So, here we are, on the precipice of the great Tumblr nipple erasure of 2018… Why do I care about it so much? My blog doesn’t post porn, and there’s been but a scant few female presenting nipples to be found here (and those were always in the context of an educational post). And yet, as I watch the days creep by towards the inevitable cleansing of our collective dashboards, I can’t help but to be a little dismayed.
I don’t mourn the loss of the cascade of rim jobs videos, cum shots, masturbation gifs, or even the most tastefully displayed and artfully composed pictures, for those can be found aplenty elsewhere. I spend a great deal of time scrolling past all of your offerings to the porn gods, occasionally tossing a like here and there when something catches my eye, but I can’t say that I’ll “miss” them. I marvel at the beauty of the human form and the intriguing variety of creative and undoubtedly uncomfortable ways that we have concocted in order to complete the act of copulation, but I won’t grieve its disappearance from my dash.
My lamentations stem from the misguided and ridiculous attempt by corporate America to make the internet a safe place for kids. Don’t get me wrong, I want our children to be safe online (if you disagree, please unfollow me), but I don’t think that purging an entire platform of displays of erotica are even a step in the right direction. If anything, it is my belief that by granting people the illusion of safety, they are putting even more children at risk.
I realize that Apple would love nothing more than to sell more iPhones and iPads to their customers and market them as a great substitute for parental love and affection. Electronic babysitters have been attractive to busy (or lazy) parents since the radio was a new invention. Giving the kids something to do for a few hours to occupy their busy little minds and their even busier hands has been a dream of parents for as long as there have been children. I understand what Apple is trying to accomplish, and I strongly disagree with their decision.
Much like compulsory seat belt laws led to higher numbers of accidents as people began to drive more recklessly, claiming that your app store is safe for kids because you’ve scrubbed the content of porn is misleading and will lead to less-vigilant parents. First, nearly every device on the market (and every Apple device that I’m aware of) comes with a browser. These browsers are capable of navigating to any website, regardless of content. Removing the porn from the platforms with apps does nothing to stop the websites. Even with parental controls in place (for the handful of parents who are vigilant enough to set them), there are ways around them.
Second, I reject the notion that simple nudity poses some sort of a nefarious threat to the well-being of our children. Sure, you don’t want them binge watching hours and hours of hardcore bondage porn, but the idea that seeing a topless woman will destroy the fragile mind of a hapless child is ridiculous. The more you teach young women to be ashamed of their bodies, the more you contribute to their sexualization. If their bodies were treated the same as we treat boys/men’s bodies, perhaps our young women would come to expect more equal treatment in other areas. Or is that perhaps part of the problem?
Third, anyone who has ever read the comments section of any website that has ever existed can tell you just how evil text can be. YouTube has more cringe-inducing comments than PornHub (from what I’ve been told), and the things kids say to one another in broad daylight and in full view of their families and friends on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are far more dangerous and destructive than a couple of perky nipples perched atop a mound of flesh. It isn’t the unclad female form that is driving teenagers (and sometimes preteens) to commit suicide, it’s other kids!
Lastly, any platform that allows users to message one another can expose children to potential predators. There is nothing in place to stop some monster from trolling blogs and messaging random children now, and that is not going to change after December 17th. Do you know what is going to change? Thanks to the laws designed to thwart human trafficking and the efforts of corporations to avoid exposing themselves to massive financial penalties, parents are going to be led to believe that the internet is a safer place for their kids to roam unsupervised. If this isn’t a recipe for disaster, then I don’t know what is.
At least when parents were worried about their child stumbling across a bare-chested woman, they gave a casual glance towards their child’s device once in a while. God save our children when parents are sold the lie that their children are safer online because we’ve scrubbed these images from the app stores.
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