Regulate porn to increase birth rates? How does that work? Less porn usually means less sexual activity overall, which would lower birth rates, not raise them. In China for example porn is banned, and their birth rates are still low.

This is over intellectualising degerate porn. It should be banned on account of poor taste.

Banning pornography alone hasn’t moved the needle on fertility in China. However, in places like Tianmen, where broader pro-natalist strategies were implemented, including porn bans, there’s evidence those multi-pronged efforts had measurable impact.

What’s less clear is the claim that pornography is inherently harmful to children’s development or wellbeing, the research is mixed at best. And the justification that age-gating websites and apps is purely about safety remains deeply unconvincing.

So then either this effort is misguided, a hollow gesture for optics, or a small piece of a broader agenda that hasn’t been made explicit. It just seems to me that this is creating a lot of chaos for a hollow gesture.

I get your point about the research being inconclusive, but the real question is whether child protection should be the default, or if we're okay with giving kids access to porn until we're sure it's harmful. That seems backwards to me.

Just because it doesn't make sense doesn't mean the government won't try it anyway.

I'm not sure I agree that the government makes businesses ask for ID because of some hidden agenda, beyond protecting minors and collecting taxes, which are both pretty standard.