Questions From Readers

This is arguably child pornography and I personally find it disturbing and not at all arousing, but I’m not writing about what I find arousing or not. In addition to the psychological and moral arguments that these videos are damaging to the minor depicted in it, there’s also the legal fact that such material is prohibited by law, whether you like it or not. Maybe this person is 18, but it’s far more likely that he is not. This is not something I want to be associated with for both moral and legal reasons. Should I just stop reading your website and fuck off?
Your response to controversies over the Discord collapse signals a “fuck off” attitude that is misguided. In a recent podcast you argued that the age of consent, 18 or whatever it is state-by-state, is arbitrary and minors have questions about sexuality and you feel some responsibility to give honest answers. Maybe, but the fact remains that morally supportable or not, such engagement leaves you open to legal ramifications. And posting porn featuring someone who easily could be a minor doesn’t even leave you with the morally gray area of “advice” as your defense. You can dismiss the age of consent as arbitrary given the variability of human biology and cognitive development, but good luck arguing that with a judge. Law is often arbitrary like that, but unless and until we come up with some alternative for protecting minors from predatory adults, we have a fixed age of consent and I’m fine with that. You can dismiss me as a “PC crybaby,” but that is not a responsible way of engaging with readers over a serious issue that has legal implications.