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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Porn website restrictions from 2018

69 replies

BayLeaves · 17/07/2017 12:29

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40628909

Thoughts? Personally I'm happy about it, I just hope it works. Maybe we'll look back on the easy access to online porn in the 2000s and think it was incredible how children were easily able to get this stuff, when they would never be able to purchase a porn magazine from a real life shop, or to buy alcohol or cigarettes!

OP posts:
Ev1lEdna · 17/07/2017 17:29

Excellent post Dervel (the one above) and erm, might have to look into that Netflix thing.

We are also able to control our children's access more than a lot of parents (OH is the tech savvy one though) and I agree when people ask how I do that and I explain as OH has explained to me they find it difficult to understand. This isn't the parents' fault. It is unrealistic to expect everyone to be that informed.

Liberty comes in 2 forms, the freedom to do something and the freedom from something and often those two forms come into conflict - online porn is a good example of this. While many parents will accept the element of responsibility there is a sizeable proportion of society who don't care or rather only care about their own freedom. We all know how fiercely some men will cling onto their 'right' to a sex industry and how they will be wilfully blinkered about the harmful aspects of that industry - society as a whole has to be responsible. But I fear as Dervel says many people want their freedom to do something without thinking about the implications for others, even our children.

Dervel · 17/07/2017 15:21

I think it's going to be an uphill struggle fostering a healthy attitude towards sex in our children when we are ourselves pretty dysfunctional as a society (note I'm not attacking any particular individual on this thread just making a general observation) in this regard.

I'm not also entirely convinced by just blaming the parents. We live in a society where billions of dollars is poured into marketing to children, and unless a parent has a degree in psychology it is not a simple thing to counter that, so too with internet safety. I am pretty technologically savvy I can build machines and I have no doubt when the time comes I'll be able to build an arsenal of tools and practises that will maximise my child's safety online, but it's not reasonable to expect every parent to be equipped with the skills and inclination to be able to do this.

We live in a society and we are all incrementally responsible for the environment our children grow up in. I am a big proponent for liberty, but a lesser acknowledged aspect of liberty is the responsibility that accompanies that concept. Nowadays liberty without responsibility is being advocated for.

The internet has fantastic potential, but as with many things we need to be collectively responsible elsewise it all goes to hell in a handbasket pretty damn quickly.

Hont1986 · 17/07/2017 14:57

Better sex education in schools would be the main thing. Widespread and in-depth. Teach them about sex properly so they don't have to 'learn' from porn. I spent four years learning German and I think one week learning about sex/love/relationships - guess which has played a more important part in my adult life.

Education/guidance for parents on how to protect their children online, backed up with criminal fines/sanctions for parents who let their children access pornographic material.. Exactly how this would be done I'm not sure; there are already resources available from NSPCC et al, but it could even take the form of a Health Visitor type role.

ISPs could be regulated and forced to offer 'family-friendly' options when you buy/renew your Internet so people can opt-in to filtering.

All of those would be better than the current proposal, which I doubt will amount to anything.

sticklebrix · 17/07/2017 14:33

If they want to protect children then there are better ways than this;

What do you think they should do, Hont? Genuine question.

Hont1986 · 17/07/2017 14:25

This is all very light on detail (understandably, given that the proposals haven't actually been submitted to Parliament yet).

I don't like it, on principle. I think that the government is overreaching here. It's not proportionate.

If they want to protect children then there are better ways than this; it seems more like they want to discourage viewing of pornography by putting up barriers to it.

That stance will be fine for a lot of people, especially their voters, but I don't like it personally.

Dervel · 17/07/2017 13:57

Just for anyone that is concerned for right now this sort thing is what I'd be looking at:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/68886/how-to-configure-your-router-for-network-wide-url-logging/amp/

This sort of guide will enable you to log what websites are logged into via your network router. Note this won't log online activity people using devices over mobile phone networks, unless the devises are
Connected to the router via wi-if.

ExplodedCloud · 17/07/2017 13:55

I can't see how it would block anything over and above the standard filters at ISP level.

Dervel · 17/07/2017 13:50

A good point of contact to organise this sort of thing is through your child's school. If schools + parents co-ordinated effectively it might be possible to disseminate the crucial information to keep children safe.

Dervel · 17/07/2017 13:47

I wouldn't know lass, but again torrents + a vpn/tor would make it VERY hard for a music or porn company to trace people. For example I've been known to use a vpn with my Netflix account to access the MUCH larger Netflix US library.

I'm not opposing the steps proposed, but don't be fooled into thinking it 100% shields your child from objectionable material. If my kid was of an age right now I'd be looking into general internet security with a view to setting up on my own what he can and cannot access.

An iPhone rather than android as Apple have always opposed pornographic content in their apps. There ARE ways to get a TOR browser on your iPhone so I'd still need to cast a weather eye on what apps he uses.

Maybe once I've worked out what I'd need to do and blog a layman's guide or something. Although I'd probably need to block the guide as internet security is always a bit of a cat and mouse game I'm afraid.

KnobOfStork · 17/07/2017 13:47

They just create increasingly more extreme porn until people stop paying for that. I don't know where it will end. The last big trend I noticed was for anal prolapsing Angry

WhatToDoAboutThis2017 · 17/07/2017 13:37

Would not sellers of porn not be the same?

It gets torrented to fuck now and they don't care, so I don't see why it would change.

revolution909 · 17/07/2017 13:35

There's also tons of amateur porn that do it for free...

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 17/07/2017 13:33

The music companies were (are?) quite fierce about taking down torrent sites of music that should be paid for. Would not sellers of porn not be the same?

Dervel · 17/07/2017 13:32

Having read the article the bigger problem than torrents will be VPNs (which basically channels traffic through somewhere else that to an extent anonymisies you and is capable of fooling websites you are accessing the site from another country) or the TOR network.

To be honest I'm dreading my little boy getting older he's not old enough yet, but I've got a lot of reading up to do to keep an eye on his online activities, and how best to go about it. That government proposal does not as a parent fill me with a lot of confidence.

Datun · 17/07/2017 13:31

Dervel

Will they be able to take that into account? I don't really understand how it works. Surely they must know that's how kids share porn? Is this just a nod to camping down?

Are you saying that you don't believe this will have any effect at all?

Sorry for all questions. I knew someone would know far more about this than me.

Dervel · 17/07/2017 13:26

A torrent is a peer to peer system of file sharing so you search for a movie say and you'll download portions of the file from thousands of people that have it. Torrents are obvs a way that porn is shared and pirated.

Datun · 17/07/2017 13:19

revolution909

What does torrent mean?

revolution909 · 17/07/2017 12:59

They'll just torrent it...so maybe it will stop some but the vast majority of it will be there to be downloaded without any checks

Datun · 17/07/2017 12:56

Sounds like an excellent idea to me. I can't see a downside.

A lot of kids will think twice about nicking a parent's credit card in order to gain access.

Hopefully the 'normalisation' of porn for kids will be a thing of the past.