[embro]

Problem isn't with kids but more with teens. Instead of trying to ban it, just talk about it.

Banning it would only make it slightly harder to find and would make parents believe their child/teen is "safe" and will never see porn... WRONG. Kids have plenty of time to find what they want.

Sex education is the only solution.

[sremani]

I absolutely hate this myth. Porn IS NOT Sex Ed. Actually, Porn misrepresents Sex by a magnitude of 10. The fake breast implants, fake butt and make up and editing etc. etc. Its just make believe. There is mounting evidence of Porn being harmful to the mind and causing ED, anxiety etc. There is a reason reditt is filled with NoFap stuff. People, I am all for sex ed for 16 year old. But with near ubiquity of internet and kids playing with tablets and phones my worry is not about the 16 year old, its about the 4 year old.

[AlyssaRowan]

I question your, um, "mounting evidence"; but in any case, we do agree on one big point: pornography is entertainment for adults, with heavy artistic licence.

People shouldn't try to learn about martial arts from kung fu movies, and shouldn't try to learn about sex from porn.

Of course, this filter will also try to block you if you're trying to learn about hacking, or seeking anonymous advice about self-harming. Don't fall into the trap of thinking this is just a porn thing.

[sremani]

Here are couple of studies for you.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21117979#

http://yourbrainonporn.com/

Its unfortunate so many people here are mixed up about first amendment, liberty and ease of watching Porn. I will not hold that against you, few years ago, I was you.

[ANTSANTS]

What are your thoughts on the war on drugs?

[ANTSANTS]

Porn and sexual norms have been inextricably linked for decades now. One need only consider the once shocking, now common practice of pubic hair removal to understand this. That cat is out of the bag, so to speak.

And not all porn is like the porn you're describing. Erotic literature and comics are quite popular with the younger generations, which manage to depict outlandish fantasies and fairly normal sex within caring relationships with surprisingly similar frequency. Not to mention, if you consider things like crossdressing and transexual porn, one person's kink can be another's lifeline. To censor all porn, apart from being reprehensible on the grounds of freedom of speech, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As for 4 year olds, I actually don't think they need to be worried about. I grew up with the internet, so naturally I stumbled across porn a few times before I hit puberty. I remember being quite surprised at first, but I got over it pretty quickly. I said "gross," clicked back, went back to surfing the web and playing video games, and never really thought about it or sought it out again until the hormones kicked in. Of course that's an anecdote, but I think finding porn as a kid is about as inconsequential as walking in on your parents having sex.

What people should be fucking terrified about is the popularity of camera and GPS-equipped smartphones that your naive kid can use to post geotagged selfies up for the entire world to see, making it trivial for predators to stalk them. But few parents are aware of the danger of this, and a firewall wouldn't help it anyway.

[ANTSANTS]

Oi, downvoters, can you convey your objections in the form of text? Not because I give the slightest shit about internet points, but because I want to understand what you're thinking.

[Dylan16807]

Embro didn't say that porn was sex ed. Sex ed would counter those negative effects in a way that banning doesn't. There are also terrible relationship examples on mass media that need to be talked about and have many of the same problems.

I'd also like to see some properly collated evidence.

[embro]

Porn is not sex education. But right now, everyone have access to porn but not sex education, well, very few does.

[unprepare]

But parental controls are a feature that the market can easily solve without the need for government enforced internet censorship.

government IS NOT your childs caretaker

[sremani]

Right, what is government is doing when a sexual predator has to register and not live near a school? Isn't it taking care of the children of the community. Public Policy is more complicated than bumper sticker slogans.

[unprepare]

Wow what an insane example.

First, there a major difference between restrictions placed on convicted criminals, and restrictions placed on every citizen of an entire country.

Second, one represents a danger to the physical safety of others, and the other represents something that you would prefer your child not to see - do you not see a stark difference between a child being kidnapped and raped, and a child accidentally clicking onto a pornographic website?

Its not that complicated - we punish those who have committed crimes, we do not do so preemptively to entire populations.