Won't someone think of the children! (96)

Care to expand on that? Can you give an example of something that, in its day, was as easily accesible to a large number of children in the way that online material is now, but had no effect on them or society generally ?

The idea of children as being anybody under the age of 18 is very modern. Looking back into history what we call 'children' in this day and age were working, breeding, functional adults. The idea of protecting children from smut is very modern, because pre-pubescent children wouldn't really be interested in it, and once puberty kicked in people were considered to be adults.

It's only modern western societies that are happy to consider teenagers children despite the fact they are often, for all biological intents and purposes, adults.

So the roundabout answer to your question I guess is that in the past what we consider to be children simply weren't protected from anything. So we can say that online material is easily accessible now, but in the past teenagers would be having sex, raising kids of their own, getting married and working all hours.

The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

Edited 13 Oct 11, 1:51 PM by Doghouse_Reilly

Is your argument: children having access to pornography is bad for society? If it is, in what way exactly? What is the effect of this cause? Or do you just know that to be true - instinctively like?

Are we going to raise a generation of sex offenders? Is that what you're saying? Because I don't agree. I don't think the internet has that power. I think if it did we'd already be in the midst of the fallout. We've had the internet for more than 10 years. That's long enough for the calamity to have happened. It hasn't happened so - here's a thought - maybe we don't need to worry about it.

Perennial - present at all seasons of the year. google is your friend.

I take it, by the way you've avoided the real question, that you can't actually give any examples of these 'perennial problems' then? Maybe that's because it hasn't been a perennial problem throughout history, as you claim; it's actually a new scenario.

Whether or not the availablity of internet porn has an effect on our children, and society, remains to be seen, and I haven't actually made any claims on that. I prefer to take a cautious approach because we're dealing with kids' welfare.

Given that it is a new scenario though, with no precedents, and that we're dealing with children's welfare, what are your reasons for being reckless and taking a risk?

And all men kill the thing they love, By all let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!