My only qualm is that it's nearly impossible to keep your kid from watching porn in 2023. You have to deny them a smartphone or tablet (which I do) but even then they're going to see it at friends' houses because of lazy garbage parents of other kids. Feels like the only way to keep their minds safe from that filth is to go live on a homestead or something.
All that said, you're right about the government not making it any better. I do understand why parents want something done though.
A sane anti-porn law would be that sources have to identify any porn, with a tag or a http header or something like that, or face a big fine.
Then adults don't need to be tracked with an ID and porn-blockers for children would work almost perfectly. Other countries could still have untagged porn, but 99% would go along with it since it's not intrusive and they don't want to be excluded from any US-aligned banking or payments system.
Like how many cookie warnings have you seen in the US just because they implemented it for EU and saving US users a minor annoyance is not worth the risk of a mistake? A US tagging law would totally work globally.
"Sources", or face "a big fine"... Not gonna work.
There's an entire genre on Youtube of women in lingerie playing musical instruments. It's very arguably softcore pornography. But is it "porn" porn? Does Youtube need to regulate its thots? How about Twitch? Instagram? X? Conversely, an educational video about sexual health... Is that porn? What about if that "sexual health" is under more scarequotes and italicized?
And what's the fine? How is it administrated? Will The Pirate Bay need to pay fines for hosting torrents of the stuff? How will it wind up being billed?
Of course it'll work. All those lingerie videos are going to default to adult only unless YouTube specifically vouches for them.
So it'll also be a much-needed weakening of 230 by making companies actually be in some way responsible for content. YouTube is not going to use AI to mark videos not-porn when they're actually responsible for mistakes, so kids will only get access to content an actual person looked at and said "yep, no way we're getting fined $100k per view for this".
A fine could be administered like do-not-call or broadcast TV swearing. That's easy. Collecting the fine from the 3rd world is hard, but also 3rd-worlders having to launder money and be at risk anytime they step into the West for vacation just to get what little money kids have is not really worth it.
I agree with the principal of the idea but would not characterize the reason someone wouldn't comply as being because they are part of some weird pedo/grooming business.
A sane anti-porn law would be that sources have to identify any porn, with a tag or a http header or something like that, or face a big fine.
There are systems for this. If and whether they are followed, I have no idea. I imagine porn sites would follow the law if it's not too inconvenient for them. But the other random sites that kids are going to be reduced to finding porn on are going to be harder to censor.
Um, anyways, that effectively makes the government the determiner of what is and is not porn, the evasion of which is kind of the point here. It's much better to have a web of voluntary systems. It will work better, and we're not going to disable the whole internet to keep kids off porn. Solutions have to be reasonable.
Kids are resourceful and can dedicate a lot of time to defying their parents if they want to.
That said:
even then they're going to see it at friends' houses because of lazy garbage parents of other kids.
Part of knowing who a kid's friends are is knowing who their friends parents are, and getting to know them, too. It's part of being in a community. I certainly got the "I don't want you hanging out with X" growing up, and I remember scoffing over it at the time (and doing what I can to circumvent it), but as I got older I only then was able to appreciate this and, looking back, yeah, X got me into a lot of evil stuff that started out as "only" schoolboy hijinks.
Feels like the only way to keep their minds safe from that filth is to go live on a homestead or something.
This makes as much sense as living in the middle of a desert to make sure your kid never drowns. Some day, your kid is going to turn into an adult. If the only way your kid knows how to deal with things is "just avoid them", your kid is going to have a pretty rough life.
I pretty much agree with your take. I'm not sure it's QUITE as different as you might make it out. I mean, yes, it's easier than at any time in history to access porn and highly perverted porn is certainly easier to access than at any time in history.
In highschool one of my friends managed to get a Playboy subscription. Another, through his older brother, got a couple of VHS tapes that got widely shared around, etc.
It's going to happen. I have a kid going into highschool. I don't want to think about this crap, but realistically, it's going to happen.
I think you have pretty much the right take.
My only qualm is that it's nearly impossible to keep your kid from watching porn in 2023. You have to deny them a smartphone or tablet (which I do) but even then they're going to see it at friends' houses because of lazy garbage parents of other kids. Feels like the only way to keep their minds safe from that filth is to go live on a homestead or something.
All that said, you're right about the government not making it any better. I do understand why parents want something done though.
A sane anti-porn law would be that sources have to identify any porn, with a tag or a http header or something like that, or face a big fine.
Then adults don't need to be tracked with an ID and porn-blockers for children would work almost perfectly. Other countries could still have untagged porn, but 99% would go along with it since it's not intrusive and they don't want to be excluded from any US-aligned banking or payments system.
Like how many cookie warnings have you seen in the US just because they implemented it for EU and saving US users a minor annoyance is not worth the risk of a mistake? A US tagging law would totally work globally.
"Sources", or face "a big fine"... Not gonna work.
There's an entire genre on Youtube of women in lingerie playing musical instruments. It's very arguably softcore pornography. But is it "porn" porn? Does Youtube need to regulate its thots? How about Twitch? Instagram? X? Conversely, an educational video about sexual health... Is that porn? What about if that "sexual health" is under more scarequotes and italicized?
And what's the fine? How is it administrated? Will The Pirate Bay need to pay fines for hosting torrents of the stuff? How will it wind up being billed?
Of course it'll work. All those lingerie videos are going to default to adult only unless YouTube specifically vouches for them.
So it'll also be a much-needed weakening of 230 by making companies actually be in some way responsible for content. YouTube is not going to use AI to mark videos not-porn when they're actually responsible for mistakes, so kids will only get access to content an actual person looked at and said "yep, no way we're getting fined $100k per view for this".
A fine could be administered like do-not-call or broadcast TV swearing. That's easy. Collecting the fine from the 3rd world is hard, but also 3rd-worlders having to launder money and be at risk anytime they step into the West for vacation just to get what little money kids have is not really worth it.
I agree with the principal of the idea but would not characterize the reason someone wouldn't comply as being because they are part of some weird pedo/grooming business.
You would have various levels of content tags. I'm sure YT is already doing it behind the scenes.
There are systems for this. If and whether they are followed, I have no idea. I imagine porn sites would follow the law if it's not too inconvenient for them. But the other random sites that kids are going to be reduced to finding porn on are going to be harder to censor.
Um, anyways, that effectively makes the government the determiner of what is and is not porn, the evasion of which is kind of the point here. It's much better to have a web of voluntary systems. It will work better, and we're not going to disable the whole internet to keep kids off porn. Solutions have to be reasonable.
Kids are resourceful and can dedicate a lot of time to defying their parents if they want to.
That said:
Part of knowing who a kid's friends are is knowing who their friends parents are, and getting to know them, too. It's part of being in a community. I certainly got the "I don't want you hanging out with X" growing up, and I remember scoffing over it at the time (and doing what I can to circumvent it), but as I got older I only then was able to appreciate this and, looking back, yeah, X got me into a lot of evil stuff that started out as "only" schoolboy hijinks.
This makes as much sense as living in the middle of a desert to make sure your kid never drowns. Some day, your kid is going to turn into an adult. If the only way your kid knows how to deal with things is "just avoid them", your kid is going to have a pretty rough life.
I pretty much agree with your take. I'm not sure it's QUITE as different as you might make it out. I mean, yes, it's easier than at any time in history to access porn and highly perverted porn is certainly easier to access than at any time in history.
In highschool one of my friends managed to get a Playboy subscription. Another, through his older brother, got a couple of VHS tapes that got widely shared around, etc.
It's going to happen. I have a kid going into highschool. I don't want to think about this crap, but realistically, it's going to happen.
Playboy is kindergarten porn compared to what you can find with google