Tumblr announced this week that it will no longer allow x-rated content on its platform.
In a blog post published Monday, CEO Jeff D’Onofrio wrote:
Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change … Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).
A public outcry ensued, with many people vowing to delete their Tumblr accounts in protest.
Others are freaking out about where they’re going to get their amateur porn fixes going forward.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Porn addiction can be a serious problem. Just ask Willy Hudson. In a brave new op-ed published by Gay Star News, Hudson writes about his struggles as a sexual being with an addictive personality.
“I started watching porn when I was about 13,” he writes. “Any chance I could get, I was on the family computer with my hands down my pants. It was how I learnt about sex and bodies.”
Sounds like typical gay teenager behavior.
NBD, right?
Wrong.
“It didn’t stop,” Hudson writes. “My consumption was high. When phones launched with internet this gave me an excuse to watch even more, in secret and late into the night. It was escapism. I wasn’t interested in real sex–I was lost in hardcore virtual intercourse.”
Hudson says his obsession with online sex eventually led to a complete inability to have actual sex with real live people when he got older.
“I couldn’t do it,” he writes. “My mind was wired to this 2D virtual sex that I could flick on my screen and skip straight to the climax.”
I couldn’t get an erection when with a real person. I was freaked out, anxious and mortified, and watched more porn to hide the shame, proving to myself I could get hard to a three inch screen. The high was a welcome quick fix.
After doing some research, he learned he wasn’t alone. This is one of the most common side affects of porn addiction.
Hudson eventually kicked his habit by quitting cold turkey, but he says it was “awful.”
“I had cravings, making excuses to myself to see pictures of d*cks. But I stuck with it, flatlined and lost all sexual appetite.”
Eventually, his libido returned. But it took a long time. A very long time.
“After about two years I started getting erections without porn,” he says. “Another year and sex finally happened. My brain was rewiring.”
Though he’s doing better today, Hudson’s addiction continues to be an ongoing struggle for him.
“I’m not out of the water yet,” he writes. “I may never be completely.”
Last week I relapsed. I was feeling a bit shite and stayed in bed all day, finding porn accounts on Twitter. There are loads. I couldn’t get out of the cycle and made excuses for myself. ‘It’s only this once’. I wanted to be self-destructive, having a quick fix to make myself feel good.
Hudson believes there is “an unhealthy consumption of porn, leading to addiction” in the world.
“This is fueled by its immediacy via technology and is a deeper reflection of mental health,” he writes. “And we need to talk about it. We need to understand the nature and causes of addiction.”
“I’m calling for warnings, support and open discussion. Porn shouldn’t be kept as a dirty joke or secret trapped in our phones.”
Related: Tumblr announces ban on all adult content and people are pissed
AlexEf
Sounds like Queerty supports this ban
djmcgamester
Maybe, for once, they’re trying to look at the non-hysterical viewpoint.
Scout
Haven’t these guys heard of PornHub?
Kangol
Tumblr was the frictionless version of PornHub, MyVidster, XTube, etc.; easier to sign in, easier to see images and videos without horrible pop-up videos, spam and potential viruses, easier to download/drag any images or videos you liked, just far less of a hassle over all.
Kangol
I’m curious to hear libertarians’ views on this. Tumblr could have banned kiddie porn but kept adult content, but instead they going the nuclear route. Why? Also, does one person’s porn addiction, which should be addressed by a trained professional, necessitate destroying an entire platform’s content?
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HereIAm
If you are watching porn on a regular basis, there is something seriously wrong with you. If you have a hole in you heart, it cannot be filled with the visual junks. If you are a person with strong will power, you can quit it cold but if you insist upon your harmful addiction, then I hope your computer will be infected with nasty virus, spyware, and ransomware and that your credit will be ruined.
Curtispsf
@HereIAm WhaT? You support the ruining of someone’s credit just because they have an addiction to Porn? Well how the hell are they going to sign up with a credit card at all those porn sites? Pretty soon they’ll be robbing convenience stores just to get gift cards to finance their addiction. After that, it’s bank robberies and car jacking, and after that it’s crack cocaine. All because they just wanted to rub one out? And, of course, there’s Demon Alcohol. Oh, Demon Alcohol. Sad memories I can’t recall. Who thought that I would fall…a slave to Demon Alcohol? So there’s THAT. /|\
PinkoOfTheGange
Someone needs to pay for their pron and stay off the torrent sites.
Paco
“Well isn’t that special”
crowebobby
HereIAm: Just mildly curious. How do you feel about people like Pol Pot, Adolf Eichmann, John Wayne Gacy? Would you compare them to people who like to look at other people’s wee-wees and poopie-holes? Is your contempt the same, a little stronger, a lot stronger? Hard too imagine it could be too much stronger.
Doctor Benway
But… how this is even related to the Tumblr thing?
This is completely another topic.
PinkoOfTheGange
Tangentially at best.
JK 1984
I was thinking the same thing. If there is an impact on this guy from Tumblr getting rid if “adult” content, it wasn’t explained very well/at all.
Geeker
He has an issue so he wants to ban porn…seems not totally insane at all.
iamru2
So because this guy had a problem the rest of us have to deal with it as well?
ShowMeGuy
I have two Tumblr channels. One is dedicated to rollercoasters and amusement parks. The other one is gay adult content. Guess which one gets more visitors? Looks like it will not exist here in another week.
PinkoOfTheGange
Want to de-erotisize pron? Work in it for a couple weeks.
It is like not eating commercial sausage after seeing it made, for most.
dean089
This article seems to start with the premise that watching porn automatically equals an addiction to porn. Charming.
winemaker
When I heard this i thought, here we go again! Since when do a bunch of prudes have the right to ban what they consider porn? The supreme court decided this years ago, what’s one man’s art can be anothers porn and vice versa. This place is becoming more like communist china, russia or north korea, sad to say. Many and more of our freedoms are being eliminated. I agree that ‘kiddie’ porn has no place anywhere but to ban so called ‘porn’ across trhr board, WRONG. For those who’re offended by it, don’t look at it, plain and simple. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way about this erosion of one more of our rights as Americans!
HereIAm
I have said it here many times and I am going to say it again. When we see something so morally wrong like porn, so spiritually repulsive and degenerate, we have to speak up against it and push it back as far as we can. There is no middle ground here. You don’t have to agree with me but I stand by my point of view.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
HereIam: You really should do something about those people forcing you to watch porn!!!!
Wicked Dickie
I watch Tumblr porn most nights when I masturbate go help me sleep. Now what do I do?
Paulie P
tumblr should make all adult content private and the viewer has to request permission….simple. but to shut it down will do more harm. there are some tumblrs that are so artistically crafted. it is foolish.
Bob LaBlah
A lot of the “adult” content on Tumblr includes nude videos placed there by teens who do not appear to be eighteen years old but yet have Tumblr accounts and are posting those types of vids. Why not patrol the age requirements a little more stricter than they do?
Tombear
What is fun is getting stoned and then rubbing one out. The orgasm is more intense.
EdgarCarpenter
Children’s brains are different from adults brains. There is a lot of evidence now that kids’ brains are not able to handle a lot of the internet experience (not just porn) without getting pretty out of whack. It’s just too different from the physical world we evolved to make sense out of.
So – this guy started watching porn non-stop as a kid. So yes, his problems with porn fit really well with all the research on how kids’ brains go awry when they’ve got free and constant internet access.
None of this should have any bearing on adult use of porn. Which is different, and doesn’t have the same effects.
seaguy
Porn is like any other thing you consume too much is not good. Moderation is key.
seaguy
There are consequences when it comes to consuming too much of anything. Too much food makes you obese. Porn is an alternative to real sex but not a substitute.