It does exist, it's very popular, and people won't let go, just because the gummint says so. So, the prohibited thing will go underground. It gets more extreme, organized criminal activity will increase, people's trust in others and in the establishment weakens. That I'd definitely call a blight on society. Now, which blight we pick is the question. Doing the harmful thing in the open, in controlled ways, or doing it in the dark, in uncontrolled ways? I don't think the latter has much success, if a generally nicer society is the goal.

I think that porn might have no positive purpose for you. But for me, it's been huge. I've met some of my best friends though furry conventions coordinated on 'porn sites'. I'm in several telegram groups where artists are pushing the state of the art with AI, integrating it into their workflows to make really beautiful pieces, this catalyzed some of my own interest in AI and is the main reason I'm learning more about Stable Diffusion and following these StatQuest videos on neural networks with the hope of eventually pivoting my career in that direction.

Finally, I'm a MAP and I use (drawn) cub pornography as a way to alleviate my sexual urges, helping me remain a productive non-dangerous member of society. Are you really saying that for someone like me porn has no positive purposes?

I am going to say something that is not popular to say but has been on my mind for a while.

Why is it bad for our kids to see two humans have sex?

When you say porn is bad for kids, I think you mean that mainstream porn can be misogynistic, addictive (like most pleasurable things), and give people unrealistic body standards and expectations about what sex is like. All of which I agree with.

Okay, so, if I had a website that just showed consensual sexual relationships between a husband and wife in a committed relationship, just doing normal sex like people do, would that be okay for kids to see? Would it be okay for me to show my kid if they were curious about what sex was like? What if that was something I /wanted/ my teenager to jerk off to as opposed to something I wasn't curating? Wouldn't it be better for me to be able to say "Here's what normal human sex looks like, you'll experience this yourself when you're older and ready for it, but I was a young teen and I know young teens get horny too, just don't spend all day masturbating to it" rather than letting them stumble onto whatever they find on PornHub? I mean we educate kids about every other aspect of human existence, but sexuality is some weird taboo...

I'm just confused here, I mean, are we saying that young people are irreparably harmed by visual exposure to the human reproductive system? If so, why would we as a species have evolved that way? And if not, then how can we justify a blanket ban on young people seeing all forms of recorded sexual activity?

If you look at my comment history you'll see I'm not a normal person, and I don't really understand 'normal' views on human sexuality. Maybe it's because I lived so long in a clothing optional community...I don't really understand why it's okay for parents to show their kids extremely violent media but showing two people having sex, even if it's educational, is considered some form of abuse. But then again, as I said, maybe I'm just mentally ill or something...

[Victorian time portal detected]

Ah yes, Prohibition, a classic American success story. The most freest we've ever been! I love how our culture, which is centered around the idea of freedom, would be protected by removing the choice to look at something that some people may find harmful! It's just such a beautiful irony.