A short video calling for regulating social media use for those under the age of 16 in Jordan unexpectedly sparked a nationwide debate. The suggestion was simple: if we are serious about digital safety, blocking access to pornographic websites could be a reasonable first step.
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What followed, however, was not a discussion about children, digital wellbeing, or online responsibility. Instead, the backlash revealed something deeper — a collective adult anxiety that quickly hijacked a conversation meant to protect minors.
Suddenly, the argument shifted. Many, particularly young men, framed pornography not as a risk, but as a “necessity.” High marriage costs, unemployment, and social pressure were presented as justifications. The message was clear: in a difficult economic and social reality, access to explicit content is seen by some as compensation.
This shift is worth examining.
The original discussion was never about restricting adults or policing private behavior. It was about children — minors who are exposed to sexual content long before they have the emotional or psychological tools to process it. In an age of unlimited access, the line between childhood and adulthood is increasingly blurred, and societies around the world are struggling to redraw it.
Yet in Jordan, the conversation quickly moved away from child protection and toward adult frustration. When did a debate about safeguarding minors turn into a defense of pornography as a social outlet?
Normalizing this logic is dangerous. Economic hardship and delayed marriage are real issues that deserve serious solutions — housing, employment opportunities, fair wages, and social support. But replacing human connection and social reform with digital consumption is not a solution; it is an escape. One that carries long-term psychological and social consequences.
Research globally has already linked excessive consumption of explicit content to distorted expectations of relationships, increased isolation, and emotional dissatisfaction. Framing pornography as a harmless or necessary substitute ignores these realities and places the burden of unresolved social problems on individual coping mechanisms rather than collective responsibility.
The video that sparked this debate — one I shared online — was never intended to police adult behavior. It was meant to reopen a conversation about child protection in a digital age. That distinction, however, was quickly lost.
Minors were the subject, not adults. Protecting them from early exposure to explicit material is not censorship, nor is it moral policing. It is a basic responsibility. A society that cannot draw a clear boundary around childhood risks losing its sense of boundaries altogether.
The real issue exposed by the backlash is not simply resistance to regulation, but discomfort with confronting deeper social failures. It is easier to defend access than to demand reform. Easier to normalize consumption than to question why intimacy, stability, and connection have become so difficult to achieve.
Perhaps the question we should be asking is not whether blocking certain websites limits freedom, but why the idea of protecting children triggered such strong adult anxiety in the first place.
Because when child protection feels threatening, it may be a sign that something far more fundamental has gone wrong.
