Porn sites must have government health warning in Texas from September 1st
techdirt.com
Porn sites must have government health warning in Texas from September 1st::Just when we didn’t think the state of Texas could get any more wacko on tech policy, this latest bill really suggests otherwise. House Bill 1181 is an age verification measure that is similar to what we’ve seen in the state legislatures across other red U.S. states. You have an age verification proposal that is similar…
You are viewing a single comment
For the lazy:
HB 1181 would issue public health warnings including claims that porn use “increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography.” Claims that are included in the health warnings laid out by the bill suggest that porn use is “potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function.” Or, that exposure to porn “is associated with low self-esteem and body image eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.” Note how they use the term “exposure” as if a person watching porn was exposed to a real disease.
All of that is backed up by actual evidence though. It’s not really disputed that porn affects self esteem and body issues or desensitizes reward circuits of the brain.
Well, yes it is disputed. Those claims are just plain totally made up. The other bits about how watching porn makes you become a pedophile, even more so.
If they were going to totally make up claims they’d choose better ones to go with. These are actual topics based on evidence, even if inconvenient truths for those who support or oppose porn.
Not convinced. The claims being made are obviously parodies of tobacco health warnings, with reference to far-right sexual guilt propaganda.
Here's a hint: If you're a worker, and a politician tells you that your dissatisfaction with your lot in life is the fault of sex workers, probably of ethnic minorities ... that politician is a fascist.
You’re getting off topic by trying to bring up race or sex work.
I would love for you to provide a source for "all of that is backed up by actual evidence", and change my mind! I always want to learn.
https://fightthenewdrug.org/resources/
I mean, you linked an entire website, I guess that's a bit better thank just linking google, but doesn't give me any specific info about your claims.
I specifically linked a list of resources that are well cited. The original topic is multiple points, so this is evidence for each one, unless you want to discuss a specific item.
Well, why don't you chose one or two items from your list, and then show me a peer reviewed study proving it!
I don't view "I made so many different claims that I can't bother proving any specific one" as a great argument.
As I just said above, there’s too many points in the original article. Texas requires multiple warning labels and each one has some backing. Why don’t you pick ONE topic and we can discuss it.
So, you make a claim, asked to provide any proof of any single one, and go "nah, you do it for me, I'm too lazy"
I'm sorry, that's just not a convincing argument!
Sigh. I guess I’ll have to spell it out for you. The article says porn “potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function.” Or, that exposure to porn “is associated with low self-esteem and body image eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.”
I’m not going to debate each and every one of them, so I offered YOU the choice to pick ONE of those aforementioned topics to discuss at a time. The ball is on your court, and you’re whining that im not engaging with you.
Ok, so to be clear, no, you don't have evidence of the list.
Good to know.
I’ll bite. Show us the evidence. Peer-reviewed, published studies in respectable journals.
From JAMA Psychiatry https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24871202/
The negative association of self-reported pornography consumption with the right striatum (caudate) volume, left striatum (putamen) activation during cue reactivity, and lower functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex could reflect change in neural plasticity as a consequence of an intense stimulation of the reward system, together with a lower top-down modulation of prefrontal cortical areas. Alternatively, it could be a precondition that makes pornography consumption more rewarding.
As OP said constantly stimulating your reward pathway with instant gratification like porn does have lasting changes in your brain.
But fuck Texas also I don't support this bill
It could change your brain. Or it could not. They're just theorizing.
Interesting. The study seems to indicate a negative correlation between porn usage and gray matter. I’d love to see more research on this, perhaps over the course of several years. I’d also love to know what the r64 metric they kept using for correlation is.
Those claims are about porn addiction. Not the act of watching porn. On top of that, putting the burden of child trafficking and abuse onto the sites that would publicly host porn is like blaming climate change on people putting plastic in the wrong bin. Places that propagate the awful content mentioned by this warning are already against the law and flying under the radar. This is just BS that gets righteous Texan votes, not something that helps victims. It certainly doesn't accept that consensual adults make and watch porn in healthy ways. It's also why these folks get called out for their scandals, which wouldn't be news worthy if they didn't grandstand.
No, the claims are not about porn addiction, which is another issue. Legally the sites already have a burden to take down child abuse material and they do so. Complaining that the warning labels don’t account for healthy porn use sounds like the same whining that smoking warnings don’t also address people who occasionally smoke.
No clue why you have so many downvotes, I guess we got a bunch of weirdos in here. Porn is poison. It's what happens when patriarchy meets capitalism.