Pornography to Be Blocked for Underage People in the United Kingdom

Oh, hey. People trying to control the Internet again. What else is new?

Not like this will do any good since people will find ways to get around it, and, personally, I see nothing wrong with underage people viewing pornography. Additionally, it's up to parents to deal with this, not the government.

• Source: Mail Online
• Published: April 20, 2014

 

Pornography in itself isn't inherently bad. For younger kids & things aimed at/receptive of them (e.g. a kingdom hearts forum~), I would definitely agree that barring them from accessing it is for the best. For more high school age people...it's pretty inevitable they're going to see it out. That time period & onwards is a time of change and maturation, part of which is sexual maturation. They're going to be curious about sex, so it's silly imo to deny them the ability to search for it.

That said though, while European countries (as far as I'm aware) are much better about sexuality than the US, it's still a topic that should be discussed and taught with all the facts/science behind it rather than telling them "sex is bad" or only telling them to wear protection and letting them go on their way to watch porn. While it is a lucrative business & empowering for some of the actors/actresses in the industry, it's also riddled with huge misconceptions about sex (both the act and the organs), and also can be very demeaning to particular groups (women, gays, blacks, etc.).

Overall I do think this is a dumb outlaw and that, while they UK should lift, they should additionally have a good sexual education program & teach people that pornography itself isn't bad while also making sure to hit on the misconceptions/bad representation in the industry and warn against the addictive element that tale had mentioned.

 

It'll never work and it's pretty impossible to impose. Even if the UK were to target UK-based porn sites (and I don't think there really are any big ones, if there are they'll move their servers to other countries depending on how stringently this law is enforced), there would still be plenty of other sites out there for people to access, or ways around whatever blocks or barriers they impose. Not to mention that, when you're, ahem, preparing to participate in some porn-related activities, I think the last thing you're concerned with is getting your credit card out and entering its details. I also very much doubt that most people will want their porn viewing habits connected with their credit card, where the credit card companies and/or their families can see it. There's also the tremendous possibility for credit card fraud with porn sites, which are often of a less than reputable nature.

The US has plenty of laws regarding copyright on the internet and nobody pays attention to that, I don't see why this should be any different. Porn will always be in demand, such popular demand that it's pretty futile to limit it on the internet, especially on a basis as arbitrary as age. Masturbation is a healthy practice for humans and, for many, porn adds to the experience, especially for youths who are sexually curious. I'm not saying porn is great, it gives you some pretty inaccurate information about sex and anatomy, but studies show that in-depth, sex positive education about healthy sexual behaviors is far more effective than blanket bans. I'm not saying porn shouldn't be regulated, but this definitely isn't the way to go about it nor even the principle to fight.

Sexuality is deeply intermingled in the human psyche, of course there are people uninterested in sex, asexuals, or people who just don't like porn (most popular porn sites do a very poor job of catering towards female audiences for example, others oppose it on a religious basis, and some just find it icky/uncomfortable), but it's present and we cannot ignore that. For many it begins reaching prominence as early as puberty, which can hit kids at 9 or 10 years old. If we're doing an inadequate job of educating them about sex at that age, they're going to turn to (probably) the internet. If you limit their access to sexual content on the internet I shudder to think where else they will get their information -- probably from equally ignorant friends, which is where a lot of the harmful myths about sex come from (like that you can't get pregnant during your first time or something).

 

They are, but we're the weird country that just doesn't get it. I was arguing this with my lecturer and a couple more students student from Norway and the Netherlands in the class. My teacher was curious about writing in a different language and how foreign writers see their country and what not (because writers are opinionated about anything). We went on a discussion about how the UK as a country is so much more prudish and uptight, unhappy with greater crime rates and so on, compared to other European countries. The foreign students reluctantly agreed, probably because they didn't want to insult. But that's theUK, the biggest prudes in a bunch of liberals.

Thankfully our sexual education is so much better than it use to be, and the classes taught are by generally likeable people. It's not perfect but it's better. There are many groups in universaties and youth centres talking about healthier sex lives and so on.

Porn is not anymore addictive than any other substance. Sex addiction is arguably worse.
Not to mention, our laws allow consensual sex from the age of 16, yet we can't view porn till we're 18. Porn laws over here have been stupid, but largely irrelevant till this happened. Still arguably will be irrelevant when it comes to it. Sexually active people will get what they want by any means. Online porn is arguably safer than alternatives. It's private and contained, cheaper and safer for porn performers.

Side note, the youngest father in the UK is 12 years old with the mother being 13, as was recently shown in the news. Honestly, this has been happening for decades, but this apparently constitutes as news to the papers

 

I know porn gets quite a bad reputation in the media as being a demon in disguise sort of thing and it's terrible that our children are watching it. I can agree with that to an extent but, as Misty said, masturbation is a healthy thing and porn adds to that, not essential but does help. I think it's the extreme cases we hear of, like the 12 year old dad and the brother who raped his sister after watching some porn and various other stories of that ilk. I think the worst thing we can do is cover up sex like it's a disease, it's not, it's something to be enjoyed and there is no way in a million years we can shield teenagers from such a topic, it's everywhere in the media. Just look at general adverts, it can never be contained.

Teenagers and eager people will find a way around this, they always will.

 

In the UK, underage generally refers to it as 18 year old anyway (like the drinking age) and I assume that that is what this bill means by underage anyway. Though the age for consensual sex here is only 16 as mentioned in this thread earlier.

 

...How... is that supposed to work? Porn sites are going to be able to ask for credit card details? Tell me the writer of that article is just inept and they used a bad example. I mean I admire the effort but let's not have kids stealing their parents' wallets just to walk into a credit scam.

...Well. That really depends what kind we're talking about-/brick'd