Technology

Exactly. Same with faux bait stuff. I personally think it's gross so I don't consume it, but if everyone is a consenting adult and it stops people from consuming real CSAM I can't really support banning it.

But the problem many people have with stuff like that is they assume the people consuming it will go on to do it to real people, which is the same argument they tried to use against violent video games.

It's a moral panic - pure and simple. The same reason some countries want to ban cartoon/animated pictures where the fictional character looks too young. I guess the underlying assumption there is that it'll increase the number of people offending towards real children but I don't think there's any evidence to back that up.

If it was up to me, the criteria would be whether an actual person is being hurt directly or as a consequence of. That would include real violence, real pictures and possibly also GenAI stuff if it's trained on real content.

I believe the last time something like this came up, the argument was raised that it normalizes the behavior and leads to escalation, i.e. “they’re just illustrations” “it’s just a doll” to “I’m just taking photos” or “it’s just touching”, this time against actual victims