Yes I agree the way the UK is going about this is fucking silly and unlikely to even work, however I haven’t seen much debate about the motive behind the act.
I feel like this community has generally been pretty critical of the porn industry and particularly the effect of the massive proliferation of easy to access internet porn on young men (“porn brain” was a pretty common term around here). But when the UK tries to ban it I’ve suddenly seen a lot of defense of teenagers right to see pics or boobs on the internet.
I would also point out this is an ML dominated community, most people here are pretty fine with socialist governments censoring content or restricting access to good that are deemed harmful to the common good. But I have noticed a trend on here where when a liberal capitalist government tries to do the same thing everyone suddenly start sounding very libertarian about porn/booze/slop movies/what have you.
i don’t trust the motives or the tactics of a liberal capitalist government. they didn’t make a mistake here. it’s pretty obvious they don’t actually give a shit about vulnerable people and instead go to great lengths to protect the rich and powerful from any consequences that might arise from abusing vulnerable people.
if a socialist government wanted to enact a policy to protect minors from seeing harmful material, i would come to the meeting or read the remarks and decide if i agreed on the implementation strategy, because the goal seems laudable. i don’t know that i would be down for a strategy that could be scraped to make lists of people connected to their sexual interests, and that would be in my feedback to the committee.
in cuba, immediately after the revolution, they did not enforce the ban on underage people from engaging in sex work. rather they specifically banned and prioritized going after pimps, because those were the obvious predators in the equation. with capitalists, their enforcement mechanisms invariably betray the distinction between their stated goals (protect the vulnerable) and their actual motives (erode anonymity and the civil liberties of workers).