<story><title>With SESTA/FOSTA, lawmakers failed to separate good intentions from bad law</title><url>https://www.eff.org//deeplinks/2018/03/how-congress-censored-internet</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>moomin</author><text>This is the real story:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;While we can’t speculate on the agendas of the groups behind SESTA, we can study those same groups’ past advocacy work. Given that history, one could be forgiven for thinking that some of these groups see SESTA as a mere stepping stone to banning pornography from the Internet or blurring the legal distinctions between sex work and trafficking.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Too many laws in America are stalking horses for restricting, not just commercial sexual activity, but all unapproved sexual activity. And the people who&amp;#x27;d be doing the approving don&amp;#x27;t look like people I want in charge of my or my kid&amp;#x27;s sex life.&lt;p&gt;Child pornography and sex trafficking are both real, serious, problems. We should deal with them, not work to make it harder for sex workers and horny teenagers. But for a lot of the pressure groups in this area, the second thing is _their actual goal_.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>djsumdog</author><text>In more sane high income countries, New Zealand, parts of Australia, the UK, et. al, prostitution is legal and regulated. If sex workers get into trouble, there are places and people they can go to get help. It at least attempts to be a legitimate industry.&lt;p&gt;In America, we have parts of Nevada and that&amp;#x27;s it. Filming a sex act and paying for it is legal (if you do your due diligence and make sure you have all the right paperwork, a good lawyer, and for good measure you should probably only film in California and Florida -- it&amp;#x27;s why there are so few industries who can afford the lawyers to do porn, but that&amp;#x27;s another issue entirely...)&lt;p&gt;The right way to deal with sex trafficking is to make it legal for people to do what they want with sex&amp;#x2F;their bodies, create as safe a sex-work industry as you can, and make it more difficult for illegitimate people in the sex industry to work.&lt;p&gt;This just takes me back to the Child Safety Protection Act of 1994. Over a decade later we&amp;#x27;re fighting the same bullshit.</text></comment>
<story><title>With SESTA/FOSTA, lawmakers failed to separate good intentions from bad law</title><url>https://www.eff.org//deeplinks/2018/03/how-congress-censored-internet</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>moomin</author><text>This is the real story:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;While we can’t speculate on the agendas of the groups behind SESTA, we can study those same groups’ past advocacy work. Given that history, one could be forgiven for thinking that some of these groups see SESTA as a mere stepping stone to banning pornography from the Internet or blurring the legal distinctions between sex work and trafficking.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Too many laws in America are stalking horses for restricting, not just commercial sexual activity, but all unapproved sexual activity. And the people who&amp;#x27;d be doing the approving don&amp;#x27;t look like people I want in charge of my or my kid&amp;#x27;s sex life.&lt;p&gt;Child pornography and sex trafficking are both real, serious, problems. We should deal with them, not work to make it harder for sex workers and horny teenagers. But for a lot of the pressure groups in this area, the second thing is _their actual goal_.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>PurpleBoxDragon</author><text>One should look at the history behind why certain currently banned obscenity is banned, and what the goals of the groups were who originally pushed the ban.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;Given that history, one could be forgiven for thinking that some of these groups see SESTA as a mere stepping stone to banning pornography from the Internet&lt;p&gt;This is one of their main goals.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;blurring the legal distinctions between sex work and trafficking&lt;p&gt;I think this has largely been achieved.</text></comment>