These are comments by Jack, Ophelia and Archy on the post “Growing Up on Planet Porn“.
Jack said:
It isn’t just porn, kids also have an easier time seeing adult material through R rated films, mature rated video games, and tv channels like HBO, all of which either didn’t exist or are now more widely available than they once were. Its simply, a cost of living in a more liberated and free society. The more widely available and easily accessible we make mature content for adults, the easier it is for kids to get a hold of it.
I think the last part of the article however, reads a little too much like a yearning for the good old days for the sake of it. In the last paragraph it seems you aren’t just bemoaning the fact that kids are being exposed to this stuff, but that they no longer have to jump through hoops and have awkward misadventures like the one you described.
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Ophelia said:
I think the issue you hit on — one of instant access to pornographic images — might also contribute to what’s sometimes referred to as “entitlement culture”. When you had to make an effort to access your magazines, they were significant, and valuable. When naked, willing ladies are only a click away, it makes them seem as common as pebbles, and maybe feeds into an attitude about how ‘available’ women are to be used as a commodity. Some people would argue that the magazines are just as objectifying, but I think the significance of those women-objects has shifted – the difference between a golden idol and a wad of Kleenex. There have always been men treating women like sex objects, but is the Internet making that attitude more normal? I could be wrong.
Archy responded with:
Doubt it, I saw porn early, saw regular hardcore porn and I got no sense of entitlement from it, all I had was hope that one day I’d have a gf and could have sex n love n happytimes. Porn was just to bide the time until then.
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