At what age should boys be allowed to use porn?
- Thread starter silent_blue
- Start date
Whenever they're old enough to discover it by themselves, and not feel bad for watching it.
But I don't think magazines or websites should be sold to anyone below the age of 18, as like many of these things it is slightly addictive. And it's the least the legislation can do to prevent under age people from wasting their money. Not because a 17-year old necessarily becomes more responsible when he turns 18, but because at this point you're not a child anymore, formally.
But I don't think magazines or websites should be sold to anyone below the age of 18, as like many of these things it is slightly addictive. And it's the least the legislation can do to prevent under age people from wasting their money. Not because a 17-year old necessarily becomes more responsible when he turns 18, but because at this point you're not a child anymore, formally.
16, although some start earlier. 
I would say around 14, because if you wait to long they do it behind your back. Suppose how would it feel when you are 18 years old and your dad wanna have "the talk", I still remember my dad his face when i said that he was to late and that i knew how it went. But buying dvd and magazines and internet porn (payable sites) is different as it can become addictive. You can always learn from talking to your kids, think two steps further then where they are thinking of and talk and listen to them with an open mind. Don't act like your fathers and theirs before them. This goes as well for the moms over here.
Dick van Cock makes a good point about the hardcore/softcore distinction, and Isobel Wren makes a good point about the "porn as education" issue.
But the word "allowed" in the thread title is misleading. If parents actually control their kids lives sufficiently to absolutely prevent them from accessing porn, then the family is probably pretty screwed up, and the children are likely to grow up with much worse problems than they might have gotten by viewing porn at too early an age. And if the government controls people's lives sufficiently to absolutely prevent certain people from accessing porn, then we're in real trouble. (I'm not saying we shouldn't have laws regulating what kids can do; I just think that, in practice, the laws have to be more like "guidelines," because the apparatus required to enforce them effectively would be too intrusive.)
So a lot of kids are going to be looking at porn anyhow, at an age largely determined by their own curiosity. And if they can find softcore porn, they can also probably find hardcore porn.
So I think the only solution is for parents (and teachers?) to talk to their kids about porn at early age (before puberty). Parents can give their own opinions about whether porn is evil, but they need to emphasize the fact that porn (especially hardcore porn) can be very misleading if you try to use it to learn about sex.
But the word "allowed" in the thread title is misleading. If parents actually control their kids lives sufficiently to absolutely prevent them from accessing porn, then the family is probably pretty screwed up, and the children are likely to grow up with much worse problems than they might have gotten by viewing porn at too early an age. And if the government controls people's lives sufficiently to absolutely prevent certain people from accessing porn, then we're in real trouble. (I'm not saying we shouldn't have laws regulating what kids can do; I just think that, in practice, the laws have to be more like "guidelines," because the apparatus required to enforce them effectively would be too intrusive.)
So a lot of kids are going to be looking at porn anyhow, at an age largely determined by their own curiosity. And if they can find softcore porn, they can also probably find hardcore porn.
So I think the only solution is for parents (and teachers?) to talk to their kids about porn at early age (before puberty). Parents can give their own opinions about whether porn is evil, but they need to emphasize the fact that porn (especially hardcore porn) can be very misleading if you try to use it to learn about sex.
Well arent you Mister Happy.
If it'll be done regardless of a legal age, might as well lower the legal age. There are plenty of people who dont drink much their whole lives, and there are people who've downed a few bottles at 14. But porn tends to be something everybody just *finds* in an old drawer/basement/attic and staring at a page is about as much education as most of the guys in my school days had.
Boys should not be ALLOWED to watch/have porn until 18. If they want it any younger they have to figure out how to get it themselves w/out mom and dad finding out. This methods teaches creativitly, self reliance, etc.
Umm.. that's already the rule. I wouldnt say it teaches much.. taboo violation, possible theft from the corner drugstore.. finding a good hiding spot away from the people who believe they know best.
FYI I'm also an opponent of the whole Santa Claus thing. Why teach a kid to be good for an invisible guy that only comes once a year? Teach the kid to be good for the people who actually buy that stuff and parents are around THE WHOLE YEAR! But whatever, people act like I called G_d an islamic democrat fag everytime I talk about their sacred christmas.
AND FURTHERMORE!! Why do people get less stuff on their birthdays? Without their Birth-Day.. there wouldnt be a christmas... jus' saying.
But porn.. porn is universal. Everybody likes learning about what they'll someday do. I think the only real worry is that it teaches kids about porn, and not real sexuality. Ron Jeremy, Jenna J and a cumshot on the face.. are not quite real life. Fun, funny and a kick to watch sure.
Aces&Jacks
Retired Mod
I'm not Mister happy, I'm Mister "think outside the experiences of a porn viewer".
Your statement is a prime example of this. Just because porn tends to be something that everyone found in the bottom of drawers and was as much an education about sex that you and your friends had, doesn't mean that this is the norm for all, or even the majority of people. So your view is skewered by what you believe to be the norm as a porn viewer, which is not necessarily in line with the norm and morays of society in general.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/11/22/internet-pornography-children-cz_sl_1123internet.html
"Sex, Lies and Statistics"
Los Angeles -
When Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) introduced the Internet Safety & Child Protection Act in July, aiming to slap a 25% excise tax on online purchases of porn, she cited a startling statistic: Children in the U.S. now typically get their first exposure to porn at age 11.
Definitely just me and my friends, no way was anyone else getting it until 18.
Whether or not society agrees with what is natural or not.. until a certain age or not.. doesnt mean it's not happening, doesnt mean it'll stop, and hey.. we're only generation X and Y who will pass down our own morals and values. We often get told we're wrong about everything, we're used to it.
I'm surprised it's that late. That average age has little to do with the availability or access to porn but rather the age the child first becomes interested or curious. The fact is, kids don't find porn in drawers anymore and they haven't for over a decade. Unless the kid is clinically retarded, they will be able to find any porn they want (including the hardcore stuff) in a matter of seconds on the internet well before the age of 11.
(Only 3 more years until she hacks into the pentagon while her boyfriend is going down on her)
Parents who think they can control this behavior in their children by "allowing" or "prohibiting" access are suffering from delusions of grandeur - and their kids know it. Parents simply don't have that kind of power short of locking their kid in a box.
The kid is probably just as likely to suffer issues from having an excessively domineering and naive parent. The only realistic option they have is the one whatshisname mentioned...
whatshisname said:
This issue cuts both ways, though. On the one hand, yes, some will get the wrong idea and end up doing bad things to women. But on the other hand, some of them may be inclined to do bad things to women in the first place, and if they can learn to do those things in fantasy rather than in real life, that makes things better. There is at least some evidence that the availability of porn reduces the incidence of rape, and IIRC the effect was strongest among underage males.
(And I shouldn't miss this opportunity to plug my idol. She talks about one of the porn/rape studies in this video.)
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Mostly I agree but I think if we were more open about porn it would improve. Guys do bad things to girls not mainly because of porn but because a lot of men to bad things to girls anyway. Women get a raw deal anyway. Think of women's work - looking after and raising kids, looking after the sick and elderly - really the most important work in society, caring for people but it is all low paid. Women get exploited in the porn and sex industry because women get exploited.
Banning boys from seeing porn won't help, they will just see it secretly anyway and that gives a really bad message to them. They see this stuff and really enjoy it but then they are told they are bad for looking at it, that what they are doing is illegal, when in fact it is a really healthy thing they are feeling. Better to let them use it and then talk to them about it and what they are seeing in it. And in a world where porn was openly available to younger teenage boys and girls it would be better to talk about it in groups of boys and girls together and that could get rid of some stupid ideas guys might have or girls might have about the other sex and porn. It would be much healthier than what we have now.
I agree.
Well put.
I'd like to note one positive point with respect to exploitation, namely the trend (at least it seems like a trend to me) of women in the industry having their own businesses rather than working for someone else. (This is of course an excuse to mention Isobel Wren, who is one example.)
This doesn't mean they aren't exploited, but it's a more subtle form of exploitation. Even women who have their own porn businesses probably have fewer alternative opportunities than men, so there is that element of exploitation.
It's hard for me to imagine Isobel going in a different direction if she had better alternative opportunities, though. But she is still being exploited in the sense that she can't make as much money as she otherwise would. Isobel is, in my judgment, not one of the "marginal" participants (in the economic sense) in the porn industry, but some women are, and those women would choose alternatives if they had better alternatives available. That would mean less competition, and Isobel would end up making more money.
Legzman
what the fuck you lookin at?
Dunno what the age should be. Maybe 16. Hell you are put in control of a deadly weapon that can kill several people all at once when you turn 16, you start training in said weapon when your 15 so I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to "use" porn once your 16...legaly that is. Of course I've been into porn since I was 12. Which fueled another obvious addiction/hobbie!
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