Hacker News Reader

Comment by pbhjpbhj | Hacker News Reader

>We all know porn is being singled about because of an absurd prudish attitude the west has towards nudity.

So you don't mind people jerking off whilst you're trying to enjoy a coffee and a cake or get a book in the library with your kids?

I mind, call that absurd if you like.

It's not nudity that is the problem in public spaces like libraries it's use of pornography. A simple way to avoid most masturbatory use of such spaces is to prevent people from being able to view pictures of other people who are naked.

Even if it were prudishness, then what right do you have to dictate to the "prudish" what their attitude to nudity or sexual imagery in public spaces should be?

View on HN

>So you don't mind people jerking off whilst you're trying to enjoy a coffee and a cake or get a book in the library with your kids?

We have public indecency laws to cover that. There's no reason to place further restrictions.

That's ridiculous. Stopping the images being viewed is much, much easier than calling the police on a public nuisance.

There are laws against car theft as well, but it's much easier to lock the car and set an alarm.

The threat of having the police called and getting added to sex offender lists is more than enough to prevent all but the mentally ill from masturbating in public. People can already access pornography at just about any coffee shop (or for that matter, wherever there is cellular phone access...), but somehow we don't see outbreaks of uncontrolled public wanking. You seem to be operating under the assumption that systems like this are already widely deployed. They are not.

And as for the mentally ill? Well if walking down the street of your average sized city is anything to go by, lack of pornographic material isn't much of an inhibitor.

I don't know if it's endemic to America or what, but people jerk off in libraries all the time -- it is a real problem.

Maybe because the homeless or impoverished get internet in libraries and nowhere else, but regardless of the cause, something should be done.

The last time I used a computer in a library, I reached down to grab the side of the chair to scoot it under the desk, and received a handful of ejaculate for my trouble. It was a nice library too.

One of my best friends works in a different, nicer library, and constantly complains about people jerking off in there. They catch them and kick them out, but it doesn't stop the problem any more than swatting mosquitoes stops that problem.

You may say mental illness because of your particular environment or upbringing, but I feel below a certain level of society it's the natural state of people-- if they're able to see a naked picture they pursue the pleasurable sensations it produces until that process completes itself. Altering the environment seems like a damn fine idea to me.

That story is crazy. How did you react to it? What did you do to him?

There was no one around to confront. All I had was a goopy hand and a dirty chair.

I looked at my hand as awareness set in, and then I stood up and walked to the bathroom. Then I told the librarian, and she gave me some paper towels to clean the chair. I couldn't think of how getting angry would benefit me so I didn't bother.

Sure, I agree with you, but if a coffee shop stops just 1 mentally ill person from jacking off in it, then that's a win in my books.

While image detection algorithms aren't deployed widely, I'm sure many public spaces and internet cafes use some type of blacklist filter for 'known' porn sites.

>but somehow we don't see outbreaks of uncontrolled public wanking

You're being disingenuous - all public computers where I am have some sort of filtering as to the websites you can view. Hence preventing those with low social inhibition (for whatever reason, horniness is strong driver) from seeking out porn in those places.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com