This is a relic mindset from the start of the Internet. The website itself even visually reflects that.
Is there a marginal grey area around adult content? Yes. But beyond that margin is a vast ocean of explicit, intentional adult content.
As someone who grew up in both the decentralized "new" era of the Internet, and now lives in the hyper localized algo driven version of it... It's all shit. And I'd never want my kids to be exposed to it.
That is why parental controls exist. As a close to middle aged adult without any kids, why do I have to hand over my ID to protect YOUR kids?
But that isn't want this is about. The people who don't want porn around aren't doing it because of the kids, they are doing it for some religious/cult belief.
If you look into the history of how law enforcement has protected children in their crusade against porn, you will see countless examples of them being able to protect a child, but instead leave them with their abusers for years to gather evidence.
Traci Lords began filming porn at 14 with a fake ID her kiddie diddling "stepdad" got her. The FBI admitted to knowing she was underage basically from the start, but "allowed her to continue" until she was 18 before attempting to prosecute her - instead of extricating the child from the exploitative pornographers. [1]
The FBI ran child porn sites for years as honey pots, they even bragged about running the largest CP site on the internet. Instead of providing information how they found the users in discovery they would drop charges. [2]
Any young kid with a phone is cooked these days. NSFW content blocking makes such an insignificant dent into that issue that it pretty much rounds down to zero. What it does effectively though, is give the government an excuse to put in place more ways to control what people can read or watch.
I really, truly don't. I was exposed to so much insane traumatizing content in near every setting. I want my kids no where near any of that.
That's the thing with this whole discussion though. both of these asks are totally reasonable
My kids should have freedom to explore | my kids should not be exposed to violence and crude sexual content despite my best efforts to moderate their Internet usage
For sure; viewing adult content is one thing, radicalization causing large political and societal shifts is a much bigger issue. Objectification is one thing, going back to an idealized version of the 50's where women were (in the idealized version) subservient to men is another.
You're absolutely right. The article claims you can't define pornography by deliberately choosing a few borderline examples, and pretending that's all there is.
It's simply not a good way to discuss the online safety act. One could apply the same kind of reasoning to theft: "I took a friend's car without his consent, but I returned it, with a full tank. It would make zero sense for him to denounce me to the police. They wouldn't even think of prosecuting. People borrow things all the time."
Is there a marginal grey area around adult content? Yes. But beyond that margin is a vast ocean of explicit, intentional adult content.
As someone who grew up in both the decentralized "new" era of the Internet, and now lives in the hyper localized algo driven version of it... It's all shit. And I'd never want my kids to be exposed to it.