I have seen a couple of articles recently with a very similar theme: Porn is bad because well... it's bad, mm'kay. And also kids might see it
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The number of times I have seen porn when either not specifically looking for it , or not in a place where it could be reasonably expected that people might post porn for supposed shock value, is vanishingly small.
Google's safe search is on by default and is extremely effective. I don't accept children are frequently exposed to porn by accident without proof.
I don't think the objection in these articles is that porn is being viewed accidentally, per se (although given that one of those articles seems to frame fashion pictures as 'porn' that might be debatable), more that it is very *easy* for children to get hold of - and that I certainly can't argue with. In my own childhood years one had to rummage under parents beds, hunt through the more permissive sorts of second hand book shops and con newsagents into parting with 'naughty' material. All a kid has to do these days is figure out how to turn safe search off.
It is the following argument '...and therefore it should be banned entirely' that I think is ridiculous. Hence the comparison with other things that aren't child-appropriate.
Not the state's problem. The child is deliberately and wilfully looking for porn so at that point it becomes parental responsibility, possibly helped by third party software or Internet service providers.
This is very much the thin end of the wedge, as there are many things out there arguably inappropriate not just to children. Where is the line drawn?
If parents, for once, got told to Shut Up And Deal With It the world would be a better place. Course, that won't happen, as there is a wider agenda than supposedly protecting children.
We may be largely agreeing, to be honest, but there are two main points : porn *is* restricted in the same way as knives. Children can neither buy a new knife or porn.
The amount of effort to open a drawer and find a knife is little different from typing 'porny preference of my choice' into google - both require deliberate action.
The copyright angle is clearly specious and driven by the porn producers, because prosecution for obtaining copyrighted porn without paying for it is very difficult. It's specious because much of the free porn is produced by the porn providers themselves - the fact that it's thirty seconds long instead of five minutes, and possibly lower quality does not stop it being porn.
No argument on the torrents and file sharing sites, although that's *way* outside the arena of protecting children given the number of highly deliberate steps required to obtain it
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When I first started looking for and finding porn (well, not VERY first, that was a torn up playboy in a thorn thicket) it was before napster and torrents. There was a lot of free porn available that wasn't being pirated. And there still is, via story sites and picture and video sites that give out samples, but samples in the form of dozens of pictures and videos from each shoot.
As for how to restrict access...how about all devices coming with some form of safe search already switched on, and then it is up to an adult to switch it off? There are a host of problems that come with it and even in the implimenting it, but it is a way to use software that is already available, and most new computers/phones I buy is already full of bloatware that I have to opt out of, so why not something like that but aimed more squarely at porn?
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Google's safe search is on by default and is extremely effective. I don't accept children are frequently exposed to porn by accident without proof.
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It is the following argument '...and therefore it should be banned entirely' that I think is ridiculous. Hence the comparison with other things that aren't child-appropriate.
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This is very much the thin end of the wedge, as there are many things out there arguably inappropriate not just to children. Where is the line drawn?
If parents, for once, got told to Shut Up And Deal With It the world would be a better place. Course, that won't happen, as there is a wider agenda than supposedly protecting children.
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The amount of effort to open a drawer and find a knife is little different from typing 'porny preference of my choice' into google - both require deliberate action.
The copyright angle is clearly specious and driven by the porn producers, because prosecution for obtaining copyrighted porn without paying for it is very difficult. It's specious because much of the free porn is produced by the porn providers themselves - the fact that it's thirty seconds long instead of five minutes, and possibly lower quality does not stop it being porn.
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As for how to restrict access...how about all devices coming with some form of safe search already switched on, and then it is up to an adult to switch it off? There are a host of problems that come with it and even in the implimenting it, but it is a way to use software that is already available, and most new computers/phones I buy is already full of bloatware that I have to opt out of, so why not something like that but aimed more squarely at porn?
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