It’s like watching a clown show. Maybe he should watch more porn and grow up.
That headline is… incredibly inaccurate. They’ve pledged to each other to avoid porn, and have software that throws an alarm (visible to each other) if they view it.
“Monitor Each Other’s Porn Intake” implies that they are seeking out porn and sharing it with each other, which is not what is happening here.
I think there are plenty of legitimate concerns here, but father and son sharing porn links is not one of them.
Also, I imagine young Mr. Johnson has at least 1 Android tablet or other burner device that is unknown to Dad.
No, what monitoring in this context means is to be made aware of each other’s porn INTAKE, or how much is being consumed and when, which the software is said to do. Nothing is suggesting they seek porn out to share content with each other, just that they are alerted when the other accesses porn.
I’d bet youre right about the alternative devices though.
In any other context, “monitoring intake” implies that the monitored party is consuming a quantity of the thing under discussion, and that the monitoring party is getting a report on what, when, and how much.
You wouldn’t say “monitoring food intake” about someone abstaining from food, or “monitoring alcohol intake” about someone maintaining sobriety. You’d probably say “fasting” or “avoiding alcohol”, or similar language. Such language should have been used here for clarity, IMO.
People on the thread are responding like they are reviewing each other’s porn, because the language encourages that misinterpretation.
I would say “monitoring food intake” means “making sure there isn’t too much”. One can infer through context that “too much” porn to conservative Christians would be “any” porn. Given the context of who the article is discussing, I did not assume they were sharing porn with each other. I have not seen any comments where this was assumed, as well.
“son, i’m going to be fasting from my big tiddy goth gf porn, care to help me out?”
Nope, still sounds fuckin weird my g
I just looked into the app being used here, called “covenant eyes” and it seems your interpretation of the phrase is actually more correct, unfortunately that makes the headline even less misleading. You are indeed able to see and review exactly what content was accessed that set off the alert.
If you watch the “How it works” intro video on their site it seems they are literally monitoring and reviewing each other’s porn intake.
I wouldn’t be shocked to find there’s something to the jokes.
Sexually repressed conservatives usually have freaking weird kinks.
Right, because making your son your porn accountability buddy is an extremely normal and healthy thing to do.
How dare this article make it sound like such a healthy and normal thing is somehow extremely weird and creepy!?!
It’s not like he had his wife holding him accountable for not looking at naked bodies online. That would be disgusting. No, like any upstanding citizen he wisely decided that he’d have it alert his son if temptation ever became too much and he looked at porn.
If only he had a parenting guide so that we could all learn to run a household in ways that will definitely not result in all the kids needing therapy down the road.
Right, because making your son your porn accountability buddy is an extremely normal and healthy thing to do.
It absolutely is NOT, and that was one of the several problematic aspects of this that is not resolved by addressing the confusing language.
I mean when I read “monitoring each other’s porn intake” I assumed it meant “monitoring how much porn each other watches”. And considering who it was, I assumed that was for the sake of making sure that they didn’t watch any porn. I did not at any point think that they were sharing porn links with each other, because that’s generally not what monitoring someone’s intake means.
I assumed it meant they each keep tabs to make sure the other gets just enough porn each day but not too much.
Daaaaaaaaad you’ve exceeded your porn allowance for the day and it’s not even elevensies yet! 😠
Now this is the quality sarcasm that has disappeared from Reddit! Stay witty, mon ami!
Edit: this is my high way of saying, “LOL.” 🤣
Not necessarily, it can also involve monitoring if there IS intake in the first place.
I think there are plenty of legitimate concerns here
Absolutely, Covenant Eyes is malware. Even worse, courts sometimes mandate it, eg in child custody cases. It’s commercialised spying from a business that has proven itselt not trustworthy.
Nah, I didn’t read the headline thinking that they were sharing links with each other. It read to me like he and his son are holding each other accountable for how often they pleasure themselves with porn, and that’s incredibly fucking weird and inappropriate. While I think it’s generally a positive thing to be open and honest with your children, there is definitely a line. And this totally crosses that.
Yeah I was lucky enough to be raised by a sex positive mom. As a young child I called body parts by their names because they’re just body parts. Any questions I asked my mom got a truthful answer to the best of her knowledge and as appropriate as possible to my age. There was an understanding that if I was old enough to ask I was old enough to know. That was incredible for me. I have a healthy sex life in part because of this. I also don’t know anything about my mom’s sex life except for the time I found her copy of 50 shades, and the fact that my parents couldn’t stand each other for over a decade.
This is so much weirder and honestly depending on the son’s age it sounds like it could be adultification. A child shouldn’t be responsible for holding a parent accountable in general, but for this it’s just yikes
I feel like the reason they’d have to make a pledge like this in the first place is because one or both of them already got caught watching porn.
The son is 17. If he’s not beating his meat regularly, something is wrong with him.
Also, everyone is reading this as some kind of creepy weird sharing kinks thing. Guaranteed this is just overbearing parenting 101. Anyone raised in or around extreme Christian groups reads this for what it is: child monitoring software and forcing your values on your kid.
I am sure your 17 year old signed up, wholly voluntarily, to not look at porn. I’m sure this wasn’t pitched as, “I’ll even do it too, and set it up so you get alerts for me!” Right as they took away a near adult’s ability to explore his sexuality.
Honestly I don’t really have a problem with this.
If they believe it’s bad for them then they are just taking steps to help with the habit.
It doesn’t hurt anyone.
Ok if it is not bad what is your gut reaction to this:
“Hey Dad, it is me, your son. I got a message that you are watching porn right now, please stop sinning!”
Also do you really think it was his son’s idea to do this, that this was an actual mutual decision where the power difference between an authoritarian father and a son compared with threats of going to hell did not hinder him to say “I don’t want this.”?
If two adults decide to help each other this way fine, but this is solely to shame the son and to control him and to have control over his sexuality, but what it actually does is making porn “the forbidden fruit” AND most likely has the son either circumventing the software or having a second device or watching porn together with his best friend, who has a not controlled phone, jerking off together. Not that that would be bad.
Overly controlling parents do only one thing: Raising children that are good at hiding and lying and probably will feel guilty their whole lives, for completely normal feelings and normal things they do. It is messed up and even more messed up to involve your children into you own shortcomings, if the father really needs his porn addiction monitored.
Perhaps reframe it as he installed monitoring software on his kid’s devices to stop them from looking at websites he doesn’t want them to, and in exchange he installed the same software on his own computer except it pings his own son every time he looks at porn.
It’s not disqualifying, maybe, but it’s super weird.
the Louisiana representative talked about how he installed “accountability software” called Covenant Eyes on his devices in order to abstain from internet porn and other unsavory websites
It hurts his son who he has now traumatized into believing that sex is inherently evil. It’s not harmless, it’s sick—it’s abuse.
Grown men relying on their teen son’s supervision to quell their own porn urges is super creepy and shows a complete lack of adult self control.
This is not normal and is in fact extremely weird.
This title is horrible. People complain that parental software is a huge privacy concern and not fair in a parent-child dynamic as the “spying” only works one way. Yet, here we have a Republican saying “rules for thee AND ME” and people are mad that a parent is risking embarrassment to teach his offspring something he actually believes instead of the usual Republican just pick an issue off **the list ** and force it on random adults.
Yeah honestly this doesn’t bother me (caveat that I literally just heard of this today and have zero context). It’s funny and awkward and embarrassing but it doesn’t bother me at all. I have enough other reasons to not like the guy and this doesn’t make the list.
Editing to add: okay the tool he is using to do this is weird and I’m worried that it might be running over secret government content. That parts not okay.
Except he’s the Speaker of the House, 2nd in line of succession to the Presidency, and he’s given this app access to his phone, and who knows who else aside from him and his son have access to it and whatever sensitive information that may be on it.
This is from last year.
Wow, that sounds intensely creepy.
Yeah, this is even creepier than that Indiana coach who kissed his son open mouthed.
Would you be okay if he and his son monitor each others masturbation frequency? Do you have any bar that seems excessive for a father/son relationship?
Yeah, that’s fucking weird. Fathers and sons are meant to compete which is why my dad and I still hold our semi-annual Jerk-off Jam; I’ve won every single one since 2016. All the witnesses at the cemetery can confirm this.
I rip farts far too indiscriminately for that to be a secret, but I understand the sentiment.
