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British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

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Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#51
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a very weird development for a millennial like me. I think this is a GenZ/Gen Alpha thing born out of steep surveillance enforced by the policies of streaming services chatrooms and TikTok. It really seems like the younger generation has really kowtoked to advertisers and self censor words I would consider benign. It honestly disgusts me.

Late GenZ and GenA censorship is to substitute the word entirely -- porn is "corn", dead is "unalive", ass becomes "ahh", sex worker is "accountant". Asterisking is old-fashioned.

Punctuation, numbers-for-letters (L337) and strategic misspellings are also your friend.

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#52

I'm still confused about the purpose behind these laws. Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Because there's now two whole generations of kids who have grown up watching porn (my generation, and the one after). So far younger people don't seem any more fucked up than people were before, only the older people seem to be getting worse.

I started watching in my early teens. It did, in fact, mess me up. I overconsumed, would explore increasingly more intense material for the dopamine hits, and couldn't stop. It fucked years of my life.

That said, these laws are bad and counterproductive. They create more (worse) problems than they solve. What I went through could have been averted if I understood the health impacts and risks. Back then, no one knew, and no one talked about it. I also don't know how representative my particular case was. I endured many years of chronic insomnia, anxiety, self-loathing and depression.

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#53
post #3

This is a pretty wild story but also an illustration of just how dystopian the world has gotten. The UK has gone completely bonkers with this "real id to use the internet" law. In the US Google is using a crazy AI algorithm to prohibit people under 18 from viewing some content on YouTube. Obviously, the stated purpose of the policy is good IMO. However, I can't help but take a cynical view that Google is using this a…

The dystopia even extends to HN. This was near the top of the front page just half an hour ago, but now it's buried several pages away. Not for discussion, apparently.

I realize it was likely flagged, but burying anything controversial means that only vanilla topics will ever be discussed in any depth.

Yet the engineers who frequent HN and work at big tech companies are the ones who need to know about cases like this the most.

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#54

I'm still confused about the purpose behind these laws. Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Because there's now two whole generations of kids who have grown up watching porn (my generation, and the one after). So far younger people don't seem any more fucked up than people were before, only the older people seem to be getting worse.

>Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up?

Is there anyone stupid enough to think that it won't?

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#55
post #53
post #3

This is a pretty wild story but also an illustration of just how dystopian the world has gotten. The UK has gone completely bonkers with this "real id to use the internet" law. In the US Google is using a crazy AI algorithm to prohibit people under 18 from viewing some content on YouTube. Obviously, the stated purpose of the policy is good IMO. However, I can't help but take a cynical view that Google is using this a…

The dystopia even extends to HN. This was near the top of the front page just half an hour ago, but now it's buried several pages away. Not for discussion, apparently. I realize it was likely flagged, but burying anything controversial means that only vanilla topics will ever be discussed in any depth. Yet the engineers who frequent HN and work at big tech companies are the ones who need to know about cases like this…

> burying anything controversial means that only vanilla topics will ever be discussed in any depth.

You place too much weight on reading the "front page" .. that's community and mod curated toward the core ethos of the site.

HN has a wealth of ongoing in depth discussion of all manner of things that often don't make "front page", you can see these if you (say) browse or follow new comments or active threads

* https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments

* https://news.ycombinator.com/active

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#56

I'm still confused about the purpose behind these laws. Are there still adults stupid enough to think that watching porn will mess a kid up? Because there's now two whole generations of kids who have grown up watching porn (my generation, and the one after). So far younger people don't seem any more fucked up than people were before, only the older people seem to be getting worse.

The fact that you believe there simply is no argument on the other side regarding porn (not censorship) - implied by the assertion that one must be "stupid" to believe that watching porn can be detrimental for children - is exhausting.

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really see this as a reasonable thing to ask this person to do, just to prove their age to a robot?

It is beyond reasonable to put on so much tattoo on the face. (How did he go through all that pain)

If tā moko strikes you as painful you're not ready for women's moko kauae tattoos on the lips.

https://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/ta-moko-maori-tattoo/

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#58
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a very weird development for a millennial like me. I think this is a GenZ/Gen Alpha thing born out of steep surveillance enforced by the policies of streaming services chatrooms and TikTok. It really seems like the younger generation has really kowtoked to advertisers and self censor words I would consider benign. It honestly disgusts me.

Late GenZ and GenA censorship is to substitute the word entirely -- porn is "corn", dead is "unalive", ass becomes "ahh", sex worker is "accountant". Asterisking is old-fashioned.

> sex worker is "accountant"

The others are understandable enough, but what's up with this one?

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So far younger people don't seem any more fucked up than people were before, only the older people seem to be getting worse. If you look at levels of depression, sexual disfunction the steep drop in relationships and dating among younger people and other metrics you could argue the exact opposite, although obviously there are other factors (social media, ect) in how "messed up" generations are besides the widespread…

> there are other factors (social media, ect) "Other factors" is doing a heavy lifting here. I don't have a skin in this game, but politicians are scared to touch the elephant in the room (smartphones + social media), because they know they'll get a flack instantly. I don't think porn consumption among teenage girls are high, yet their depression rates are high as well.

If you go one level up in "abstraction" for what these platforms include, then e.g. Instagram immediately springs to mind. But since they've long since washed their hands, having banned nipples.

Re: British man claims he's unable to watch porn as tattoos confuse age check system

#60
The havoc this idiotic law will bring is about to snowball.

The UK has always been obsessed with controlling what they deem "indecent behavior". The rich have always been able to ignore this and the poor have always been forced to pick up the tab.

You think members of the government are entering their ID before going to pornhub? Not a chance. They are all circumventing this system themselves while endorsing it in public.

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