Online CSA, porn, and the Online Safety Act

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/05/i-didnt-start-out-wanting-to-see-kids-are-porn-algorithms-feeding-a-generation-of-paedophiles-or-creating-one

Thoughtful and worrying article on the progression of porn use, and how it's affecting paedophilia, men and boys.

For once it might be good to hear from victims. They're so often just referred to in passing.

Recently read a couple of articles on Adolescence that pointed out exactly this - concern for the men involved, how it impacts them, starts and ends this story.

Women and girls impacted by it aren't given a voice.

OMG the poor men 🙄🙄🙄

It’s a travesty that we don’t hear from the victims, or any discussion around how the viewers of porn don’t have any empathy for the victims, or indeed even see them as real people. I’d like to see discussion about how that could be changed.

It’s a piece that showcases

• a failure to include the voices of victims
• shoddy reporting of statistics
• failure to discuss obvious inferences (e.g., the percentage of male adults that pose some sexual risk to children).

Apart from that and other matters, it was well written.

• failure to discuss obvious inferences (e.g., the percentage of male adults that pose some sexual risk to children).

Something I'm a bit baffled isn't talked about more.

Like the stat that 99% of sexual violence is committed by males, it seems so stark that everyone should surely be aware. Or at least the question should be asked?

How many men are rapists?

In the context of this argument we could ask if the number is stable or affected by various factors.

And then we may have a chance of addressing the problems. Feels to me like we flail about regretting the consequences of these problems without ever looking really clearly and hard at what is involved in creating and affecting them.

If we know x percentage of men are abusive how do we identify them? Should they be allowed to have children? Date? Get married?

The courts seem unwilling to sentence men who access CSA images.

The only counter we seem to have is the stigma, and even that seems not to have such impact at times.

The courts seem unwilling to sentence men who access CSA images

Anti-carceral has indulgences for some groups but not for others. It feels significant that the voices of victims and those most likely to be affected are absent.

That aside, I wonder how much is a pragmatic response to the size and expense of the male prison estate that would be necessary? The current over-crowded estate has approximately 85,000 male prisoners as a point of comparison.

If public services offer good rehabilitation programmes then I would be delighted to read the evaluation of their effectiveness in preventing future crime and their cost-effectiveness when compared to other options.

A family member has just pointed me to Allison Pearson’s piece about Lucy Connolly who was “denied bail, draconian jail sentence (men who do bad things get far less) now denied days out to which Lucy is entitled to see her child)”. Aka “2 years for a tweet” (about Southport stabbing and riots).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/04/lucy-connolly-southport-riots-axel-rudakubana-taylor-swift/

archive: https://archive.is/HjpkC

I am adding this as context to anti-carceral solutions for some but not others.

God, that's appalling.

'The injustice system had not put Lucy through enough by incarcerating her for longer than many paedophiles.'

I feel obliged to post some criticism of the Pearson piece.

https://x.com/jaimerh354/status/1908788503741190420

I thought the article was really good. It gave airtime to the important argument that online porn platforms essentially radicalise certain men. I think the lack of access to extreme material did keep a cohort of men away from it in the past. I think we need much stronger regulation.

Linked to this topic, in February 2025 Baroness Bertin published her Independent Review of Pornography Regulation which called for various actions to be taken regarding pornography and other adult content sites. I believe these recommendations should be implemented by the UK Government in full ASAP. So I have started this petition
.

• Support the Petition : demand the UK Government take action now. *

These recommendations included:

• Making strangulation ("choking") pornography illegal.
• Making incest pornography illegal.
• Legislating against deep fake porn and intimate image abuse
• Prohibiting porn that might encourage an interest in child sex abuse
• Tackling violence against women and girls
• Holding platforms accountable for harmful content.

If you want to read more about this before signing then I have posted this article
On the day the porn regulation review was published, 20% of the homepage content of a major adult content site promoted themes of violence against women and incest. As a therapist, many of those I work with acknowledge viewing such content from the age of 10.

I work as a therapist in the area of sex and porn addiction and have seen progression of porn use into illegal content and CSAM with some of my clients. The Guardian article was a good one.

Please Support the Petition : demand the UK Government take action now.

Rockhound, thanks - this might be worth making its own thread for?

Perhaps a thread on your article?

I have put this thread up under petitions on the site, and am just trying to get the word out where it feels relevant. Thanks for the advice on posting the article as a thread. That is a good idea.

I think it's a lot more than one wants to think.

I was reading an interview with Eileen Atkins recently & spoke about dancing in a skimpy outfit as a child in working men's clubs, and feeling uncomfortable with the amount of men who she sensed were reacting inappropriately. Those kinds of men have a lot more opportunity now to sink further & further..

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=theartsdesk.com/theatre/theartsdesk-qa-actress-eileen-atkins&ved=2ahUKEwiy-YqD7b2QAxVkVEEAHcHxAvgQFnoECHoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0SvPC0pJ0U84GlWpfChU83

It is a good article but I have long felt that the strongest pushback against porn will result over concerns for children and concerns for men from men. Why is the abuse of all these women in porn not enough? The permissive attitude towards porn that is "legal" just because it hurts adult women is seriously depressing. I think it has a mass demoralising effect on all women.