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Conservative government would require ID to watch porn: Poilievre
(toronto.citynews.ca)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I have a few honest questions for anyone who supports this kind of legislation.
First, what problem specifically is this trying to address? Have teen pregnancies gone up since the advent of kids being able to access porn on the internet? Kids with STDs? Sexual assaults on children? What specific metric has changed that makes this kind of legislation a priority right now? Is there a model that shows a correlation between the behaviors this legislation intends to address and the social ills you believe are associated with it?
Second is the related question of what metrics you think will improve with the introduction of this legislation? How long do you think it will take for that change to come about? If it does not, would you support removing this legislation?
Third, if a social ill were to be associated as per the above with online content, would you support similar legislation to regulate access (eg, if hate speech or LGBT-phobia posted online were to show a positive correlation with intolerance or violence), would you require online services to monitor access to sites hosting that kind of content, such as requiring a government issued ID to be kept on record and associated with specific user accounts?
Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think kids should have unrestricted access to the unlimited amount of hardcore porn available on the internet. I think it has a negative effect on their development and can cause all kinds of misconceptions about sex as well as body-dysphoria in men and women. In the past, ID was required to purchase magazines like Playboy or rent adult movies and ID is required to access strip clubs or sex shops. I don't think it's unreasonable to have a way to verify age before accessing internet porn.
And I'm speaking from experience here, I'm a millennial and I started watching porn in my early teens. But in hindsight I wouldn't say it was a good thing.
That's the thing - you think it has a negative effect. It might, but we need real studies to back that up. Laws shouldn't be made because of unsubstantiated feelings. If you want something meaningful to come out of these things you should advocate for unbiased mass studies.