Olives @olives@qoto.org

In this update, I try to add more background context around AI, I write a new preamble, and I cover how a State's attempts at censorship might go badly. We might also explore mirroring this post onto something like a blog (we have a very generous character limit on here). #anime #FreeSpeech #HumanRights

This post debunks a number of misguided opinions regarding erotic media forms (including online porn) and in related subjects (these points are typically synergistic, for instance, the human rights concept of due process addresses a potential motivator for censorship). This might involve something like content, proposed approaches like "age verification", presumptions that a new technology is bad, or how a new technology might be considered in abstract.

It references scientific studies, scientific commentary, human rights commentary, current affairs commentary for context, specific products, and other sources.

First, we start with an introduction.

Some lines of argumentation hinge on the possibility that a particular bit of content might be "problematic" (perhaps, rather nebulously). And before we go into how these points are a lot more dubious than someone might try to portray, it is important to think about how we might approach other areas. While something like riding bicycles might lead to "harms" (such as physical injuries), we don't shine a high powered light on every such instance and talk about how bicycles are bad.

For another example, take murder mysteries. We don't spend time theorizing about how reading a murder mystery novel might lead someone to go out and commit murder. We don't make arguments that because such a TV show is airing, and that a murderer "might" have seen it, that it might have been involved in that crime. We typically focus on the murderer's actions here.

Or take the case of alcohol, we recognize that alcohol can be harmful, however, we don't attempt to impose a prohibition on it (even if the United States did once try, in part because a lot of it was manufactured by German companies at a time when the country was at war with Germany, it didn't go well). Somehow, we are capable of talking rationally about alcohol without jumping for dramatic ideas for intervention.

Other times, someone might not make more concrete arguments, they might vaguely point to the morality of something. Of course, morality is one of the most nebulous ideas there is. If there is a violent murder or a torture scene in a film, is this immoral? Nowadays, it seems the answer would be no, or that the question doesn't even matter. To further complicate this, perhaps, twenty years ago, even, someone might argue that such a torture scene is in fact "immoral" and that it should be censored for that reason. Now, you might have a harder time finding someone who would make such an argument. What changed? Did the torture themes suddenly become bundles of goodness? Or did people just collectively decide it wasn't worth censoring a torture scene in a horror film?

At the same time, despite this recognition, there are people who presume that a scene of people having sex is somehow "immoral". Or perhaps, a scene with more taboo themes. Or they might argue that a scene with fantasy torture might actually be okay but that another theme might not be. Unless, someone's moral belief system very specifically presupposes that very specific things are "bad", it doesn't make sense.

There are parallels between these different forms of media though. For instance, there were people who claimed that video games lead to violence. As it turns out, they don't (Ferguson, 2019). And as I am about to get into, there isn't really science that this is linked to crime either.

At the end of the day, there is one good reason why imaginary scenes aren't treated more harshly, and that is simply because they are not real. If it was a scene of someone actually going around killing people, those acts would be shocking and appalling, as they should be (even real scenes of murder might be useful for things like documenting war crimes (Asher-Schapiro, 2017)). However, when it comes to a work of fiction, that is hardly notable, it is nothing more than a form of entertainment.

Next, I am going to cover a number of scientific studies which call into question whether erotic media forms (particularly online porn) are so "spooky".

A Canadian study showed more gender egalitarian attitudes among users of porn (Kohut et al., 2015). A German study failed to find a link between porn use and sexism or "social dominance orientation" (Von Andrian-Werburg et al., 2023).

A 2020 U.S. study analysed 59 studies and failed to find a link between porn and sex crimes (Carr, 2020)(Ferguson & Hartley, 2020). As pointed out by (Olives, 2023), the study found things like telltale signs of p hacking and citation bias. It also found a publication bias which led to studies which didn't find effects being less likely to be represented, and tried to control for variables which might make it appear as if there might be a "link" when one isn't present. More on this later.

Dawson et al. (2019) fails to find a link between porn use and sexual aggression among adolescents which suggests that sexual aggression might not necessarily be an outcome of porn use among adolescents. This might further call into question whether disproportionate interventions are warranted here.

A Croatian study fails to replicate an older Dutch study which showed lower levels of "sexual satisfaction" among adolescents who use porn (Milas et al., 2019). This was found while looking into another study, I figured it would be a waste not to mention it.

As Castleman (2016) points out, there are a number of studies covering a number of countries which even show lower rates of crime (for instance, rape and child sexual abuse) with higher levels of porn use, such as one covering Japan (Diamond & Uchiyama, 1999). Another one is the Czech Republic (and apparently Finland) (Diamond et al., 2010). This even includes forms of porn involving taboos. Castleman (2016) also points to Denmark, China, and the United States. This contradicts the idea that porn use drives such crimes.

A 2022 U.S. study looked into studies regarding whether sexualization in video games caused harm to players and found it was not associated with negative outcomes (Ferguson et al., 2022).

Efrati (2018) shows that moralizing about sex can make matters worse.

Erectile dysfunction is not associated with pornography use (Prause & Binnie, 2022). It is important for someone to be treated properly for ED, rather than to waste time with such nonsense like "abstinence".

Brown (2015) is different from these kinds of studies (it's a news article) but it helps to add context. According to the CDC, there were actually fewer teenagers in the United States who had had sex in 2013 than in 1989. Those who did were more likely to have used some sort of contraception.

Now, for more discussion than details of particular studies.

When thinking about results, it is useful to consider things like the "scientific pile-on effect" (Ferguson, 2013)(Ferguson, 2020) which drive people to go looking for "links" between something like porn and something bad, no matter how weak or tenuous it might be. Factoring this in, you can eliminate a lot of false positives which otherwise don't have value in the real world.

We should also remember that correlation does not imply causation. One classic example of this which is taught in statistics and science is the "ice cream effect" where crime appears to rise with the number of ice cream sales (Peters, 2013). One compelling alternate theory which is pitched is that both ice cream sales, and crime, are associated with warmer weather. Peters also points out that simply because someone is out in hot weather doesn't mean that the hot weather will magically make them go and commit a crime.

When it comes to news media, it is important to remember a few things. The number of crimes or "risk" of such is known to not be associated with their occurrence in the news. The media is known to have a bias towards negativity and shock (Thompson, 2023)(Perlmutter, 2019). We also have to watch out for "sensationalism" and "man bites dog" type articles which focus on unusual events precisely because they are unusual (Kaplan, 2015).

Quite a few things which might get blamed on "the porn" are actually general mental health issues which could be dealt with more normally (Tuckman, 2017), and crucially, without conflating it with porn (which might even detract from dealing with someone's actual issues) (Ley, 2023a). Things which someone dislikes about their sexuality (including homosexuality) might also be blamed on "the porn" (Ley, 2023b).

From observing policy shifts, public discourse, and instances of censorship, it also seems that over the past few years, the amount of censorship which platforms (and others) have exerted has tended to increase over time. Some instances are documented by the ACLU (Holston-Zannell, 2023). Despite this, we are not hearing of the amount of crime decreasing in response to this. Censorship doesn't appear to be helping here, and it has it's own harms, particularly for marginalized groups.

Sometimes, censorship can even lead to less educational content being available. This might contain sexual content as with Blanton (2022) but not necessarily. I would not assume that all forms of education look like this particular example. Nonetheless, it is an example of how even a page containing "porn" might contain useful educational content.

Dark / taboo fantasies are fairly common and aren't a bad sign (Lehmiller, 2019) (Lehmiller, 2022). As Diamond and Uchiyama (1999) and other pieces of science remind us, this sort of content is not associated with crime, even if the fictional character is "like" / is a child, or the content is violent. Lehmiller (2022) found that many adults have sexual fantasies involving cartoon / anime characters, although these findings regarding taboo fantasies are not exclusive to that sort of content. If you know of people involved in such things, this might not be surprising to you. Not stigmatizing content because it might be offensive to someone is not the same as not having any sort of ethics though, for instance, someone could still remove content which depicts real minors (or non-consenting adults).

In fact, physical taboo media often even explicitly have a label cautioning someone against carrying out the acts featured in it (as well as a more typical R18 label). This is presumably to counter people who complain. Then again, do not re-enact statements have been used in seemingly sillier cases, such as telling someone not to murder anyone, and telling someone not to jump off a building, or a moving vehicle (think of those Hollywood type stunts). Now that I've mentioned that though, Sakoui (2020) should give you an idea as to why you shouldn't imitate Hollywood stunts.

While this is generally well-understood, something being a "cartoon" does not mean it is for someone younger. Even for shows like Scooby Doo (to give a well-known Western example), there might be spin-offs for adults like HBO Max's Velma (Wolinsky, 2022). There are plenty of people who enjoy such things. In this case, the reason people like it is fairly obvious, people grow up watching that show, and they're interested in more adult content when they're older.

As Lehmiller (2022) points out, people with some personality types (particularly those who are more easily stressed out) might fantasize about a fictional character to avoid stress or anxiety, or with one particular attachment style, for greater emotional distance. Tuckman (2017) and Moynihan et al. (2022) also point to the use of porn as a coping mechanism. Someone might also use porn as a form of entertainment (more specifically, it is used to escape from meaninglessness in life, boredom being a significant form of this here) (Moynihan et al., 2022). Medeiros (2024) argues that boredom can be psychologically harmful, as it is a state of psychological deprivation.

Stigma can be psychologically harmful, can make mental illnesses worse, and can make someone feel helpless (Vintiadis, 2017). Stigma in the form of legal prohibitions can worsen mental health (Ciacci & Sansone, 2023). Shaming and self-shame are psychologically harmful and unproductive (Sweezy, 2023). You also have to think of how someone subject to censorship might be more inclined to adopt a "them versus us" mentality, and how that might impede constructive integration.

During Covid, various things were interrupted, such as the delivery of sex education (Iovine, 2021). According to one study, there was an increase in porn use, participants attributed this to boredom, entertainment, and replacing sex with sexual partners (Cascalheira et al., 2021). The paper also reminds us that the evidence around whether sexual activity increased or decreased generally around Covid is mixed.

When it comes to restrictions like "age verification", trying to implement it in practice can lead to sites being blocked entirely, rather than an age verification process being implemented (Burgess, 2021). It's a good example of an idea which "might" work in theory but runs into challenges with the global nature of the Internet.

There can be privacy concerns with a platform holding sensitive personal information. If the government does it instead, you might have the same human rights concerns you would have with a government having access to such sensitive information. Even in the best of scenarios, the prospect of someone handing over information in such a setting might be unnerving for someone, particularly if they're from a marginalized group.

Is it really proportionate to do something like this? And consider there are alternatives which don't involve verifying with a platform, such as parental controls, which is used more with some age cohorts than others. Alternatively, something like sex education might be useful (Iovine, 2021), primarily for the older ones.

When it comes to the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights noted that education is preferred to censorship when it comes to pornographic content in regards to minors. She also mentioned that restrictions on freedoms should not have a basis in traditional or religious law. She also notes that an artwork differs from a non-fictional statement and that someone should be able to explore the darker side of humanity and that the real should not be conflated with that which is not real.

Something not being "artistic" does not preclude it from being expressive. Censorship can make stakeholders lose confidence in State institutions. The Special Rapporteur also shared the concern that motivations to restrict access to content for minors could lead to access to content also being restricted for adults (Shaheed, 2013).

When it comes to the Internet, it is important to remember that the Internet is not Facebook, one particular website, or about the "attitude" of one particular manager. Ham-fisting policy ideas like this would lead to many problems (Komaitis, 2021). Don't assume that a democratic country would be good at drafting up rules for expression and that they wouldn't stretch a bit of language in an excessive way (Censorship in Australia, n.d.).

Now, onto the new technologies. New technologies aren't really "symbols of evil". They might be used in a positive manner or a negative manner (i.e. to be harassing). Similarly, someone could use a car as a form of transport to take them to another location, or they could use a car to run someone over.

Also, the idea of a misguided tech panic is nothing new, there have been a number of such panics in the past, including over things like reading books, listening to the radio, and watching television (Orben, 2020).

Contrary to what some might believe, "AI" did not spring out of the aether when it was unveiled by the likes of OpenAI or Stability AI in 2022 (these use what we'd call "diffusion models"). Older forms based on GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), such as StyleGAN, were already in existence prior to that. Someone could throw in millions of, say, anime images, leave a few GPUs doing heavy crunching for a few weeks, and get something which roughly spits out novel imagery (Gwern, n.d.).

There are critiques of the web scraping practices of a few large AI firms which use diffusion models. Whether you think these critiques have merit, this process is distinct from someone using a large general purpose model to generate some sort of offensive content. Even if someone didn't generate specific forms of offensive content, these web scraping practices wouldn't magically change. Taking it a step further, would it make sense to attack content which wasn't generated via these processes? As the quality of training sets and outputs can be less than optimal, however, I would recommend creating a specialized model for these particular tasks, rather than relying on a general purpose one.

Also, if someone is involved in abuse / real child porn, that would be a more appropriate avenue for dealing with them, otherwise it undermines due process and invites a "guilt by association" of innocent people. Everyone has human rights (What Are Human Rights?, n.d.).

Models might be able to offer suggestions for what to do during an artistic process, rather than simply replacing a human (Culture, 2024).

As for VR, one prominent product is known to use anime style marketing (VRChat, n.d.) indicating that anime fans (or fans of that art form) are a common audience for such a product. Despite this, their product appears to be quite censorious for reasons that cannot be reasonably justified, although this is not the only avenue for such experiences. And while seemingly over-zealous, there is functionality to allow a user to hide some kinds of content which does not involve censorship, as well as other functionality for dealing with potential nuisances. It is said to have positive psychological properties, such as helping with social anxiety, and it is really just another form of expression.

And while VR could take on the role of a multi-player experience, it can also take on the role of a single player experience, and a number of VR experiences might take the form of a video game which has a VR device as a possible peripheral device, in a similar fashion to how you might use a monitor as a peripheral device.

A "VR device" can be as impromptu as putting a mobile phone in a cardboard box with a couple of lenses (Google Cardboard, n.d.).

As for LLMs (large language models), people are known to use them for all sorts of things, such as for DND (Dungeons & Dragons) campaigns (Brown, 2023), adult entertainment purposes, and even for therapeutic purposes (which can involve adult entertainment elements). Once again, it doesn't make sense to censor fictional / fantasy scenarios simply because they might be "offensive" to someone. For the sake of privacy while interacting with a model, it might be best to run one locally (or less reliably, one which is designed to not retain data from conversations with it) (Andersen, 2024).

It's important to not allow preconceptions of what "therapeutic value" should look like to get in the way (or to presume any particular group of people), even something as seemingly mundane as playing DND can have positive therapeutic implications, such as improving self-efficacy, self-esteem, and other aspects of mental health. Escapism, exploration, creative expression, and social support appear to be factors for such, as listed in Walsh and Linehan (2024). The use of a character also allows for distance when processing difficult emotions. Roleplay can also be useful for dealing with trauma and anxiety (Walsh & Linehan, 2024).

On one website, the avatars for the "AI chatbots" appear to overwhelmingly be of anime style characters (and these are also the sort of characters which the generator appears to push). These characters appear to largely be of a "child like" nature. The avatars themselves appear to be of a primarily SFW nature. It's unclear how many are even generated, and how many are uploaded images. On the website known as "character.ai", anime style characters get a significant number of views. I would approach decontextualized speculation with caution.

When it comes to sex robots, there has been quite a bit of chatter about these over the years. From curiosity, to expectation, to nonsense. Practically, speaking though, they're not really in a place where they're ready for practical use (and it's unclear whether they ever will be). Even if they were, they might be expensive for people looking to acquire them (Murray, 2021). Nonetheless, there are imitations which do get quite a bit of attention, such as the "sex dolls", they're neither new, or particularly smart. Coverage of them goes back a decade, and it doesn't appear the sky has fallen. A few argue they should be banned because they find them "disturbing" (and they also propose an inverted burden of proof where you have to show they "reduce crime", rather than simply being harmless, which is curious).

Some argue they reduce child sexual abuse. Finnish therapists who work with sex offenders made such an argument back in 2017 (Sexpo, 2017). Whatever you think of that, there isn't any evidence they increase crime, and studies so far have not supported the possibility they might (Ludden, 2022). While it's not something I generally see people use, I don't see why they should be held to a more restrictive standard than with online porn. Even if there are former / current criminals who use them, there are already laws against the crimes they're committing, and intervening would likely impede reintegration.

Ferguson, C. J. (2019). Analysis: Why it’s time to stop blaming video games for real-world violence. PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-why-its-time-to-stop-blaming-video-games-for-real-world-violence

Asher-Schapiro, A. (2017). YouTube and Facebook are removing evidence of atrocities, jeopardizing cases against war criminals. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2017/11/02/war-crimes-youtube-facebook-syria-rohingya/

Kohut, T., Baer, J. L., & Watts, B. (2015). Is Pornography Really about “Making Hate to Women”? Pornography Users Hold More Gender Egalitarian Attitudes Than Nonusers in a Representative American Sample. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2015.1023427

Von Andrian-Werburg, M. T. P., Siegers, P., & Breuer, J. (2023). A Re-evaluation of Online Pornography Use in Germany: A Combination of Web Tracking and Survey Data Analysis. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52(8), 3491–3503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02666-8

Carr, S. (2020). Study: Pornography does not cause violent sex crimes. https://www.utsa.edu/today/2020/08/story/pornography-sex-crimes-study.html (press release for the study to add more context)

Ferguson, C. J., & Hartley, R. D. (2020). Pornography and sexual aggression: Can Meta-Analysis find a link? Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 23(1), 278–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020942754

Olives (2023). https://qoto.org/@olives/110462274531891870

Dawson, K., Tafro, A., & Štulhofer, A. (2019). Adolescent sexual aggressiveness and pornography use: A longitudinal assessment. Aggressive Behavior, 45(6), 587–597. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21854

Milas, G., Wright, P., & Štulhofer, A. (2019). Longitudinal assessment of the association between pornography use and sexual satisfaction in adolescence. The Journal of Sex Research, 57(1), 16–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1607817

Castleman, M. (2016). Evidence Mounts: More Porn, Less Sexual Assault. All About Sex. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/all-about-sex/201601/evidence-mounts-more-porn-less-sexual-assault

Diamond, M., & Uchiyama, A. (1999). Pornography, rape, and sex crimes in Japan. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 22(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2527(98)00035-1

Diamond, M., Jozifkova, E., & Weiss, P. (2010). Pornography and sex crimes in the Czech Republic. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(5), 1037–1043. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9696-y

Ferguson, C. J., Sauer, J. D., Drummond, A., Kneer, J., & Lowe-Calverley, E. (2022). Does sexualization in video games cause harm in players? A meta-analytic examination. Computers in Human Behavior, 135, 107341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107341

Efrati, Y. (2018). God, I can’t stop thinking about sex! The rebound effect in unsuccessful suppression of sexual thoughts among religious adolescents. The Journal of Sex Research, 56(2), 146–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1461796

Prause, N., & Binnie, J. (2022). Reboot/NOFAP participants erectile concerns predicted by anxiety and not Mediated/Moderated by Pornography viewing. Journal of Psychosexual Health, 4(4), 252–254. https://doi.org/10.1177/26318318221116354

Brown, E. N. (2015). Despite all the panic, millennial teens have much less sex than their elders did. Reason. https://reason.com/2015/07/23/despite-all-the-panic-millennial-teens-h/ (the layout of one of the sites appears to have changed after 2018)

Ferguson, C. J. (2013). Soda and the scientific Pile-On Effect. TIME. https://ideas.time.com/2013/08/28/soda-and-the-scientific-pile-on-effect/

Ferguson, C. J. (2020). “13 Reasons Why” and Teen Suicide. Checkpoints. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/checkpoints/202007/13-reasons-why-and-teen-suicide

Peters, J. (2013). When ice cream sales rise, so do homicides. coincidence, or will your next cone murder you? Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/07/warm-weather-homicide-rates-when-ice-cream-sales-rise-homicides-rise-coincidence.html

Thompson, D. (2023). The Internet Loves Bad News. And That's Bad. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/03/negativity-bias-online-news-consumption/673499/

Perlmutter, A. (2019). How Negative News Distorts Our Thinking. The Modern Brain. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-modern-brain/201909/how-negative-news-distorts-our-thinking

Kaplan, S. (2015). Man bites dog. No, really. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/04/man-bites-dog-no-really/

Tuckman, A. (2017). Porn Isn’t the Problem. Sex Matters. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/sex-matters/201710/porn-isn-t-the-problem

Ley, D. J. (2023a). Why Narcissists Are More Likely to Identify as Porn Addicts. Women Who Stray. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/women-who-stray/202309/why-narcissists-are-more-likely-to-identify-as-porn-addicts

Ley, D. J. (2023b). Homophobia and Religiosity Drive Struggles with Porn. Women Who Stray. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/women-who-stray/202307/homophobia-and-religiosity-drive-struggles-with-porn

Holston-Zannell, L. B. (2023). Sex workers and legal advocates file Federal Trade Commission complaint against Mastercard [Press release]. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/sex-workers-and-legal-advocates-file-federal-trade-commission-complaint-against-mastercard

Blanton, R. (2022). 27 fingering techniques: How to finger vagina, anus & prostate. Practical guides. https://thesexshed.com/blogs/how-to/fingering-techniques-tips-for-fingering-vagina-anus-prostate (contains sexual content)

Lehmiller, J. J. (2019). Our 7 Most Common Sexual Fantasies. The Myths of Sex. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-myths-sex/201911/our-7-most-common-sexual-fantasies

Lehmiller, J. J. (2022). Why Animated Porn Is So Popular. The Myths of Sex. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-myths-of-sex/202212/why-animated-porn-is-so-popular

Sakoui, A. (2020). Injured stunt performer on “Resident Evil” film speaks out. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-05-04/resident-evil-stuntwoman-lost-her-arm-hollywood-accidents-milla-jovovich

Wolinsky, D. (2022). First Look At HBO Max's Velma Adult Animated Series. GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/first-look-at-hbo-maxs-velma-adult-animated-series/1100-6503660/

Moynihan, A. B., Igou, E. R., & Van Tilburg, W. A. (2022). Pornography consumption as existential escape from boredom. Personality and Individual Differences, 198, 111802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111802

Medeiros, J. (2024). Boring architecture is starving your brain. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/modern-architecture-starving-public-stimulation-thomas-heatherwick-cities-design-wired-health/

Burgess, M. (2021). Germany is about to block one of the biggest porn sites. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/germany-porn-sites-age-checks/

Vintiadis, E. (2017). On Fighting Mental Health Stigma. Minding the Mind. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/minding-the-mind/201708/fighting-mental-health-stigma

Ciacci, R., & Sansone, D. (2023). The impact of sodomy law repeals on crime. Journal of Population Economics, 36(4), 2519–2548. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-023-00953-1

Sweezy, M. (2023). Is Shaming Effective? Internal Family Systems Therapy for Shame and Guilt. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/internal-family-systems-therapy-for-shame-and-guilt/202312/is-shaming-effective

Iovine, A. (2021). The pandemic disrupted sex ed when students needed it most. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/online-sex-education-covid-pandemic

Cascalheira, C. J., McCormack, M., Portch, E., & Wignall, L. (2021). Changes in sexual fantasy and solitary sexual practice during social lockdown among young adults in the UK. Sexual Medicine, 9(3), 100342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esxm.2021.100342

Shaheed, F. (2013). The right to freedom of artistic expression and creativity (A/HRC/23/34). U.N. Human Rights Office. https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/23/34

Komaitis, K. (2021). Regulators seem to think that Facebook is the internet. Slate. https://slate.com/technology/2021/08/facebook-internet-regulation.html

Censorship in Australia. (n.d.). Refused Classification. https://refused-classification.com/

Orben, A. (2020). The sisyphean cycle of technology panics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(5), 1143–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620919372

Gwern. (n.d.). This Anime Does Not Exist. https://thisanimedoesnotexist.ai

What are human rights? (n.d.). U.N. Human Rights Office. https://www.ohchr.org/en/what-are-human-rights

Culture. (2024). AI in Manga: Transforming Japanese Comics. Culture. https://culture.org/art-and-culture/literature/ai-in-manga/

VRChat. (n.d.). VRChat. https://hello.vrchat.com/

Google Cardboard. (n.d.). Google VR. https://vr.google.com/cardboard/

Brown, J. (2023). Running a local LLM for DND campaign creation. Medium. https://medium.com/@josiah.alen.brown/running-a-local-llm-for-dnd-campaign-creation-fd653bceeab9

Andersen, E. (2024). Navigating Personal Data in LLMs: A GDPR perspective. Finextra. https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/26462/navigating-personal-data-in-llms-a-gdpr-perspective

Walsh, O., & Linehan, C. (2024). Roll for Insight: Understanding How the Experience of Playing Dungeons & Dragons Impacts the Mental Health of an Average Player. International Journal of Role-Playing, 15, 36–60. https://doi.org/10.33063/ijrp.vi15.321

Murray, L. (2021). Adult Entertainment Robots: A Buyer’s Guide. Engineering and Technology Magazine. https://eandt.theiet.org/2021/12/06/adult-entertainment-robots-buyers-guide

Sexpo. (2017). Avoin kirje Tullille: Huoli lasta esittävistä seksinukeista on turha. https://web.archive.org/web/20170420182546/https://sexpo.fi/2017/03/09/avoin-kirje-tullille-huoli-lasta-esittavista-seksinukeista-on-turha/ (posts older than 2018 appear to be missing on the new site)

Ludden, D. (2022). What Kind of Men Buy Sex Dolls? Talking Apes. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/talking-apes/202208/what-kind-person-would-own-sex-doll

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/30/japan/crime-legal/same-sex-ruling-unconstitutional/
"The Tokyo High Court ruled on Wednesday that not allowing same-sex couples to marry is unconstitutional, with the beaming plaintiffs team calling the judgment “historic.”

It is the second high-court ruling to describe the ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. The first high court ruling was handed down in March at the Sapporo High Court.

Six same-sex marriage lawsuits have been filed in five district courts nationwide."
#HumanRights #Japan

https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship-timelines/game-iarc/
More games banned by Australia.

https://www.appbrain.com/app/mountains-of-madness/com.atomichorde.coi2
Mountains of Madness. You play as a private investigator in the Lovecraftian horror universe.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/19680/Alice_Madness_Returns/
Alice: Madness Returns. A popular game inspired by Alice in Wonderland but with a dark psychological twist.
#auspol #FreeSpeech