The writing is top-notch, congrats to the author. I disagree with the conclusions, but totally do agree that the depravity of porn that's basically forced on you from front-pages is a problem. So where's the "wholesome porn" vendor? The market is certainly there. Even just a site that actually let you exclude things you don't want would be a huge step. Why IS every porn site trying to normalize incest, for example? Excluding tags is extremely low-hanging fruit to implement, and the fact that none of the sites I'm aware of have actually done so indicates to me that there are some perverse incentives going on. Pun intended.
> Why IS every porn site trying to normalize incest, for example?
One of the explanations I've heard (that seems reasonably plausible) is that it allows the creators to add a "kink" to the porn without needing to actually change much of anything.
If there is a case to be made for regulating porn, this article doesn't make it.
The "Cambridge University study" at the heart of the article is described as showing that "porn’s effects on the brain are neurochemically identical to drug addiction". Actually, it shows nothing of the sort for most people. It shows a reward effect for people who self-identified(?) as exhibiting compulsive sexual behaviour, which is "excessive or problematic engagement in sex". Importantly, it didn't identify a growing trend, didn't correlate watching porn with the development of compulsive sexual behaviour, and so on. No amount of saying things like "porn isn't content, it's a substance" will change that.
Compulsive sexual behaviour is literally defined as problematic, but it's not obvious, and this article certainly doesn't make the point, that porn causes or exacerbates compulsive sexual behaviour.
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 17.3 ms ] threadThe author says this as though they don't realize that the demand didn't decrease but was just redirected to sites that don't care about the ID check.
One of the explanations I've heard (that seems reasonably plausible) is that it allows the creators to add a "kink" to the porn without needing to actually change much of anything.
I have been online for quite some time and never seen most of that list.
I think some of those can't even be found on the major sites.
The "Cambridge University study" at the heart of the article is described as showing that "porn’s effects on the brain are neurochemically identical to drug addiction". Actually, it shows nothing of the sort for most people. It shows a reward effect for people who self-identified(?) as exhibiting compulsive sexual behaviour, which is "excessive or problematic engagement in sex". Importantly, it didn't identify a growing trend, didn't correlate watching porn with the development of compulsive sexual behaviour, and so on. No amount of saying things like "porn isn't content, it's a substance" will change that.
Compulsive sexual behaviour is literally defined as problematic, but it's not obvious, and this article certainly doesn't make the point, that porn causes or exacerbates compulsive sexual behaviour.