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Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

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Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#281
post #21

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. She was in this gigantic web of pro-ana tumblrs with crazy diet plans that tell you to eat like 100 calories a day. Then the app would just keep suggesting more, "skin and bones", "thinspo", "meanspo". Holy crap there are some scary corners of Tumblr. I of course am more mindful of what she looks at, but she was hiding it and I can't monitor e…

Anorexia (and pro-ana websites with words like "thinspo") were around before Tumblr even existed, so it's nothing new. I suppose recommendation algorithms and the existence of this stuff on popular platforms like Tumblr and Instagram could make it more viral and spread more, but I wonder if that's true (e.g. if Anorexia has increased in the past 10 years).

Yep. Pro-ana groups were a serious problem back when Livejournal was still relevant (i.e, early/mid 2000s) -- and that was with very limited discoverability features. Modern recommendation algorithms just make the problem worse.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#282
post #196

The real culprit needs to be called out here. Fuck apple and their puritanical crusade against porn. Anyone who appreciates NSFW content needs to boycott them.

Apple pulled the app after they had found child pornography on the platform, not because it has porn. Otherwise how would the suite of reddit apps (another social site with plenty of porn) exist within the Apple ecosystem? Clearly Tumblr took the nuclear option and just banned everything instead, again not Apple.

Please read up on the situation more before continuing.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#283
post #72

Surprisingly, the thing I'd been using it most for, was that it's the only major social media website I know that still shows posts in chronological order.

Ironically, that has changed in the last few hours. A number of sites seem to be getting sorted randomly. Never seen it happen before.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#284
post #41

Honestly, I'm surprised it took this long. I'm assumed Yahoo would have banned/purged adult content immediately after buying Tumblr.

I have this vague memory that they did, and then had to backtrack, but I could be thinking of another service.

I have a feeling that it's possible we're going to see this ban play out the same way, I'm not sure.

As many people have pointed out here and elsewhere -the platform is largely used for porn, and once those users are driven out you'll just be left with tumblweeds.

I feel like there's a 50 percent chance that is going to occur to someone up the food chain in the next couple of weeks, and this policy will be quietly walked back.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#285
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like a perfect moment to announce a replacement service, complete with a one-click content transfer tool. Something $3/mo, $30/y — and we'll save all your precious work without hassle! Could work for a significant portion of the audience.

Don't you happen to know any alternatives BTW?

I'm seeing

http://www.kinky-blogging.com/

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#286
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew pro-anorexia groups use slang like "your friend Ana" to hide their actions, but had to google "thinspo" and "meanspo". Thinspo (thin inspiration) is positive anorexia reinforcement, like anorexic role model pictures. Meanspo (mean inspiration) is negative anorexia reinforcement, like aphorisms demonizing fat or destructive critic. Why are young girls so vulnerable to mental disease trends? What can we do bette…

It's not a gender thing. Young people in general are vulnerable to all kinds of negative groupthink because they don't have a fully formed identity, experience, or adult critical thinking skills. The nature of the toxic material seems to differ a bit by gender. Loads of teen boys are sucked into toxic online cults too including neo-Naziism, extreme misogyny, other kinds of toxic political radicalism, gaming addiction…

There is evidence that it's gendered. One example is that hospital admissions for self-harm are higher for girls than boys. It's also going up for girls and not going up for boys. See figures 1 and 2 of: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/26640...

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#288
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a gender thing. Young people in general are vulnerable to all kinds of negative groupthink because they don't have a fully formed identity, experience, or adult critical thinking skills. The nature of the toxic material seems to differ a bit by gender. Loads of teen boys are sucked into toxic online cults too including neo-Naziism, extreme misogyny, other kinds of toxic political radicalism, gaming addiction…

I think you hit the nail in the head. Kids (and many grownups) are very vulnerable to groupthink, The only solution I see is encouraging common sense through critical thinking.

Considering most of these groups rally around conspiracy theories, which by definition start from a position of questioning commonly accepted facts (i. e. "critical thinking"), maybe we have actually gone too far with the critical thinking?

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#290
post #47
post #21

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. She was in this gigantic web of pro-ana tumblrs with crazy diet plans that tell you to eat like 100 calories a day. Then the app would just keep suggesting more, "skin and bones", "thinspo", "meanspo". Holy crap there are some scary corners of Tumblr. I of course am more mindful of what she looks at, but she was hiding it and I can't monitor e…

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. I'm really sorry to hear this, having gone through a similar thing with a now ex-significant other. She too became very active in the segments of tumblr you identified and others (showed me many of them, some seemed like teenage angst in blog form, others were far more...worrisome), developed an eating disorder along with severe anxiety issues…

These online groups have the same advantage that many other cults have over their victims: they can re-try until they find enough buttons to press that work to bring out the vulnerable people. It's like negotiating against a much more experienced adversary: you're going to lose.

The only way to deal with that stuff is not to get exposed to it in the first place. Something similar happens with advertising, there too the best recipe is not to be exposed, not to think that you are strong enough to withstand it.

One way in which these groups succeed is by alienating their victims from anybody that would empower them with common sense. Parents, siblings, spouses are all pushed away with tricks honed over many encounters.

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