What are your thoughts on restricting children’s access to pornography online?

Considering these are Republican states, they're just going to define Wikipedia articles about gender dysphoria as pornographic lol

Think carefully and double check before you ever agree with a Republican about anything.

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The government has way too much influence over children already. Governments could do so much for children that would actually benefit them (better education, free lunch at school, better public libraries, ensure no kids are starving because of poor parents, no wars in foreign countries, whatever) but instead they use children to increase their control over people.

I think it has nothing to do with children. It is about requiring ID registration for online services so that identities can be tracked. Every time authoritarians want to push another mechanism of control it's always "about the children".

Some principles and things to note:

1. Adults' expression to one another must not be restrained to only what is suitable for children.
2. Sexuality is a normal thing that most people are interested in. It is not inherently illegitimate, deviant, or corrupting.
3. Children and adolescents who are kept in ignorance and fear of sexuality are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse by adults.
4. Anonymous and pseudonymous speech are necessary to the freedom of a free society.
5. 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".
6. 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.

If I didn't want my kids looking at porn online, I already have plenty of things to prevent them from doing so.

Not giving them access to a device without supervision. Using firewall filters. Child-mode browser/OS settings.

We don't need more regulation for this. Parents just need to get off their ass and do their own parenting. But these bills aren't actually designed to protect children. They're designed to gain access to adults' personal info and will be used more for oppression than safety.

Its not the governments job to make up for absent parenting.

If you dont want your kids seeing things or doing shit online, its your job to monitor them and talk to them about it.

Stop throwing your kids a tablet and expecting that to be the fuckin parent.

It is still very shocking to us in Europe that the United States wants to control pornography before guns. I don't know many people who have killed themselves by masturbating.

I like the idea of having a cleaner internet for under 12s but I hate the idea of giving the government more control of the internet. Ultimately I side with freedom. I grew up on the wildwest internet and turned out fine. These kids will also be fine.

I'm against heavy handed regulation because it pushes people into more dangerous spaces, if you're a teenager or unID'd adult who can't access real porn sites do you decide not to look at boobs or do you seek out unregulated communities on places like discord?

Would you like your kid seeing generic regulated porn or seeing the kinds of things people can't post on regulated porn sites? Plus not only is there the fact that the content on underground sites is by their nature the stuff not allowed on regulated sites but also do you want your kid taking to the creeps that hang out in porn sharing groups on discord?

There's no way for a government to do it that wouldn't interfere with adults' privacy.

It's the parents job to do that, not the government's. I have kids, when they were at the age I didn't want them seeing porn I made sure it was blocked, and I educated them on safe internet browsing. I don't need the government's help with that.

The GOP is also the party of the chronically ill and the criminally insane. They just don't want to admit that they want China's great firewall style world wide web after wasting millions of dollars going after TikTok.

Once again all the anti China propoganda was projection coming from inside the house.

None of these politcians who push for all those "protect the children" laws actually gives a shit about child safety. The only thing that such laws mange to do is restrict freedom of speech and expression for everyone including children.

If you are a careless parent, then no law is going prevent your kids from watching porn.

Usually when politicians says "to protect children", it's not about children.

It's almost like porn has been available, to varying degrees, to youth, for decades if not centuries. Even discounting all the good arguments like "small government" and "think of the kids is a dumb excuse to curtail privacy"... You have to ask, what's the goal?

Keeping kids away from porn? Why is that an important goal for the government? Is it one the government is even capable of doing? At what age is porn OK? 16? 18? 21? Never? Did you ever look at porn when you were in high school? Do you regret it?

Is there any real research that porn is corrosive to a 16 year old? I mean we can't even pass simple, popular gun legislation because the NRA swears up and down we don't know "for sure" if it will save more than a couple lives. We can't even have an EPA that enforces laws, while millions of people suffer from asthma and other stuff that kills them.

I'm out of the loop on this one, but it sounds like yet another attempt at SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Back in 2011, people had to fight hard because the US congress was attempting to gain control over the internet. The congress' reasoning was that they wanted to hinder piracy, but the implications of the bill was so much more.

I don't recall the full history of this, but I believe that as soon as SOPA was turned down, a new bill regarding preventing child pornography was proposed. And that bill had basically the same implications, but if you were against it this time, the congress had implied that you were supporting child pornography.

It seems like the state's attempt at gaining control of the internet is never ending, since they can propose new bills as soon as the previous bill is voted out. Basically the "throw enough shit at a wall and some of it will stick"-tactic.

Exclusively used for fascism and propaganda. If it's "for the children" it's usually not and just propaganda to push more fascism. If kids want to lie and click the "I am 18" button despite not being 18, literally who cares lol. Before the internet, kids would steal nude magazines. Also that's how they discover things about themselves instead of being completely left in the dark until 18. Should definitely still keep the requirement of clicking that button, but more so for plausible deniability on the website's side. It's only religious extremists that consider this stuff bad.

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We shouldn't let the government parent our kids. I know it's human nature to be lazy, but the government isn't the answer.

None of those blocks actually work, it’s theater. I think it’s better to prepare your child for the world and how to handle it than to try and lock them in a bunker.

Governments should never stop into the role of a parent.

as a zoomer who had access to porn at a young age, that shit was not good for me at all. i think it's pretty fair to suggest that people below the age of 13 should not be looking at porn - but i wouldn't even know how one could even go about actually regulating it

This isn't a government issue. This is a bad parent issue. How about instead forcing routers to have easy ways to block adult content?

Anyone that thinks kids won't find a way around any and all blocks is an outright idiot

On a moral level, I do agree with keeping children from accessing certain content online, especially porn. I think I'd be happier if I porn was less accessible to me until I had the mental faculties to understand it.

On a practical / policy level, I disagree since there is no way to stop children from accessing this content without drastically hampering the freedoms of all people. I see no good solutions. I really feel bad for parents who have to raise kids in the internet age.

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Unpopular opinion, but I’d rather not allow kids on the regular internet.

I’m surprised these issues haven’t been fixed and that the only method I hear about fixing them are ones that break the internet as we know it. Why not think of like some type of sub internet designed for kids that separates them from the chaos of the regular internet…. If I’ve learned on thing living in America it’s that money is wore more than kids or kids futures so it’s hopeless anyway.

Like traffic from a device could be locked down until the users proper age is reached.

Or just try to build better communities where parents take care of their kids.

I don't need the government's help. Plus it's probably a front for keeping kids uninformed. I'm more concerned about Florida teaching that there was some benefit to slavery.

Ahh I see the strategy. Put out this trafficking movie, hype dems as pedos (and commies) and stir up a whole terd of doo doo. Classic.

I'm not uploading my ID to shit.

I thought we already had a flawless system for this where you put in your birthday.

Where are all my Jan 1 1970 friends at?

I've started looking at porn on the internet at 8 or 9 years old, and nothing bad happened to me.

I understand why the law says that porn is for 18+ only, but that's it. The access shouldn't be restricted. It's the parents' role to stop kids from going on those websites, if any.

I oppose on principle any attempt to further restrict, marginalize, exclude, or otherwise other young people.

I also oppose on principle any attempt to worsen surveillance state overreach.

And I oppose out of sheer fucking common sense anything a Republican says.

For all these reasons and more, I oppose this entire concept and its execution.

It's a well-intentioned goal that's impossible to implement without egregiously privacy violating measures.

In the UK, The Online Safety Bill is almost about to become law. Without going into the full details, the government basically wants to monitor everyone's messages to stop child pornography and protect people (and other stuff too).

The problem is, they want companies to scan messages and photos as they are uploaded and to give themselves backdoor access to E2E encryption services.

It's very likely the UK will lose access to iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp etc as they would rather withdraw their services from the UK than break their promise to their users.

Children get their own internet. If they get in adult internet, then they get juvenile detention and a criminal file, their parents are arrested for child endangerment and child services take over.

And anyone complaining about what is on the internet gets an helicopter ride to the deep sea from 10'000 feet.

I had an interesting experience as a teen looking at porn online and blocking is not the way. Education is the best, basically teaching teens is better than letting them make mistakes when they turn 18 and get their ass fucked

It’s impossible. That makes it perfect for building an unlimited enforcement apparatus, which is the real goal.

it's my belief that if you try to shield your children from the evils of the world, you will invariable fail and they'll be unprepared for the world itself once they leave the nest. not saying that you shouldnt try to enact parental controls on their devices, just that you'll fail.

also, not sure how the government is going to control access to the porn. it's one thing to gate pornhub/xhamster behind a ID required page, it's another thing entirely to ban all porn everywhere. like, good luck mr government but you're going to fail.

Didn't South Korea do this? IIRC some kids would steal their parents'/grandparents' government IDs to watch porn.

My upbringing in the US shamed all forms of sexuality; I was entirely forbidden from watching porn until I moved out on my own for college. I feel like that upbringing was very very harmful to me as an adult though because I spent my entire 20s breaking away from that shame and guilt. I had a good sex-Ed teacher in 6th-7th grades but they just simply didn’t spend enough time on the topic to educate me at all about anything but very basic anatomy though. The amount of shame I got at home just didn’t let my sex-Ed class information get absorbed in a way that was conducive to a normal sex life; we were never told that sex was normal and healthy either.

Me personally, my interest in animal science/anatomy led me to reading books about sexuality and the missing sex info I needed. I really don’t think it was healthy to have to learn that information alone; I’m lucky and I was reading official textbook material; I couldn’t imagine kids today learning accurate information from uncertified sources.

Like, sex-Ed at the senior HS level should be basically a how-to pleasure yourself and others in a healthy way and pitfalls to avoid. They should go into the anatomy and physiology ad nauseum so every student feels comfortable in their body as an adult.

Unbelievably stupid.

It should be the sole responsibility of parents or guardians to control any restrictions like this. I'm not a parent myself, but if I were, I wouldn't just let my child have a device with unrestricted access to everything on the internet. To me, it makes more sense to just have content restrictions on children's devices than force all adults to go through extra verification steps to access porn.

Personally I am opposed to any government overreach like requiring ID to use the internet. That’s none of their fucking business.

It is the responsibility of the parents to control what their children do online, and there are plenty of voluntary tools available to limit and monitor internet usage.

Personally, I don't like the idea. Government policies aren't good substitutes for parenting. even if they implemented these changes, kids and adults alike would likely move to other websites that don't have the government ID scanning feature in, or kids would use things such as a fake ID or their parent's IDs.

If someone wants porn online, they will find it. It's up to the parents to ensure that their children don't become porn addicts in the first place.

Parents should have the tools to be able to give their children specific information. And part of that toolbox is keeping them off the internet. Or only supervise internet use for an hour or two a day. Giving any child complete and total access to a tool is kind of dangerous. You have to educate them about the dangers of the tool and how to properly respect it. So if your child is 3 years old they may not be ready for the raw internet.

If an organization such as the government wants to spend money to create a child friendly network space, KinterNet, Great more power to them. Then concerned parents could VPN to the Kinternet on devices for their children. It would be opt-in.

De facto if you give your child a device with unfettered internet access, you're saying they're ready and responsible enough to handle the kind of information there. That you've trained them in the proper use of the tools.

Most kids used to be farm kids, they knew about sex, because on the farm sex happens. Happens a lot. They see the entire life cycle of a various animals. But now we have many children who don't have exposure to the whole life cycle, and if you cut the internet off for them then they're going to grow up very stunted as well. Everything's a balance, and that's up to the parents.

But I think all of these words are wasted. The reason surveillance bills are pushed on us "for the children" is because it's a convenient excuse, it sets precedent, it's about control, it's not about the children. It's an excuse only... And if everyone really is trying to protect the children, where does it end? Can't talk about Santa Claus online? We must reaffirm the tooth fairy industrial complex?

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These bills are intended to make it harder for anyone to look at porn online. There are plenty of tools parents can employ to make it harder for their own kids to see porn -- that's where the responsibility belongs.

I'm against it. Parents should be helping their children go online go submit homework or whatever they need to do. You cannot babyproof the internet the same way you cannot babyproof society. Parents in the 90s understood this well. Parents in the 20s do not understand this.

Build safer websites for kids. Don't degrade adult spaces, because the 4chans and fox newses will always exist, but will take down the good sites as collateral.

The internet will always be an open forum of advertisements, ideas, arguing, and little niches of helpful information and [nerds](!(https://pawb.social/pictrs/image/813358b2-34bb-47f4-839c-944c4e31a066.jpeg).

You cannot stop kids from looking at porn. Doesn't matter how hard you try, they will find a way around it. This is about collecting a database of porn preferences to probably use as blackmail.

I don’t think there’s a good way to accomplish this on a governmental level. But personally, I would’ve liked to not be exposed to it when I was.

My first problem is that the GOP wants to have people's private vital information freely given to them and that people would be required to comply. Tying that information to activities of consenting adults will be misused. Blue noses can't keep their noses in their own business, and the possibility for graft and blackmail is immense.

When did the GOP start to care about children, anyway?

Define porn.

My state actually blocked all porn sites. In theory this is a good thing... however it's pretty easy to bypass with a VPN. If someone wants to get access to porn there are about a million different ways of doing so.

it should be their parent's paroblem ! give them the tools to do it properly without making other people's lives hell. instead of govs trying to strip encryption and what not

I'm definitely in favor of some rules for porn, and that basic rule is being of age. Administrators of pornographic servers should also sort harmful content and select videos. He also had some problems in the past https://www.pornhub.com/ and had to delete some videos, so you have to choose sites with a gentler obasaho for adults https://www.pornann.com/nl. However, I am strongly against the state banning tasteful pornography. Recently, there are only commands, prohibitions and dictating to people how they should live and what they should do. No way!!

I'm against these bills and proposals but all for blocking pornographic content altogether

ITT: Why conservatives think the left is full of pedos.