Does Porn Hurt Children?
nytimes.com
Does Porn Hurt Children?
1–10 of 69 posts
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#2"It turns out that the research suggesting that teenagers and pornography are a hazardous mix is far from definitive."
[Devil's advocate] If you had children, would you need peer-reviewed literature to inform your decision to allow them access to pornhub? And similarly, if you were a politician elected by people with children?
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#3Only if it falls on them. Stack your DVDs and magazines carefully, folks.
More substantively: When divided into "pro-impact" and "no-impact" groups for the "improvised debate" mentioned in the article, the former camp is described as having essentially parroted all the various arguments their elders make for pornography being bad for teenagers, while the latter camp had no such arguments for the position they were assigned to defend. Segal is (somewhat) careful to avoid explicitly drawing any inferences from that, but the obvious implication is that the "pro-impact" camp is correct ("Given that pornography is emotionally charged, it would be shocking if it had no impact.") Leaving aside the question of what a small cohort of randomly selected 16-to-18-year-olds, an age not generally noted for its keen introspective abilities, can be expected to know about much of anything, I'd be curious to find out whether the cohort which produced this result had had anything like equal exposure to both sides of the debate, or whether instead the "pro-impact" kids drubbed the "no-impact" ones because only the former had been fed lines beforehand.
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#4Minor nit wrt. the first paragraph: the UK's mandatory "family-friendly filters" only apply to consumer internet accounts. It's possible to get a BT Infinity business account without any company letterhead or ID -- it just costs a bit more (and a provides a better quality of service, with no net nanny in the way because your IT department is supposed to do that for you). And there are ISPs (Andrews and Arnold -- http://www.aa.net.uk/ -- spring to mind) whose approach to government-mandated family-friendly filtering is robust and principled:
http://www.aa.net.uk/kb-broadband-realinternet.html
(I'll probably be moving there when my BT contract is up).
(Also, Tunnelbear is my friend.)
However: regardless of whether porn harms children (disclosure: everything I've read, from the Meese Commission report onwards, says that it doesn't), the problem with the net.nanny filters is that they're indiscriminate and over-block important material that is not the ostensible target of the block. Want to find out about breast cancer? Good luck with that -- breasts are of course only ever of interest in an erotic context. Teenagers wanting to explore non-mainstream aspects of their sexuality are SOL; LGBT content is commonly blocked. And so on. This shouldn't be a problem for sensible parents -- who will opt out, and discuss the issues face-to-face with their kids -- but is storing up lots of trouble down the line. Not to mention providing a temptation for politicians who might want to follow that nice Mr Erdogan's example and censor viewpoints hostile to them.
And meanwhile, Page Three of the Sun remains on display in every newsagent and supermarket in the UK.
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#5"It turns out that the research suggesting that teenagers and pornography are a hazardous mix is far from definitive." [Devil's advocate] If you had children, would you need peer-reviewed literature to inform your decision to allow them access to pornhub? And similarly, if you were a politician elected by people with children?
I would certainly want peer-reviewed literature to make either decision. Granted, that's not always available, so sometimes you have to make default decisions without good evidence.
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#6"It turns out that the research suggesting that teenagers and pornography are a hazardous mix is far from definitive." [Devil's advocate] If you had children, would you need peer-reviewed literature to inform your decision to allow them access to pornhub? And similarly, if you were a politician elected by people with children?
Okay, but that's an "obvious" case. At what age does it become appropriate for a child to go on, "Go Ask Alice!"[0]? 5? 8? 13? 21? 25?
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#7Citing Betteridge's law of headlines, I'm going to say no.
Scientists are having a hard time proving that porn even has an impact, let alone that the impact is negative. What are they even looking for? That children will somehow start practicing BDSM after stumbling on porn? That their "precious minds" are tainted by the Real World?
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#8Citing Betteridge's law of headlines, I'm going to say no. Scientists are having a hard time proving that porn even has an impact, let alone that the impact is negative. What are they even looking for? That children will somehow start practicing BDSM after stumbling on porn? That their "precious minds" are tainted by the Real World?
I know you don't mean it, but the air of judgement in the way you've used BDSM there, shouldn't be.
People who do practice BDSM are not somehow damaged, and would be the first to state that the "dominant" person is in fact not in that relationship.
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#9"It turns out that the research suggesting that teenagers and pornography are a hazardous mix is far from definitive." [Devil's advocate] If you had children, would you need peer-reviewed literature to inform your decision to allow them access to pornhub? And similarly, if you were a politician elected by people with children?
No. My (currently hypothetical) children will grow up with as few barriers to consuming unsavoury weirdness as I did. I'll be doing it deliberately though.
Re: Does Porn Hurt Children?
#10Citing Betteridge's law of headlines, I'm going to say no. Scientists are having a hard time proving that porn even has an impact, let alone that the impact is negative. What are they even looking for? That children will somehow start practicing BDSM after stumbling on porn? That their "precious minds" are tainted by the Real World?
What's wrong with BDSM? You say it like "practicing BDSM" is a bad thing.