Is there any way to permanently get rid of pornography or censor it from the youth?

[grexly75]

As I see it the only reason people find porn harmful is probably that they want to do what is in those films and they can't.. lol But if you want this sort of thing to happen move to the UK they have passed a law to ban porn from getting to people.. Or move to North Korea where the only internet is an isolated government run propaganda intranet..

[Helgrimm]

There are actually quite a bit of secular studies which show strong evidence that excessive pornography is a major contributing factor to the epidemic of young male's failure to launch and "checking out" of the dating scene. I would argue that hook up culture is worse, but it would certainly seem that those "old farts" and ancient tomes were trying to reign in these ape behaviors for a reason. I know when I stopped looking at porn, I was able to please my significant other much more often and our relationship is much healthier for it. Pornography in excess is actually pretty alien to our brains.

Inb4 religion. I'm agnostic.

I'd wonder if these studies considered the change of men/women roles in society? I know that womens increasing independence in society (rightly so) has given men a harder time in having women partners. Did these studies consider this? I have a hypothesis that maybe it isn't necessarily pornography, but the changes in the culture that go along with pornography being more accessible.

[Calfredd]

There are actually quite a bit of secular studies which show strong evidence that excessive pornography is a major contributing factor to the epidemic of young male's failure to launch and "checking out" of the dating scene. I would argue that hook up culture is worse, but it would certainly seem that those "old farts" and ancient tomes were trying to reign in these ape behaviors for a reason. I know when I stopped looking at porn, I was able to please my significant other much more often and our relationship is much healthier for it. Pornography in excess is actually pretty alien to our brains.

Inb4 religion. I'm agnostic.

You explained why excess of anything is bad but not necessarily why porn is bad.

[Amnaught]

There has to be a good reason.

This is false.

"A bunch of people think it, so it must be right" is exactly why the bunch of people still think it.

- - - Updated - - -

epidemic of young male's failure to launch and "checking out" of the dating scene.

What's wrong with this exactly?

"Little Timmy needs to stop watching porn otherwise he wont be able to cum in his nonexistent sexual partners"

[Surreality]

There's nothing harmful or offensive about sex or sexuality. It's how we perpetuate our species. It's a stress reliever. It's a means of stifling depression, even if it's only for a moment. We have an entire medical community dedicated to sexual health who's every advertisement is about "boosting your sexuality and virility as you get older".

I'm pretty sure most "adults" have a problem with pornography because of their own personal fears, insecurities, and hang-ups. Not because "sex is bad mkay". Sex is a beautiful, messy, completely natural act that the vast majority of human beings take part in on a daily basis. Some people more than once. No, the best thing these so-called "adults" can do is stop trying to hide things that they are absolutely and most definitely going to find out about one way or another. It is the full responsibility of the parents to communicate with and teach their children how to not be predators and sexual offenders. You can't do that by removing all of the evidence and trying to just ignore it's existence.

[Amnaught]

Only religious hypocrites try to steer kids away from something natural like sex by calling it sinful.

This is basically all that needs to be said.

[BeepBoo]

What even is this thread? I thought all of this type of thought was long gone?

I'm a young successful programmer making $85k a year married to a doctor who makes $200k a year with a completely functional life and I've masturbated daily since I was like 12. Sometimes more. Sometimes right before my wife gets home and then we do it the old fashioned way. She knows I watch porn and she watches porn too. My record for madturbation was 8 times in one day at the age of 15 shortly after losing my virginity with my highschool sweetheart... (We had birth control and condoms)

So "it's obviously destructive to reward stuff" is retarded and a hasty generalization fallacy.
"Kids need to be protected!" I didn't. My then girlfriend and I bought condoms and birth control and went crazy trying all the positions we wanted. It was awesome.
"Porn causes unrealistic expectations!" Only for idiots. If porn does this, then video games cause murders due to unrealistic depictions of violence.
"It causes failure to launch!" Definitely not. It might make me last longer because I'm more practiced and desensitized, but no woman wants a minute-man lol.
"Men aren't getting into relationships as much!" Good? We have overpopulation. Besides that, send like this is just like when women started having careers and weren't beholden to men for their livelihoods any more. Now men can be more picky since they don't have to have a woman for sexual fulfillment.

Time to go hit up the #6 website by traffic! (Pornhub)

[Powerogue]

I know in the US we try to teach older kids to steer their eyes away from pornography for their own good because it's sinful or harmful, but it seems futile based on the amount of sex-crazed teenagers on average. Parents and teachers still try if the movement of censorship against porn is any indication, but with how sexual content is so integrated into pop culture and all over the internet, it makes me wonder if it's just a losing battle and if it's pointless to even try.

Do we, even? With the onset of the internet it's hard to tell anymore.

Since before humans even existed the sex drive to seek out that release has existed, and now it's easier than ever to find. Even with the fledgling internet and being raised extremely sheltered I bumped into the stuff before I was 10.

The only thing we have to worry about is it setting unrealistic standards and bad examples of behavior in those scenarios, which wouldn't be a problem if we mandated proper sex ed.

Yes there is, and it's to make it illegal with incredibly harsh punishments. That's how we did it for crack cocaine.

Don't forget prohibition. It worked so well.

We actually have statistics on how the most sexually repressed countries, who do things like outlaw porn, watch more and more twisted stuff. So it certainly seems to be the same backfire effect.

- - - Updated - - -

the question I have to this is: Why do responsible adults try to assume otherwise then? There has to be a good reason.

That's where you made the mistake. There absolutely does not, and history has proven that. Plenty of people come up with stupid rules for stupid reasons. Total arbitrary nonsense like wearing mixed fabrics or eating shellfish can be declared evil.

[Donald Hellscream]

No and why should it?

[GreenJesus]

Just for you OP I'll go watch some porn right now before I go to bed like the sinner I am.

[Malkiah]

There are actually quite a bit of secular studies which show strong evidence that excessive pornography is a major contributing factor to the epidemic of young male's failure to launch and "checking out" of the dating scene.

genuine question: how and why is this a bad thing?
on every conceivable level it's better for humans to breed less, so if we take it at read for the sake of argument that watching porn reduces men's interest in establishing families, where is the negative?

I would argue that hook up culture is worse, but it would certainly seem that those "old farts" and ancient tomes were trying to reign in these ape behaviors for a reason.

well yes, of course - those old farts and ancient tomes understood that the 3 most basic, primal, and fundamental aspects of biological life are eating, killing, and fucking... and those are the 3 biggest things that every religion immediately seeks to control.
you can only do those 3 things how, when, and where they say.

I know when I stopped looking at porn, I was able to please my significant other much more often and our relationship is much healthier for it.

any any time i stop looking at porn, my relationship degrades because i don't have an outlet for my excess sexual drive and lose access to my sleep aid.
the problem with using anecdotal evidence in your argument is that it can be immediately negated by anecdotal evidence.

- - - Updated - - -

it makes me wonder if it's just a losing battle and if it's pointless to even try.

it absolutely is pointless, and i can only hope that exponentially higher numbers of people come to the same conclusion and become disillusioned with trying.
we might be able to actually start having some progress at that point.

[Mormolyce]

No. Like Prohibition and like the War on Drugs, it has been tried and it was a miserable failure.

I know in the US we try to teach older kids to steer their eyes away from pornography for their own good because it's sinful or harmful

I mean this is straight up Judeo-Christian prudishness.

[Flarelaine]

There is nothing wrong with pornography.

There is, actually... the situations are generally contrived and porn as a whole is liable to set up false expectation for the unexperienced, i.e. teens. But that is something you can hardly legislate away.

[Mistame]

Ah. The obligatory monthly anti-porn/anti-nude thread, derived from faux moralistic nonsense.

Parental controls or religion?

If parental controls worked, this thread wouldn't exist.

Thank you for that worthwhile contribution.

In fairness, it was every bit as much of a "contribution" as yours was.

There are actually quite a bit of secular studies which show strong evidence that excessive pornography is a major contributing factor to the epidemic of young male's failure to launch and "checking out" of the dating scene.

And if they're content with it, that's fine. It's none of anyone else's business. Besides, worrying about "dating" and relationships when you're young is stupid.

I would argue that hook up culture is worse, but it would certainly seem that those "old farts" and ancient tomes were trying to reign in these ape behaviors for a reason.

There's nothing wrong with "hook up culture". There's no rational reason for young people to avoid sex or worry about monogamy. As far as the "reason" goes, that's easy: They were a bunch of megalomaniacs who realized they could control people by making them believe in fairy tales.

I know when I stopped looking at porn, I was able to please my significant other much more often and our relationship is much healthier for it.

In other words, when you deprived yourself of the ability to see other (and often more attractive) people in intimate situations, you inherently started appreciating what was left more. That's a fairly obvious result but it has no relevance outside of that anecdote.

[Veggie50]

Interestingly enough, the question is, do we need to?

Porn became a problem when the porn viewed was entirely of professionals displaying wildly unrealistic things. Positions that require 3 years of intense yoga training, hours of stamina, huge genitalia, etc.

Most porn these days is made by amateurs though. It shows real sex. I don't think there's anything unhealthy about that per se. Of course like with anything, one must be wary of "overconsumption", which could lead to things like desensitization.

As for the point of "degrading of work-reward system", that's part of society these days, not a problem of porn in and of itself. The same could be argued about cheap high calory food. I don't believe anyone thinks that watching porn is better than having actual sex. If someone claims that it is, it is probably because they have written themselves off as having any chance with a real person, so it solves their cognitive dissonance. In that case you could either offer them help in getting out of that, or accept porn as an agreeable alternative.

[Devilyaki]

Nothing wrong with the nude form.

[YUPPIE]

Nothing wrong with the nude form.

using your favorite video games as an example: Why does Nintendo and Sony strive so much for censorship of the female body then? Even fictional?

[XangXu]

There is nothing wrong with pornography.

There WAS nothing wrong with pornography until the internet came along and ruined it, like a lot of other things.

Now there are categories like choking, rape, lolicon, and other disgusting shit. Another reason why the internet needs to be regulated. Deny all you want. I know it is hard giving up your fucking little meme machine.

[Skulltaker]

There's a funny story when Japan tried to get rid of porn because they wanted to appeal more to the back then rather prude west, so art depicting people having sex was outlawed. In response, we got octopusses fucking girls. Outlawing porn gave us tentacle porn. So no. It will only get weirder.

using your favorite video games as an example: Why does Nintendo and Sony strive so much for censorship of the female body then? Even fictional?

Because they sell primarily to minors who don't have any disposable income, their parents do. So you have to appeal, first and formost, to mothers and fathers. And they don't pay 60 dollars for games with bouncing tits.

[noidentity]

You attempt to deprive youth from pornography and they will be the first ones to find a work around.