Disfunctionality is in the eyes of the beholder. If you think its wrong, and you do it, you become disfunctional. thats da way da psyche works.
The US should follow some of europes examples here. Liberate sex and drugs (Amsterdam), and you'll have less social disfunction and less obsession. People would be less affected by the phys and psych affects of drugs. People in amsterdam smoke weed as if they were cigarettes, and can communicate and function fine. In the US the typical doob smoker is disfunctional. Its all about US puritan society's stigmas and perception... goes the same for pr0n.
I agree, if my family lived in France we wouldn't be having this conversation, but we live in the US. US society puts a stigma on pornography.So anyone here that engages in solicitation of pornography feels as though their doing wrong, because its not socially accepted (unless they simply disagree with society). Teens are most affected by this, for obvious reasons, most teens lives revolve around conformity, being accepted is serious stuff to them.
This is why my teen brother's addiction to porn has rendered him socially disfunctional. He'll grow out of it when he redefines his perception of pornography, or stops using it. I've tried to help him, but its hard when you're 400 miles away. I think i've made in roads with him, and he's getting better.
As for screening out porn, you're right, I posted another comment on this thread talking more about that, good parenting would be a better solution. Unfortunately, the folks are terrible at parenting.
Thanks to JPelorat and peg0cjs for your comments, I really appreciate it.
I'm going to take a big 'about face' on the issue. Good parenting would certainly solve the problem. I was afraid that this was the only answer, and although I knew it was true, I was hoping there was another solution. The fact is, this porn issue pales in comparison to the larger problem. My father is your typical alcoholic, and avoids taking any responsibility for raising the kids. Mom has no back bone to dole out the tough love, required in situations like these. I love them both, but the children are suffering by them.
I only wished I lived closer to home, so I could take action. I've done my best to talk my brother through this problem, I can only hope that he's doing the right thing.
JPelorat is right. I hadn't thought about the internationality of the internet, but thats certainly the critical issue. Since the net is an international community, there would have to be some type of international internet laws, and an international police organization to enforce them, which would certainly fail. (look at the UN) So the fact is that the internet poses a serious challenge to parenting. My families situtation shows that not all parents are up to the challenge. IMHO I'm beginning to think that they probably, then, shouldn't be on the net...
As for spam email, JPelorat, I think you hit the nail on the head again. The answer is changing email service providers. Case in point, I created a new address with Hotmail, as a test. Didn't use the account at all, didn't give the address to anyone. Low and behold in less than a week I was getting spam, some of which was porn. *Also* I didn't sign up for any of hotmails newsletters when I created the account. So it appears to me that there are hackers out there that are compromising the hotmail address lists.
The problem with my sisters porn email spam issue is really more of a bad parenting thing. Big surprise huh? I've told her to use their ISP email address, but she won't do it, and my parents won't enforce my suggestion. All of her friends use MSN and HOTMAIL, and so she doesn't want to change, and my parents won't do anything about it. Sis is very strong willed, you'd be amazed at how my parents back down from an 11 y/o. Its pathetic. It just irks me that she's getting porn spam in her account, but it irks me even more that I can't do anything about it.
Again, thanks for all of your comments and suggestions!
Thanks for your comment, you and I clearly disagree on the fundamental issue of pornography censorship. But thats ok. Lets talk about this.
I don't believe the popular idea that gestapo parenting can resolve this problem. Leaving it to the parents to restrict their children from using such a valuable tool isn't a good answer.
My parents are very relaxed I agree, but if parents are strict, the child will learn to become more deviant. This is the case for most of his friends. As long as the material is available for anonymous free access, children will find a way to get it.
The porn industry takes no ownership of the responsibilies involved in making explicit content available on the net. That is the problem.
The solution is that there must be some degree of censorship, that the porn industry must be forced to comply.
My proposal is:
===============
No porn email spam (which my 11 year old sister recieves via hotmail).
All porn must be paid access.
Entrance screens rated G.
Fines for sites that appear in non-porn related web searches
I can't believe some of the arguements I'm reading in support for internet porn. There's not one comment on the affect it has on kids. My brother, 17 years old, has gone from a 3.5 average to a 2.0 since his freshmen year. He had a passion for web design at about age 13, and its been all down hill since. He shows no signs of passion for anything these days. We've busted him on internet porn so many times its become a running joke in the family. The fact is that he's addicted to porn. If you think this is rare, think again. All of his friends are going through the same thing. Him and his friends have been caught selling porn at school. They trade porn, hell, porn has become the new baseball card.
So in conclusion, Internet porn left alone to adults is not so bad, because anything in moderation is usually ok, aside from crack cocaine, and most adults can moderate their porn addiction, which is still also debatable. However kids do not exercise moderation, they don't understand it. So it leads to an obession that could easily destroy their chances for success and stability, both mental and financial.
Your thoughts?
Slashdot Mirror
Disfunctionality is in the eyes of the beholder. If you think its wrong, and you do it, you become disfunctional. thats da way da psyche works. The US should follow some of europes examples here. Liberate sex and drugs (Amsterdam), and you'll have less social disfunction and less obsession. People would be less affected by the phys and psych affects of drugs. People in amsterdam smoke weed as if they were cigarettes, and can communicate and function fine. In the US the typical doob smoker is disfunctional. Its all about US puritan society's stigmas and perception... goes the same for pr0n.
I agree, if my family lived in France we wouldn't be having this conversation, but we live in the US. US society puts a stigma on pornography.So anyone here that engages in solicitation of pornography feels as though their doing wrong, because its not socially accepted (unless they simply disagree with society). Teens are most affected by this, for obvious reasons, most teens lives revolve around conformity, being accepted is serious stuff to them. This is why my teen brother's addiction to porn has rendered him socially disfunctional. He'll grow out of it when he redefines his perception of pornography, or stops using it. I've tried to help him, but its hard when you're 400 miles away. I think i've made in roads with him, and he's getting better. As for screening out porn, you're right, I posted another comment on this thread talking more about that, good parenting would be a better solution. Unfortunately, the folks are terrible at parenting.
Thanks to JPelorat and peg0cjs for your comments, I really appreciate it.
I'm going to take a big 'about face' on the issue. Good parenting would certainly solve the problem. I was afraid that this was the only answer, and although I knew it was true, I was hoping there was another solution. The fact is, this porn issue pales in comparison to the larger problem. My father is your typical alcoholic, and avoids taking any responsibility for raising the kids. Mom has no back bone to dole out the tough love, required in situations like these. I love them both, but the children are suffering by them. I only wished I lived closer to home, so I could take action. I've done my best to talk my brother through this problem, I can only hope that he's doing the right thing.
JPelorat is right. I hadn't thought about the internationality of the internet, but thats certainly the critical issue. Since the net is an international community, there would have to be some type of international internet laws, and an international police organization to enforce them, which would certainly fail. (look at the UN) So the fact is that the internet poses a serious challenge to parenting. My families situtation shows that not all parents are up to the challenge. IMHO I'm beginning to think that they probably, then, shouldn't be on the net...
As for spam email, JPelorat, I think you hit the nail on the head again. The answer is changing email service providers. Case in point, I created a new address with Hotmail, as a test. Didn't use the account at all, didn't give the address to anyone. Low and behold in less than a week I was getting spam, some of which was porn. *Also* I didn't sign up for any of hotmails newsletters when I created the account. So it appears to me that there are hackers out there that are compromising the hotmail address lists.
The problem with my sisters porn email spam issue is really more of a bad parenting thing. Big surprise huh? I've told her to use their ISP email address, but she won't do it, and my parents won't enforce my suggestion. All of her friends use MSN and HOTMAIL, and so she doesn't want to change, and my parents won't do anything about it. Sis is very strong willed, you'd be amazed at how my parents back down from an 11 y/o. Its pathetic. It just irks me that she's getting porn spam in her account, but it irks me even more that I can't do anything about it.
Again, thanks for all of your comments and suggestions!
Thanks for your comment, you and I clearly disagree on the fundamental issue of pornography censorship. But thats ok. Lets talk about this.
I don't believe the popular idea that gestapo parenting can resolve this problem. Leaving it to the parents to restrict their children from using such a valuable tool isn't a good answer.
My parents are very relaxed I agree, but if parents are strict, the child will learn to become more deviant. This is the case for most of his friends. As long as the material is available for anonymous free access, children will find a way to get it.
The porn industry takes no ownership of the responsibilies involved in making explicit content available on the net. That is the problem.
The solution is that there must be some degree of censorship, that the porn industry must be forced to comply.
My proposal is:
===============
No porn email spam (which my 11 year old sister recieves via hotmail).
All porn must be paid access.
Entrance screens rated G.
Fines for sites that appear in non-porn related web searches
Your thoughts?
I can't believe some of the arguements I'm reading in support for internet porn. There's not one comment on the affect it has on kids. My brother, 17 years old, has gone from a 3.5 average to a 2.0 since his freshmen year. He had a passion for web design at about age 13, and its been all down hill since. He shows no signs of passion for anything these days. We've busted him on internet porn so many times its become a running joke in the family. The fact is that he's addicted to porn. If you think this is rare, think again. All of his friends are going through the same thing. Him and his friends have been caught selling porn at school. They trade porn, hell, porn has become the new baseball card. So in conclusion, Internet porn left alone to adults is not so bad, because anything in moderation is usually ok, aside from crack cocaine, and most adults can moderate their porn addiction, which is still also debatable. However kids do not exercise moderation, they don't understand it. So it leads to an obession that could easily destroy their chances for success and stability, both mental and financial. Your thoughts?