Internet Porn

In the gay marriage thread, holmes said:

quote:

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But sexual content does not, and will not, EVER objectively hurt kids.

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You're absolutely certain that there isn't one chance in a million that a pubescent boy getting hold of the sort of porn that's available easily and for free on the internet will not be negatively affected in any way, no matter how much porn he looks at and for how many hours a day? You have no doubt whatever that this boy will still grow up to have healthy attitudes about women, or that if he doesn't the reasons will have nothing whatsoever to do with porn?If there's a convincing study that shows this I'd like to see it. Otherwise I doubt I'm going to change my mind on the subject.And for the record I wouldn't support outlawing anything, but if somebody can come up with a reasonable way of regulating access to internet porn, I'd probably support it.The problem is the international nature of the net. I don't see how internet porn can be regulated unless every nation on earth agreed to the terms. That goes for the spam and pop-ups you mentioned, too.So that leaves us with two questions:1. Can kids be adversely affected by internet porn? I think the answer is yes.2. Is there any reasonable way to effectively regulate internet porn? I think the answer is no.

Sorry I haven't had much time to participate in these threads I started a few days ago. I've been very busy lately and am likely to be so for the next couple weeks. Things will soon change and I'll be able to post more regularly.The idea that porn is harmful to children may not be as clear cut as I thought it was, but I still think that if a way could be found to effectively regulate underage access to it I'd probably support it.holmes mentions the pop-up/spam problem and I agree. An elderly lady I know who often calls on me for help with her computer somehow (probably one of her grandkids is at fault, but I don't know firsthand) started getting pop-ups for a porn site that specialized in images of incestuous rape. It took me a long time to get rid of those ads but I finally managed to. Although my logic here might be a bit twisted, I would say that the experience left me so absolutely enraged at whoever wrote the software responsible for these pop-ups that, if I knew who it was and thought I could get away with it, I might have killed them.There is one thing that strikes me about this whole argument: If this sort of thing is harmless and doesn't engender any unhealthy attitudes toward women, then why is it that a movie like The Passion Of The Christ should be faulted for anti-semitic content? Surely this picture couldn't engender any unhealthy attitudes toward Jews, could it?