Arguement for censorship of nudity, etc on children

[Luisrah]

What is the arguement for the defense of the censorship of nudity and sexually explicit themes on children?

I mean, about the violence I understand, because it can induce violent behaviour in children, but how does one defend that children shouldn't watch sexually explicit movies or images?

It's all natural, so I'm not really seeing how they defend this opinion

[Hoplite]

There is a very weird double-standard about young people and sexuality in Western culture, especially the US.

On the one hand, any overt hint of any sexual interest in anyone under the age of consent is seen as twisted, wicked, sick, and freakish.

On the other hand, people make boatloads of money subtly sexualizing under-age people. Popular fashions and styles for young people are quasi-sexual and role models for young people are often depicted in highly sexual (or at least very suggestive) circumstances or settings.


Additionally, we have an INCREDIBLY irresponsible attitude towards what young people see of sex or sexuality.

On the one hand, we dont want them to see it because "it might encourage sexual behavior" and the subject is treated as taboo or forbidden.

On the other, we make no attempt to actually educate young people about sex so we basically hurl them into teenage and twenties with very little sexual education that is mostly pieced together from a quasi-universal popular mythology about sex.


Honestly, if you try to keep sex away from young people, it's going to have the exact same reaction that trying to keep anything else away from them has; they're going to be curious and go for it even more. If we had a more mature attitude period about sex, our kids would be A LOT better off.

[Luisrah]

There is a very weird double-standard about young people and sexuality in Western culture, especially the US.

On the one hand, any overt hint of any sexual interest in anyone under the age of consent is seen as twisted, wicked, sick, and freakish.

On the other hand, people make boatloads of money subtly sexualizing under-age people. Popular fashions and styles for young people are quasi-sexual and role models for young people are often depicted in highly sexual (or at least very suggestive) circumstances or settings.


Additionally, we have an INCREDIBLY irresponsible attitude towards what young people see of sex or sexuality.

On the one hand, we dont want them to see it because "it might encourage sexual behavior" and the subject is treated as taboo or forbidden.

On the other, we make no attempt to actually educate young people about sex so we basically hurl them into teenage and twenties with very little sexual education that is mostly pieced together from a quasi-universal popular mythology about sex.


Honestly, if you try to keep sex away from young people, it's going to have the exact same reaction that trying to keep anything else away from them has; they're going to be curious and go for it even more. If we had a more mature attitude period about sex, our kids would be A LOT better off.

I understand and agree with you completely.

I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear, but what I am asking is what is the arguement for rating sexual explicit material as +18?
How do those that defend that position defend it? I mean, supposedly they have some scientific proof behind them no?

[Sixiang]

I understand and agree with you completely.

I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear, but what I am asking is what is the arguement for rating sexual explicit material as +18?
How do those that defend that position defend it? I mean, supposedly they have some scientific proof behind them no?
I'm not too sure. I guess it's probably because people seem to think that after the high school years, you become more mature (even though I know countless people who are even older than I am and still act like they're in junior high) and are able to handle it. I'm not exactly sure what that sort of exposure to sex at a young age may have on someone. My parents told me about sex when I was 9-years-old. My dad found out about it from his older brother when he was 6. I think that people think kids are often more ignorant than they really are.


Honestly, if you try to keep sex away from young people, it's going to have the exact same reaction that trying to keep anything else away from them has; they're going to be curious and go for it even more. If we had a more mature attitude period about sex, our kids would be A LOT better off.

Yep. That's how it was for me. When I was in the early stages of puberty and I first discovered pornography, it was because I was curious. I grew up under a Roman Catholic upbringing, and I thought that what I was doing was upsetting God. I kept doing it, though. It seemed like something that was so forbidden, but I was never caught for it, so it felt even better. Along with that, practically every other boy in my grade at my school was doing it too and we all talked about it, as seems to usually be the case.

A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that my teachers, the priests, and my parents all gave the same, vague lecture about how sex was only for married adults and children shouldn't worry about it anyways. So no one really told me exactly what sex was. This was what made me curious about it. I didn't really know what it was, but whatever I was seeing made me curious and excited, so I looked at it more. It was through the typical talk of young teenage boys, watching porn on the internet, and reading adult literature that I sort of pieced it all together.