I don’t read their comment as particularly triggered, but if you honestly think they were triggered by a reference to CSAM, this is a wildly inappropriate question to ask.

In general I think it is better to not project some emotional reading onto other people’s posts.

still don't get it, is this one of those things I'll magically be attuned to if I become a parent (but only maybe?), or does it require personal experience? or is there anything I can read about

Generally “triggered” is used to describe the recall of previous traumatic experiences, i.e,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_trigger

So it is obvious why somebody wouldn’t ask for more details on that sort of thing, right?

Maybe you are just using it to ask why they are annoyed, and weren’t aware of the specific definition that phrase?

People have definitely diluted the word trigger, and it is impossible to tell the difference between someone referencing a traumatic experience or something akin to annoyance or being distracted. 'Triggered my anxiety' where anxiety is also diluted to 'something I would prefer not to deal with'.

In this case, it seemed like the phrasing was enough to distract them from a discussion that didnt need to be derailed

Since you didn’t give any indication that you were using the “diluted” meaning, I’d say it is more accurate to say that you miscommunicated, rather than that anyone got distracted.

Okay I’ll take it

I was curious about why they felt compelled to take the thread that direction when the meaning was clear. They felt CSAM was being minimized when that was a red herring to the discussion.

It is bad when children are abused.

Many (most?) people feel this viscerally, regardless of personal experience of parenthood or of abuse. This why the "think of the children" rhetorical gambit works.

In general, people like to believe in fairness, and dislike it when bad things happen to those who can't be said to "deserve" it somehow. Thus child abuse is more universally reviled than the rape of adults, because it's a lot harder to justify a child "deserving" that. (See also: kicking a friendly dog as a way to show off that a fictional villain is irredeemable.)

For a non-sexual example, remember how the pictures in this article provoked a surprising upswing in horror amongst even very anti-refugee people? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image...

Has their been some massive increase in the amount of child abuse to justify the new paranoia I see in the media and with new laws? Perhaps a certain political party is taking advantage of parents who, let's face it, are emotional and paranoid themselves. Parents by nature operate more selfishly than others and that includes the freedom of the people around them

Parents are more selfish? That is the exact opposite of my experience. Parents are generally the most selfless. Its those who choose not to be a parent who prefer their selfish desires.

And yes, csam is on the up and up.

> From March 2009 to February 2022, the number of victims identified in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) rose from 2,172 victims to over 21,413 victims. From 2012 to 2022, the volume of reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline concerning child sexual exploitation increased from 415,650 reports to over 32 million reports.

See https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/releases/durbin-i....

If you put the concerns of your children over the rest of the population that's selfish.

Also how about some numbers that aren't swayed by covid

How exactly are parents putting the needs of their children over that of the rest of the population? Or are you saying that societies shouldn’t cater to children on any level beyond a minor inconvenience? Do the school buses making you have to stop driving your car bother you that much? Or are we building too many parks somewhere? And if so, where?

Children literally are the future society. Making them a priority is more selfless than making today's adults a priority.

What does covid have to do with the 10+ years of data I referenced? And even if the data does skew up during covid, how does that make it less of a problem?

nonchildren are also future society, unless every adult immediately dies, so deprioritizing them in favor of someone related to yourself seems selfish to me

if it's just some random kid and you have none of your own, such professions of selflessness might be more convincing

This article talks about how those numbers are manipulated https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/24/senator-durbins-stop-csa...

Snippet-- "I mean, back in March of 2009, the tools to track, find and report CSAM were in their infancy. Facebook didn’t start using PhotoDNA (which was only developed in 2009) until the middle of 2011. It’s unclear when Google started using it as well, but this announcement suggests it was around 2013 — noting that “recently” the company started using “encrypted “fingerprints” of child sexual abuse images into a cross-industry database” (which describes PhotoDNA)."

This is what I'm talking about with paranoid parents. I'm sick of your "save the children" bullshit

Wait. Are you saying you don't get why some people may be bothered by sexual crimes against innocent children? Am I misinterpreting your post ?

Edit-- I'll happily take the down vote on this, I understand the policy of extending charitable interpretation But I am genuinely confused which is why I asked for clarification, it was not rhetorical.

Can your elaborate on your trigger here?

Was it someone daring to suggest that molesting a 3 year old is actually bad, like really bad?

It is inappropriate to ask someone about their trigger in such contexts. Why would you expect someone to go into details on past traumas like this?

If they are using their experience to advocate for changes that affect me then they should justify it

Justification wasn't requested. Elaborating on their "trigger" was. Again, this is abhorrent. No one should be required to go into details about being sexually assaulted as a means of "justification."