censorship, and are not necessary for legitimate purposes.

Given these principles and observations, I conclude that the expected effect of such regulations would be to increase sexual abuse of children, while also strongly harming the ability of a free society to discuss and educate about sexuality.

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 year ago

Very excellent points. While I agree kids shouldn't be looking at porn, forcibly trying to keep all knowledge of sex and porn from them until they hit a magic age where now they can do anything they want isn't the answer.

Children need to be educated so they can make wise decisions when the time comes. No matter how much people try to stop it, the time will often come before they reach the magic age set by laws, and unfortunately it's sometimes through sexual assault or their naivety being taking advantage of.

[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

This nails it right here, #1 and #2 especially.

Sex is fun, sex is awkward, sex is weird and messy and life-changing. Sex is mundane, sex is cathartic, sex is funny and sex is cardio. Also, sex makes people, oh and it feels good. All that is pretty fucking magical if you ask me.

What is done in private between consenting adults is none of your goddamn business, including porn. Don’t use kids as an excuse to control adults’ behavior.

[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would combat that by saying I think most pornography is nowhere close to what sex is like. Anecdotally, I hear more stories about men who try to fuck someone like they’re in a porn film, which can result in physical pain to their partner.

I think teaching kids about sex and giving them access to porn that often displays non-consensual acts as normal are two totally different things.

But yes, I think 4 is a very strong point, which is why most of the bills that are being proposed are not being executed well.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh sure. Generally speaking, most porn is a terrible sex educator.

However, it's also a wrong target for concerns about child sexual abuse.

And crackdowns on "porn" tend to end up being crackdowns on sexuality-related speech and sweep in a lot of other speech too.