I spent 10 years as a programmer, helping to develop the first generation of Internet applications (interactive websites) in the late 90's. This problem has never been technical; we've just lacked the political will. DNS is the key.
1) Modify Section 230 to make major hosting providers and search engines liable for hosting or indexing obscene content. The fines should start low, but persistently bad actors should end up in jail. You throw a few Silicon valley EVPs in the slammer for 15 days and the major providers will have AI-driven obscenity moderation implemented within weeks. That covers your black bears.
The grizzlies...
2) Empower the executive branch to seize domain names on the basis of obscenity. Yes, it needs to be defined clearly with court supervision, but appeals should be limited. You host a porn site in America, you (and your hosting provider) will pay.
3) The international sites are harder, but again, DNS is the key, and ICANN is in LA. Forcing ICANN to disallow name resolution for particular names and compelling major hosting providers to modify routing tables to disallow access to known pornographic sites are both easy. China has demonstrated that this is possible.
Age verification is a red herring. The problem isn't exposure to teens. The problem is ubiquitous availability of violent pornography.
You won't stop all of it, but you can get 95% and remove the "accidental exposure" problem. Pre-Internet, porn was available... in the seedy adult bookstore. Internet porn can be put in the same place. Available i you know where or how to look, but not a temptation every time someone goes to Google.
All the measures you suggest would be helpful, but I would add that age verification is a useful tool in the box. We have it here in the UK and it is barely any inconvience to those of age, while it is comforting to know that it is screening out most of those under age.
The concerns about government use of that data is overstated as there is little that the verification tools ask that the government don't already know.
Either way, I hope we see more sophisticated tools and greater acceptance that the free-for-all that was so damaging for impressionable young minds is slowing moving behind us.
Teen access to it is certainly bad, but young men should not be thrown to the pornographic tech-wolves as they turn 18.
The solution is the elevation of the virtue of sexual self-control over maximal individual autonomy. While some individuals are capable of that unaided, the vast majority benefit from collective help from their society. That's what's missing today.
I don't want age gating. I want the end of ubiquitous Internet porn.
Thank you Brad for this article. I like your metaphor of black bears and grizzlies. You broke down the problem into manageable pieces, that can be easily understood. I believe your solution is doable.
The problem is that the regulators cannot be trusted to stay in their lane. Already, European governments are using such powers to suppress political speech. Reform to empower parents is about the only thing that doesn't create a huge problem. Sadly, a lot of parents are AWOL and fail to protect their children against porn and worse evils.
I spent 10 years as a programmer, helping to develop the first generation of Internet applications (interactive websites) in the late 90's. This problem has never been technical; we've just lacked the political will. DNS is the key.
1) Modify Section 230 to make major hosting providers and search engines liable for hosting or indexing obscene content. The fines should start low, but persistently bad actors should end up in jail. You throw a few Silicon valley EVPs in the slammer for 15 days and the major providers will have AI-driven obscenity moderation implemented within weeks. That covers your black bears.
The grizzlies...
2) Empower the executive branch to seize domain names on the basis of obscenity. Yes, it needs to be defined clearly with court supervision, but appeals should be limited. You host a porn site in America, you (and your hosting provider) will pay.
3) The international sites are harder, but again, DNS is the key, and ICANN is in LA. Forcing ICANN to disallow name resolution for particular names and compelling major hosting providers to modify routing tables to disallow access to known pornographic sites are both easy. China has demonstrated that this is possible.
Age verification is a red herring. The problem isn't exposure to teens. The problem is ubiquitous availability of violent pornography.
You won't stop all of it, but you can get 95% and remove the "accidental exposure" problem. Pre-Internet, porn was available... in the seedy adult bookstore. Internet porn can be put in the same place. Available i you know where or how to look, but not a temptation every time someone goes to Google.
All the measures you suggest would be helpful, but I would add that age verification is a useful tool in the box. We have it here in the UK and it is barely any inconvience to those of age, while it is comforting to know that it is screening out most of those under age.
The concerns about government use of that data is overstated as there is little that the verification tools ask that the government don't already know.
Either way, I hope we see more sophisticated tools and greater acceptance that the free-for-all that was so damaging for impressionable young minds is slowing moving behind us.
Teen access to it is certainly bad, but young men should not be thrown to the pornographic tech-wolves as they turn 18.
The solution is the elevation of the virtue of sexual self-control over maximal individual autonomy. While some individuals are capable of that unaided, the vast majority benefit from collective help from their society. That's what's missing today.
I don't want age gating. I want the end of ubiquitous Internet porn.
Thank you Brad for this article. I like your metaphor of black bears and grizzlies. You broke down the problem into manageable pieces, that can be easily understood. I believe your solution is doable.
The problem is that the regulators cannot be trusted to stay in their lane. Already, European governments are using such powers to suppress political speech. Reform to empower parents is about the only thing that doesn't create a huge problem. Sadly, a lot of parents are AWOL and fail to protect their children against porn and worse evils.