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by roenxi 1777 days ago
It is usually lazy to point at evolution in social situations, but I think "look after the babies" is probably an instinct that has been baked in to humans at a very deep level. It explains why the response is often positive but surprisingly strong and unreasonable (it is almost humourous the list of atrocities that are easier to defend than CSAM, and grim how the instinctual protections offered to children fade away when people become adults).

Children aren't very tough. If they don't have nearby humans intervening to protect them they tend to die or do badly. Evolution favours people who have strong instincts to protect and promote children. It is plausible.
2 comments
TeMPOraL 1777 days ago
Whether or not the instinct manifests to some degree in everyone, it truly goes into overdrive once you become a parent. It's hard to describe in all its scope. Even a concept of a child being hurt by someone starts to become extremely disturbing.

For example, I've noticed that ever since I became a father, I can't enjoy some of the movies and shows I've liked previously, because the scenes where children are threatened or implied to be hurt become emotionally overwhelming to watch. To use a light example, take Star Trek TNG: Power Play (5x15). It was one of the episodes I always found boring, but when I got to it during the last semi-regular TNG rewatch, I had to pause it and collect myself. Almost switched it off. All because of one scene, where a mother and a child end up in the middle of a hostage situation.

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ogurechny 1777 days ago
One can invent a biological explanation for anything, that's the problem. The “instincts” in that reasoning is a stereotype anyway.

Another problem is that “childhood” is pretty recent invention (there's enough popular and scholar literature on that). What you mean as a “child” is not what someone meant mere couple of hundreds years ago. And kids actually died all the time through the whole human history, whether “protected” or not.

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roenxi 1777 days ago
> And kids actually died all the time through the whole human history, whether “protected” or not.

I think that would almost be a point in favour of the idea. The response to CSAM is, frankly, irrationally strong in the modern era. As with many human emotions it looks to me like something calibrated for a different time and altered circumstances.

It is a lazy theory though.

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