The inconsistencies of United States law and how it is applied, is disappointing. While, on the one hand, minors are not permitted to legally purchase alcohol or marijuana or cigarettes, all legislated for the supposed benefit of those minors – for some reason, when it comes to online pornography, for those that are desiring to peruse such, the only barrier to entry through the dominant leaders of this industry, is apparently the “trust” system, in which a person, just needs to affirm that they are of age to consume and to watch such material, even if they are not, in actuality, of age.
It would appear the battle about pornography, and its ubiquity in an online format, has essentially been fought and seemingly lost. Yet, for all the hue and cry about the protection of minors, this would seem to be a definite area in need of a serious reboot and relook, especially considering how pernicious and objectifying pornography is, and potentially quite damaging, for all those that have not reached the age of maturity. It certainly seems not only a reasonable thing, but just plain common sense, that online pornography in any of its various forms, should not be readily available to minors, and that to somehow believe that internet “parental controls” will take care of effectively precluding such, is both insipid and naïve.
When it comes to rogue and undesirable websites, this government has proven that it has not only the capacity to seize those websites so as to therefore make them to be un-operational, but that it also has shown that it will demonetize content that it does not approve of, whenever it considers such to be a menace to society, at large. In regards to any business, there are going to be dominant players, and the online pornography business, is not an exception, to such; in which, the best way to regulate online pornography, then, is to contact those that are the biggest players within that industry, and have then put into place, the new regulations which must be adhered to, so as to preclude minors from accessing these types of sites -- so accomplished, in all probability, with those that want to watch porn, having to provide a form of legal identification, in conjunction with webcam facial recognition, to prove that they are of age, or something similar to those general guidelines.
So too, all those that provide online pornography content, should be held to account, as to whether such content, has the expressed permission of all the participants to such, that those that are the participants are of age, and further that those participants were not impaired during the filming of their actions, and so forth. In other words, online pornography purveyors, should be legislated to have proof that they have the right to disseminate their content, through the documentation that supports such, without any equivocation. As it currently stands, the laissez faire type of governmental approach to online pornography, does little or nothing to protect those that are caught up in or are the actual participants in such, and leaves those that are not of legal age, carte blanche to watch as much pernicious content as they so desire.