A friend of mine once said to me that the Internet is like a sprawling city: everyone knows there are some neighborhoods you shouldn't hang out in, but banning people from them is wrong.

The problem with my friend's view is that while people have to seek out toxic communities, the dangers of the Internet—particularly the most harmful forms of pornography—will come to you, even if you happen to be a child. the latest one wall street journal The investigation found that Instagram's algorithm regularly served soft pornographic content to dummy accounts with a designated age of 13. After the account was created, Instagram began showing the imagined user "moderately racy" content, such as women dancing or dressed provocatively. Once these accounts settled on such videos, Instagram started pushing out more graphic videos and posts. "Adult porn creators start showing up in feeds in just three minutes," Magazine reported. “Less than 20 minutes into watching Reels, the test account’s feed was dominated by promotions from such creators, some of whom proactively sent nude photos to users who engaged with their posts.”

In fact, pornography is so ubiquitous online that it's easy to dismiss the vast amount of pornography children see as largely harmless—and that's what it's like to be a kid growing up on the Internet ceremony. But childhood pornography exposure is a public health issue that can have serious long-term effects on children. Their interest is essentially collateral damage to the rights of adults to consume pornography as they please, and a massive industry's interest in retaining its billions of dollars in annual revenue.

Read: The age of AI child abuse has arrived

Some sites are more cautious than Instagram or X in preventing minors from accessing pornographic content, and recent legislation across the South has begun requiring users to verify their age before browsing sites like Pornhub. But no matter what safeguards are put in place to protect minors online, they don't seem to work. A 2023 report by Common Sense Media found that the average age of first exposure to pornography for US children was 12, while another 2023 survey by the UK's Children's Commissioner revealed that a quarter of UK teenagers aged 16 to 21 One has been exposed to pornographic content. The first time was in elementary school. Meanwhile, a survey in Australia last year showed the average age of first exposure to pornography was just over 13. Just over half of U.S. minors surveyed said they were unintentionally exposed to pornography. 38% of young British people surveyed felt the same way. If safeguards were put in place to protect children from pornography, they would look ridiculous.

Experiencing pornography in childhood can be distressing for children and negatively impact their sexual development. In 2017, a study presented at the 125th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association found that the earlier a man was first exposed to pornography, the more likely he was to desire power over women, suggesting that early childhood Exposure to pornography during childhood may distort a child's personality. sexual development. A 12-year-old girl interviewed by a British investigation said her boyfriend strangled her during their first kiss - a trend also noted by teenagers I interviewed in 2021. A longitudinal study of adolescents in Taiwan further found that early exposure to pornography predicted earlier sexual debut and engagement in unsafe sex. A third of respondents in the Australian study said they relied on porn for information about sex, a substitute for proper education, which is provided by people who understand and care for children rather than trying to From the person selling them sex. In addition to these specific risks, children face all the usual problems associated with adult use of pornography: internalizing unrealistic sexual standards, developing excessive consumption habits, and becoming desensitized to sexual violence. The main difference is that when children begin using pornography in childhood, it misdirects desires that are not yet fully formed.

Supporters of porn often crusade under the banner of free speech — the Free Speech Alliance, a porn industry lobbying group, is currently fighting a Texas law that would require porn sites to collect user data Evidence of being over 18 years of age. On Wednesday, the FSC challenged Texas in the Supreme Court against these age verification laws, claiming they abrogate the exercise of free speech. (Pornhub and other major porn distributors have withdrawn business from several Southern states that have enacted age verification laws.) Even an FSC lawyer acknowledged in the Supreme Court that the organization recognized the government’s role in preventing the spread of porn have pressing interests. Minors.

My friend likened the internet to a city with good and bad neighborhoods, perhaps not taking into account that the people crossing those streets are in many cases children, and children are of particular concern in our society— Look at recent conflicts over which books should be made available and whether children should be allowed to change their identities in school or physically. As scholar Rita Koganzon writes in an article, this is certainly true of all these arguments. Yale Law Journal An article published last year, “Part of the ongoing culture war between factions of adults.” Unfortunately, the debate over how to protect children from pornography is likely to be about adults’ views on whether pornography is good, bad, or neutral Proxy battles between different views – every debate should be fought on its own without regard to the interests of the children. Subordinate to the interests of adults. The risks posed by children's exposure to pornography are real and deserve special attention from society.