Porn age checks - Surely a good thing?

[Vimtolady]

Just read a ‘debate’ on the BBC News website about the pros and cons of age verification of porn websites. Weirdly I was verified for the first time myself last night (I am a porn user but not all the time) so was interested to read it.

j get that it was a debate but I honestly don’t see how anyone could object. Last night I wasn’t expecting to be verified but the process was simple, took about a minute and I don’t think I’d have easily been able to circumvent it. Obviously there are security concerns but no more so than with any other website.

I think these checks are great! My eldest DC is 13 so probably getting to (or at) the age when porn might become interesting to her, and this would make it much more difficult to access which would doubtless be a good thing, no?

Does anyone disagree?! I’d be interested to hear arguments against because I can’t really think of any and that makes me suspicious I’m being narrow minded.

Most women are not occasional porn users and even if they were it doesn’t mean you have to do it. Watching other women being exploited should not be a turn on which you are reinforcing by sex or masturbation.

Try ignoring the urges and doing something harmless or better still useful, instead. Then you'll be in a position to teach your children not to use it.

I think it's likely to bring complacency to a lot of parents who won't realise how easily circumvented it is.

Tech savvy kids will use VPN's and non tech savvy kids will be shown how to use VPN's by their mates.

The tech is also not fool proof at all. DH was asked by one site (not a porn site - a forum that has a coupe of support sections) to do the photo age thing. DS asked if he could do it as he'd heard, from his mates, that loads of them weren't accurate. He's a young looking 14 (he's not one of the 6ft plus strapping teens that look mid twenties that lots of MN'ers have) and it passed him in seconds...

Yeah I guess it's a good thing in the sense that I quite like watching porn sometimes, but it makes me feel a bit grubby. And I'm way too paranoid about sites getting hacked to input my details, so I just won't watch it.

No, it's definitely not big process. Anybody can download a free vpn in less than a minute to bypass. Quicker than entering your card details, no?

I will never be forced to enter personal details to access any part of the Internet. This is the tip of the iceberg, no?

Aren’t you forced to enter personal details every time you buy anything online?

Lol, OK. Scuttle back to your sad little hole. Most women are actually porn users, and it's perfectly natural for women to masturbate too. I feel sorry for you.

A purchase isn't the same as browsing information, and you know that.

Agree 👆

Yes how dare a woman masturbate rather than "do something useful"

🤣

It's also farming out parenting

So now parents can go "Oh good Little Timmy and Tina won't be viewing porn because the new law stops them. I don't need to monitor them any more"

Whilst Little Timmy and Tina are using a VPN and accessing even more hard core content

And I say Timmy AND Tina because girls can and do view this stuff too

How will you stop me downloading a VPN install file that I've torrented or similar?

It's really not hard to deal these things

China try to block / censor the internet... doesn't work.

Easier said than done, sadly. But I don’t think my porn use impacts my kids (unless it’s a genetic predisposition! I know my mum did…).

I don’t think it’s my job as a parent to teach my kids not to use it. It’s my job to teach them that it’s usually not a genuine depiction of sex, that it’s an exploitative industry, and that it can be damaging in lots of ways. But it can also be good in some ways. Once armed with these facts it’s up to them whether they use it or not.

It wouldn't but the ISP will know you re using a VPN, without AV, same with torrent sites... not what you re visiting or downloading.

I accept that a determined user, like yourself, will do all they can to view porn but blocking at the ISP, is a far better way than simple AV, got round using free VPNs that take a couple of clicks to download.

I disagree age verification is only putting in place something that should have been there all along. Parents should still be actively monitoring their kid activity online and devices as well as talking to them about and taking action to block content and access to apps like VPN's.

Its a truly ridiculous statement to suggest that age verification is pointless because some kids will find away around it. You know some kids are still able to access alcohol and nicotine products so do you also advocate that we just remove all restrictions for those as well?

You sound like he man in the BBC debate article, more concerned that adult porn users will be inconvenienced than the harms done to children by unfettered access.

I think it's a great way to gather blackmail material and another overreach.

If teens want to access porn they will one way or another!

The problem is that it is not the same because when you get age verified for alcohol at a pub they don't store your data.

Laws always have consequences.

Here the question is, does the benefit gained (stopping kids accessing porn) outweigh the consequence (that someone might have their data stolen).

In a situation where the benefit gained is high, people might be willing to pay the consequence.

But here the benefit gained is low, because the access checks can easily be circumvented and the checks will be ineffectual.

So people have to take the consequence for undertaking what is (for better or worse) a perfectly legal activity, and get little or no benefit for doing so as a result of crap policy.

I was an occasional porn user until I worked in a role with vulnerable women, some of whom had been in the porn industry. Their stories were heartbreaking. I have never accessed porn again, and never will. It’s about being aware.

I’ve just seen someone on Reddit say they used a stock example of a drivers license and it was accepted as a form of ID verification, so that appears to be another way round it! It hasn’t been thought through very well at all.

I get quite disgusting porn pop ups when accessing some foreign news websites and sport websites. Mostly horrible simulated hentai shite.

This law doesn't stop that.

It's not even porn I'm concerned about but well done on showing how the issue is being simplified beyond what is the actual problem

Anyone who doesn’t use porn lives in a “sad little hole”? That’s projection.

I don’t see where I said it’s wrong to masturbate? I pointed out that masturbating to something you wish you weren’t viewing, reinforces the urge to keep viewing it.

Do you have proof of your assertion that most women use porn?

I disagree with it on principle. Adults should be able to access adult content while still having their privacy.

Protecting children from adult content is the job of their parents. Any teen with 2 brain cells to rub together will simply use a VPN. If their parents are not technology literate then it's their responsibility to learn. They can use an ISP block, simply by calling their provider. They could install parental controls on devices.

I don't much fancy giving my card details to some random, sketchy site tbh.

Science paper any good for you?

"Using all modalities of pornography, 91.5% of men and 60.2% of women herein reported having consumed pornography in the past month."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30358432/

That paper included “written porn” in its definition of porn (which it says women are much likely to use than men).

There’s a massive difference between viewing hardcore videographic porn online which inevitably includes women being raped and trafficked, and someone reading written fanfic or a smutty book picked up at Waterstones.