Comment by sapphicsnail
10 days ago
I don't want to ban porn or anything but the problem has definitely become worse than when I was growing up. I have a zoomer roommate that had unfettered access to the Internet and has some trauma she's still working through. I think the intense age verification laws popping up are going to be a big net negative but I think something needs to he done. I just don't know what that is. Maybe educating parents and children?
Im also "almost zoomer" that had unfettered access to much more diverse internet that zoomers ever had. Videos of extreme violence, murders, porn, war, bullying, and all blends of those to a degrees would surprise most. That happened when I was 7+ years old.
Does seeing these things mean I am broken in some way? It for sure didnt make me agressive or violent, actually Id say that it had quite the opposite effect.
I dont buy the "we must protect children by denying them access to whatever I feel like to prevent trauma", in fact the opposite, I feel the denying of access creates trauma when the false world-view eventually gets shattered by truth. It wasnt problem when I was 8, because I didnt have a false view about the world. It didnt traumatize me, I was just learning ugly stuff about real world.
Now it seem the only publicly acceptable option is to shelter everyone (without their consent, and ideally awarness) until they 18, and then throw them into the world and watch them struggle as they try to reconsile their dream-like version of reality with real world.
> some trauma she's still working through
From watching porn?
The content easily available on the internet in the 00's is way far far far beyond what is available today.
Liveleak was an everyday video host and they had terrorist beheadings on the front page. Once the masses moved online and the power players consolidated everything into modern social media (reddit, facebook, youtube), it kinda sucked all the air out of the room and killed all the small sites, of which there was no shortage of "test the limits of free speech" content.
That being said, the modern incarnation of social media has probably caused far more youth mental destruction than rotten.com or faces of death.
> but I think something needs to he done
This is exactly the problem. You have no idea what you want and will thus cave to whatever direction the winds blow.