I have a feeling that in spite of all this teens google (or back in the day, AltaVista'd) how-to guides about what they're seeing. There are tons of resources online and, perhaps I may have been in the minority, but I was Lycosing all kinds of guides about anal sex, safe sex, different kinds of kinky sex, etc if I saw something that piqued my interest. Porn showed me what was possible and written articles gave me more details about what I was seeing. I tried all kinds of stuff because of the porn I watched and I believe I'm better off for it. I had a lot of fun because of it.
It seems that what you're really arguing for is not a restriction on adult content, but more of it in the form of better and broader sex education. If that is the case, I couldn't agree more. If half of these [1] books were available to teens as part of sex ed I think they'd be getting a better sex education because it's mixing naughty pics with good information.
I have almost no exposure to straight porn so I can't speak for that side, but I don't see this kind of degrading behavior in gay porn that you're talking about. Maybe there's some kind of difference here that's coloring my opinion but I really don't think I have a clue what you're talking about in regards to men dominating women in porn. (If you want to link to some examples, this might be the only time NSFW content is appropriate in a HN comment!)
What kind of porn did you watch as a teen, and how has it affected you as an adult? I'm willing to wager you watched a lot of stuff and haven't been negatively affected as an adult.
You really are looking for the edge cases and disregarding the general benefits of porn. It's hard to imagine that society is being horrifically damaged by porn, and in fact I'd argue that society shapes porn to a greater extent than porn shapes society. If women are degraded in porn (as you say they are), it's likely because that's a reflection of society.
I think that the biggest point of my position is education. There should be an on-going dialogue between parents and children.
I wouldn't be so concerned with children stumbling across certain types of porn if the realities around the porn were explained to them via their parents and/or sex education classes. To use the anal sex example, if the sex ed classes addressed not just the 'pros and cons' of anal sex, but explained that the anal sex they might encounter in porn excludes a lot of things that happen off-screen (lest teens hear something in sex ed, but see something different in a porn, and think that sex ed class is just a 'bunch of bull' or fearmongering).
Note: When I say children I'm talking maybe 12+ or 13+ here, though I would probably prefer that they didn't get into porn until they were at least 15 or 16.
I have a feeling that in spite of all this teens google (or back in the day, AltaVista'd) how-to guides about what they're seeing. There are tons of resources online and, perhaps I may have been in the minority, but I was Lycosing all kinds of guides about anal sex, safe sex, different kinds of kinky sex, etc if I saw something that piqued my interest. Porn showed me what was possible and written articles gave me more details about what I was seeing. I tried all kinds of stuff because of the porn I watched and I believe I'm better off for it. I had a lot of fun because of it.
It seems that what you're really arguing for is not a restriction on adult content, but more of it in the form of better and broader sex education. If that is the case, I couldn't agree more. If half of these [1] books were available to teens as part of sex ed I think they'd be getting a better sex education because it's mixing naughty pics with good information.
I have almost no exposure to straight porn so I can't speak for that side, but I don't see this kind of degrading behavior in gay porn that you're talking about. Maybe there's some kind of difference here that's coloring my opinion but I really don't think I have a clue what you're talking about in regards to men dominating women in porn. (If you want to link to some examples, this might be the only time NSFW content is appropriate in a HN comment!)
What kind of porn did you watch as a teen, and how has it affected you as an adult? I'm willing to wager you watched a lot of stuff and haven't been negatively affected as an adult.
You really are looking for the edge cases and disregarding the general benefits of porn. It's hard to imagine that society is being horrifically damaged by porn, and in fact I'd argue that society shapes porn to a greater extent than porn shapes society. If women are degraded in porn (as you say they are), it's likely because that's a reflection of society.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/175-4932095-5801103...