“Age verification laws do not protect children the way they are intended, they restrict free speech and prevent people from educating children about healthy and unhealthy behaviors.”
Pedophile advocacy group Prostasia, which seeks to destigmatize pedophiles, has spoken out against age-verification laws that require pornography websites to verify that users looking to access the site are over the age of 18.
"Age verification laws do not protect children the way they are intended, they restrict free speech and prevent people from educating children about healthy and unhealthy behaviors. Protecting children happens at the policy level," the organization wrote.
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View on XThe post came in response to the Free Speech Coalition announcing that it has filed a challenge in federal court over Montana’s age verification law.
Texas has passed a similar law as well as Virginia, with pornography giant Pornhub disabling access to the website in both those states in protest of the law.
Prostasia is no stranger to controversy, with the organization previously saying that exposing children to fetishes reduces child sexual abuse.
A 2022 post titled "3 simple steps that can reduce CSA," or child sexual abuse, states that "Comprehensive sex ed that includes pleasure, consent, chronophilias, fetishes, etc." can reduce child sexual abuse.
One of the fetishes highlighted is "chronophilia," one that "many don't even know about until it becomes part of their lives." Chronophilia is the sexual attraction to people of a specific age range.
"The best science we have on hand right now is that minor attraction is something you are born with and can't change," the group stated.
The group said that "chronophilias go beyond minor attraction, there are age related sexualities on the other side as well," adding that "Minors can have little to no attraction to those in their own age group while being attracted to adults in general (though the onus is always on the adult to say no.)"
Prostasia said that sex education must be "centered on sex positivity and consent" to give students "a much better chance of leading ethical and satisfying sex lives."
Prostasia has also pressured an academic journal to remove a peer-reviewed case study of the organization, which is registered in the state of California as a child protection charity.
The British Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and History (BJPSH) removed the piece after representatives from the group demanded the removal of the paper on the grounds that "the paper was defamatory for the company."
BJPSH stated, "we received an email saying some statements were not true, policy at the journal, is to avoid such issues."
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