Anyone listening to Bringing up Britain on R4 at the moment? It's dealing with children and porn.

[FucktidiaBollockberry]

Interesting.

I am. This freedom of speech and porn issue really pisses me off. The world would be a better place if porn access was 'opt in'.

On the tv too. I don't know how we are at a stage in society where I can be casually browsing the sky channels and see listings for 'horny housewife's', 'barely legal sluts' etc.

Freedom of speech my arse.

Exactly.

No-one's saying "men, you won't be allowed to wank over abused women in the porn industry" anymore.

Just "men, you will have to actively opt in to receive this stuff instead of the rest of us being fucking inundated and unable to escape from it".

And yet they can't have that.

Thought it was really funny when one of the speakers suggested that men would have to go to the post office to opt in to continue their porn viewing.

The opt in is a far more dignified way to go forward for society as a whole imo - the default should be that people should be assumed to not want to view porn - that puts across the right message to children imo.

I hate it on Sky too - in fact I had to pay a penalty because I wouldn't take their TV as part of a phone/router package - and told them this was purely because of the porn ads that remain there even if you block the channel.

Meant to say, I thought the advice was good: if your child tells you they've seen porn, don't get cross or agitated.

Try likening it to something as unreal as a horror film.

Make clear that what is on the internet is not the normal, loving relationships most people have but, but is showing abusive acts against women.

And do put parental controls on everything - pc, laptop, tablets, phones.

Have I missed any other good bits of advice they gave?

I was listening too and Iceland is looking like a great place to live (apart from the weather!).

I do wonder if there is actually a legal argument for shutting off porn. I think it is an offense to show/expose children to inappropriate sexual imagery or activity. If a study has shown that the biggest category of porm viewers are aged between 11-18 (as I think the programme stated at the beginning) then surely there is a legal duty for something to be done by the authorities? Not doing anything could be seen to be tantamount to the state exposing children to inappropriate imagery. Probably clutching at straws and I'm sure the porn industry would challenge the study methods etc, but I do wonder.

I wonder too where the money is going to come from in 10 years, when our society has higher incidences of depraved sexual crimes, for both the victim and the perpetrator who were affected by the vile stuff that's being seen and are consequently needing therapy/prison and/or suing the government. Is it ultimately not a public health issue along the lines of smoking, only it causes mental health issues (severely warps sexual norms to the point where people get hurt) rather than cancer?

Opt in will not make as much difference as people think IMO. Simply because the geeks at school will become more popular in term of telling other how to get round the blocks. Already I am hearing from DS2 that several boys are asking him how to bypass parental controls at home. I am just happy that he is sensible enough to avoid helping but I am sure there are kids out there that will help others just to improve their popularity.

And just as an aside Iceland isn't as wonderful as people think. If people think it is that good check out what is going on with their constitution and the fact so few people voted in their last election.