Obscenity Standards and Age Verification Online

There is a movement afoot to restrict young people’s access to social media and pornography.

Critics of social media and online porn argue that they can be harmful to minors, and states across the country are taking up the cause, considering laws that would impose age-verification, curfews, parental opt-ins, and other restrictions.

Meanwhile, critics of the critics argue that the evidence of harm isn’t so conclusive and that many of the proposed restrictions violate core civil liberties such as privacy and free speech.

So, who’s right?

Clare Morell is a senior policy analyst at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the author of the forthcoming book, “The Tech Exit: A Manifesto for Freeing Our Kids.” Ari Cohn is free speech counsel at TechFreedom, a technology think tank.

Timestamps

0:00 Intro

2:17 The alleged harms of social media

11:31 Just another technological moral panic?

25:49 How is internet access currently restricted for minors?

41:17 The age verification problem

1:00:27 Assessing the First Amendment problems

1:07:21 Voluntary measures parents can take

1:25:30 Outro

Shownotes

Transcript

“The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt

“Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms” by Vivek H. Murthy