OLPC Used to Browse Porn

youthoftoday writes "The OLPC project to bring the internet to third world has worked well — too well, it seems. Yahoo reports that Nigerian Children are already using the OLPC to browse for porn." This is why as kids we couldn't look at National Geographic issues without being supervised. A rep from OLPC said, understandably, that the laptops would now be fitted with filters.

huh

[nomadic]

I don't know why the OLPC project is giving internet access anyway. If I were them I'd create a closed network with educational sites alone. They don't need access to the internet universe.

Actually, I don't understand

[Tim C]

Could someone explain to me, preferably without recourse to religious argument, what is wrong with these kids viewing porn? I mean, they're actively seeking it out, and so must already be interested, so you can't argue that the laptops are somehow corrupting them - they're already corrupt (by that definition)...

Re:They are not allowed to.

[arthurpaliden]

A few years back I was watching a documentary on TV dealing with stone age peoples somewhere in the world. At one point it showed all the the women (white scientists and black natives) and their children in the river bathing. Breasts of all shapes and sizes were visible as they all frolicked in the water. That is, on the black women, on the white women their brests were digitally obscured.

Re:Then it is true

[Divebus]

Next, they figure out how to use the camera to make and sell their own porn.

Re:understandably?

[ScentCone]

You've described why your own view of reality is an objective fact that everyone could base their own morality on.

Nonsense. I've asserted that reality is what reality is, and it doesn't give a damn whether, or how well, or in what way I perceive it. The better one is equipped to grasp reality (through critical thinking, better tools like the scientific method, etc) the less that wishful/magical thinking tends to drive one's perceptions. I don't CARE if someone's born-of-ignorance (or foisted-on-them-by-supersitious-parents) misunderstanding of reality causes them to embrace the I'll-get-40-virgins-if-I-die-killing-YOU view of the world, or if someone thinks that the main reason not to rob their neighbor - rather than being the rational understanding that it's ultimately a self-destructive act - is because they're sure they'll burn in the classical Christian hell. I mean, I care in the sense that people with those world views impact my life, and their poorly-wrought decisions are something about which I may need to be aware... but I don't care, academically. That doesn't change reality. No matter how bent they are in their ability to grasp causal relationships, and no matter how fanciful/delusional they are about their pet mythology, the universe doesn't give a crap one way or the other.

There is no pre-existing blanket-o'-morality waiting for you to see it and embrace it... there's just the universe, as it sits. It's utterly ambivilant and without regard for you, and only you can bring meaning to your own existence, or squander it, etc. BUT: a moral framework based on a misunderstanding (to say nothing of a willful denial) about the nature of reality is, by its nature, flawed. I don't really care about Kant, one way or the other. You don't need to make this that complicated. When you build some BS about the universe into your approach to carrying on within the universe, you're lying to yourself and producing a value system that is, to that same degree of BS-inclusion, a failure. Will you probably still do most macro-level things in the same way? You'd think so, but not everyone does.

Here's your answer:

[TubeSteak]

Could someone explain to me, preferably without recourse to religious argument, what is wrong with these kids viewing porn?

Browsing porn distracts from OLPC's goal of using those computers for educational purposes.

Pornography (hardcore, softcore or other) may be educational in the context of a sex-ed class, but otherwise it is outside the intent of the mission.

That is the basic justification (not religious morality) for many of the restrictions placed upong kids in an educational environment... in a secular state at least.

Re:Porn is inevitable

[Belacgod]

In China recently a censor let through a tribute to the June 4 martyrs because he didn't realize that was referring to Tianamen Square because he'd never heard of the massacre there. So yes, indoctrination works well on the young and unlearned.

Re:Porn is not a substitute for sex ed

[Deadplant]

I agree completely.
The entire spectrum of possible pornographic material is available on the internet. As with all the other learning kids do by reading/listening/watching things on the internet/elsewhere they need to be able to distinguish between the 'good' information, the 'mediocre' and the 'horrible' stuff.
Sexual information is particularly tricky in part because of the strong feelings and emotions it can evoke in us when we see it. Strong emotions can certainly make good judgment more difficult.

In some ways porn is actually a fair bit easier to judge than other kinds of info. I really just boils down to 'is everyone happy and treating each other nicely?' and the importance of treating each other nicely is a lesson that should come long, long before sexual desire starts.
'bad' porn is really just the porn where someone is being hurt or treated disrespectfully and you don't need to know much about sex to recognize that.

But, like I said in the first paragraph, little johnny seeing sex for the first time could easily be overwhelmed.
I suggest we flood the Internet with 'good' porn. This will dilute the 'bad' stuff and reduce the chances that our little angels will get off on the wrong foot. (no pun intended)