Porn passports

Sorry Lalla you are normally the essence of good sense and I’m very glad you’re here… but I think your statement was a bit too sweeping a generalization and I’d agree with Billy.

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Would anyone like a cup of tea?

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Possibly the most unhelpful metaphor I’ve seen (not speaking about YOUR suggestion of course).

Anyone who watches porn is contributing to organised crime which exploits people, men, women and children, many of whom have been trafficked, sold by their families who thought they were going to work in people’s homes or are forced by extreme poverty to descend into this degrading industry.
It is the same for those who use cocaine or other banned drugs, these are all controlled by organised crime, eg County Lines in UK, criminalising young people.
Cannabis farms tended by illegal immigrants who are no more than slaves.
Saying that you have to be a certain age to watch pornography is giving the nod to organised crime and the exploitation of vulnerable people.

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If someone watches an OnlyFans vid, posted by someone of their own volition, how is organised crime involved?

I realise that criminals do get involved with porn and drugs, but that’s only because, as a society, we have decided that porn and drugs are criminal activities.

In places where the porn and drugs are legal, you don’t get the criminals.

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That’s an interesting assumption that only men watch porn and is a long way from my experience. I have many female friends who watch porn, indeed some who create their own content.

There seems to have been a change in approach to sex and sexuality apart from the obvious confusion over gender. Casual sex appears to have become a norm for many (not all) and porn a mainstream part of that. My comments based on what I read and conversations with those managing singleness. These changes and the democratisation of photography and publication via the internet have changed the nature of porn.

That’s not to say I view porn positively, but it can be quite different from the stereotype of poor/drug dependent young women forced into the sex industry that it used to be. There’s no doubt that still happens - Andrew Tate is all over the news at the moment - but the stereotype isn’t automatically applicable.

The thing I find weirdest are middle class drug users. You know you’re funding criminals - is your life really so sad and shallow you have to keep using ‘soft’ drugs?

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That’s opening a whole different can of worms, no issue with the argument about not supporting criminality but, unless a tee-total non-smoker, few are in a position judge based on which chemical someone uses to get their kick.

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Sure there are cigarette smugglers and illegal stills, but do you really think that you can equate that with the huge hold that organised crime has, just look at Mexico.

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And it’s far from just women. Men too are creating their own material and far from being poor they are making staggering amounts of money.

I am wondering about setting up my own “grab a granny” site where I will be seen wearing nothing but a pinny while I do the hoovering. I’m pretty certain I’d soon have enough cash to finish the restoration of our money pit. :grin: :roll_eyes:

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Honorary calendar girl? :wink:

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As Jane points out, it’s not the drug, but the organisation of supply. I’d thought that my comment tied the 2 together sufficiently, but perhaps not.

We could discuss the morals of all forms of drugs in a different thread.

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I’m not sure whether we’re now talking porn or drugs - though I have no doubt Mexican cartels dabble in both.

The problem is the same in both cases though - if you criminalise an activity, you tend to push it into the sphere of criminals, who are sometimes not very nice people.

Prohibition does not work, it just pushes the activity into the criminal netherworld - no clearer example of this exists than the attempt in the US to ban the sale of alcoholic liquor in the '20s and early '30s

Tate is clearly unpleasant - and might well have been involved in other criminal activities had sex trafficking been less appealing to him.

I’m not suggesting that liberalising sex work will prevent people like Tate popping up - but it will reduce their influence.

Sex work is a complex issue - we’ve touched on a small amount here - the moral and religious attitude to sex work, access online and in person, access and participation by consenting adults vs one party being coerced, criminality, access by minors etc.

For the avoidance of doubt i am quite certain that access to pornography by minors is A Bad Thing™ - it presents a very  warped view of human sexual relationships and body images and sets expectations which cannot generally be realised in real life.

A big problem is that children these days are given mobile devices from a young age - frequently too young one might argue (and not just from the porn angle), like James Kitto we didn’t give our son a phone until he was about 11 but some parents give them to 4 and 5 year old kids (there are arguments both ways).

Perhaps we’re overthinking it - a simple “this browser is in the hands of a minor” flag, protected by a PIN so it can be set by parents and not trivially unset by youngsters and honoured by the porn sites would probably sort 90% or more of the issue.

However there would have to be voluntary uptake, across multiple legal jurisdictions - which is always the problem with this sort of thing - there’s always a jurisdiction prepared to lower its standards to attract business, as we see with flags of convenience in shipping.

Ultimately technological solutions to societal and social problems do not work.

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Not yet!

:robot: :robot:

Beyond totalitarianism (which I agree, technology makes easier as Orwell intuited), not ever.

Where there is a will(y) there is a way, as they say.

Sorry, that was schoolboyish :slight_smile:

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Dont beat about the bush and stop fannying around!

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Simply cock and bull stories !

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Er… not that I’m asking, but how does one monetise such a site? Surely the market is saturated?

I don’t know in detail (of course) but having watched some TV programmes that talk about this stuff the monetisation comes from paying for “special requests” - not just hoovering the lounge carpet but the bedroom curtains as well. :slight_smile:

Seriously, seems to me this type of porn puts control back to the individual if they are doing it themselves - often with good lighting and a good smartphone on a tripod. Yes they will be paying for the streaming service but they are (a) not being run by a pimp (b) can decide what content they are prepared to provide (c) the client is remote.

I realise that there are huge porn “factories” where often East European girls are being exploited in a kind of “battery hen” scenario. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the ones who set up on their own, manage their clients on their own and can rake in huge sums.

And no, the market is not saturated - far from it.

… While scantily dressed!