The French government’s drive to prevent children from accessing pornographic content online is well-documented. Few disagree that widely available and openly accessible ‘tube’ sites are unsuitable for minors, but in a world where parental responsibility is considered old-fashioned, not to mention ineffective, France believes that legislation is the only way to protect the country’s children.

Don't know how to feel about this. On one hand, it's for a good cause, exposure to porn at a young age can have some pretty devastating consequences later on. The way they're going about it though, that doesn't sound too good.

[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ten years ago it was "unfortunately we have to infringe on your civil rights due to terrorism." That excuse has since been overused and isn't as blindly accepted anymore, so clever politicians and their bourgeoisie patrons have moved on to "unfortunately we have to infringe on your civil rights to save the children." It's the same excuse behind the EU wide proposal to effectively neuter encryption in communications services, and it's absolutely bullshit. Law enforcement agencies already have the capability to investigate and stop the vast majority of child sexual exploitation, but they don't get the resources required nor the priority. A healthy society would likely take care of whatever would slip through the cracks. Breaking encryption or free access of information does absolutely nothing to stop this behaviour, and in some ways would put children in an even more dangerous position.

Tldr: this is about controlling the plebs, not about protecting children.

[–] maard@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

what would be a good way of preventing children from accessing porn, then, other than going China's route and straight-up banning it, maybe the extra complexity to access it is good enough to achieve the same goal ?

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