\u201cUsers will be asked to confirm their age when accessing age–restricted material on pornography websites and services,\u201d read the eSafety Commissioner\u2019s media release on Friday, March 6<\/a>. \u201cClicking a button that says \u2018I am 18 years or older\u2019 is no longer sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n It felt like a potential game-changer. For boys and men, many of whom have unwittingly had their views on sex distorted and skewed by addictive websites always within reach. For women and girls increasingly subjected to sexual aggression \u2013 or welcoming it in the misled belief that they should. For the medical experts, legal professionals and counsellors trying to pick up the pieces after countless problematic encounters, who are trying to steer a generation away from the \u201cmanosphere\u201d<\/a> and porn culture more broadly, and have for too long been locked in a losing fight.<\/p>\n The new codes also prompted a tantalising question: What might happen in a society where children are free to explore online without being led down ever darker algorithmic rabbit holes?<\/p>\n Melbourne mother Laura Laing, for one, can\u2019t wait to find out. Two years ago, her elder son, now aged nine, came home from school and asked her what the number \u201c69\u2033 meant. \u201cI was horrified,\u201d she says. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, it\u2019s starting in primary school already.\u2019\u2006\u201d<\/p>\n Today, she\u2019s curled up on a couch in her townhouse in Melbourne\u2019s south-east, surrounded by family photos of her boys \u2013 the youngest now aged eight \u2013 as they both play Nintendo in the next room. The ban felt to her like validation, and also \u201ca turning point\u201d, she says, her voice lowered to a hush, lest the boys overhear. \u201cWe\u2019re going to clamp down on what they\u2019re watching. We\u2019re going to clamp down on access to devices. We\u2019re getting help now from the powers that be.\u201d<\/p>\n This reaction was not universal. Many parents were understandably dubious that the new codes would work. And then there was a third camp: the more than 3 million Australians who had previously accessed the Pornhub website daily, for whom the fallout seemed like a collective blindsiding.<\/p>\n The official media release had offered a lengthy explanation about the new \u201cage-restricted material codes\u201d, which would apply only to children, but the effect of the online porn changes on adults was buried further down. Regular adult porn viewers are paralysed by the prospect of regulations that compel them to hand over their personal data to companies in order to verify their age, fearful of identity theft and data leaks. \u201cNanny state\u201d, came the cries<\/a>.<\/p>\n Within hours of the ban being announced, the world\u2019s biggest porn company \u2013 Aylo \u2013 released its waiting wrecking ball. Rather than comply with the conditions of the ban, its websites \u2013 Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn and Tube8, among others \u2013 simply went dark.<\/a> Visitors to Pornhub from Australia were instead met with \u201csafe for work\u201d podcasts, lifestyle segments and ads for paid content. If they attempted to watch porn videos, they were blocked by a message: \u201cPornhub is not currently accepting new account registrations in your region.\u201d And just like that, porn was harder to find.<\/p>\n eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant emphasises that the regulations are \u201cnot a moral judgment about pornography or adult sexuality\u201d. Nor do they (technically) prevent adults from watching porn. \u201cThey require platforms to restrict access only for minors,\u201d Inman Grant tells me. \u201cThey are a child-protection measure that simply brings protections that have existed in the physical world for generations to the online world.\u201d<\/p>\n But there\u2019s no denying that these codes \u2013 even more so than the frequently ridiculed<\/a> and flouted<\/a> under-16s social media ban introduced in December last year \u2013 have dramatically altered Australia\u2019s online landscape, the dominant audience for which is adults.<\/p>\n The response from porn providers should have been expected, too, given examples elsewhere in the world. A similar industry protest played out in the UK after age-verification laws came into effect there in July 2025. Pornhub initially complied with the new British laws, giving users multiple verification options including credit cards, and the email-based system <\/a>Verifymy<\/a> (which compares an email address\u2019s digital footprint against financial institutions, utility companies and public records to estimate a person\u2019s age). But after traffic fell by up to 77 per cent, Aylo blocked new British users entirely while condemning the UK\u2019s new system as a failure. <\/a> (Pornhub has also blocked users in about half of American states<\/a> because of local age-verification laws.)<\/p>\n \u2018Now, if you talk to 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds having heterosexual sex, strangulation is part of it.\u2019<\/p>\n UK feminist academic Fiona Vera-Gray<\/p>\n Aylo argues that almost half of the UK\u2019s porn users<\/a> are now using other websites that aren\u2019t complying with the age-verification rules. A spokesman tells me that the Australian and UK models don\u2019t effectively protect minors \u201cand instead create harms relating to data privacy and exposure to illegal content on non-compliant platforms\u201d. The sites continue to push, instead, for device-level age verification (where the device manufacturer verifies a user\u2019s age using its own system) as the only viable option.<\/p>\n Related Article The eSafety Commissioner, however, isn\u2019t blinking. Inman Grant says Aylo \u201cof course\u201d has the capacity to roll out the required age-verification technology \u2013 it simply made the business decision not to do so.<\/p>\n Her office began investigating the age-verification scheme five years ago, and it extends far beyond porn sites, applying equally to everything from AI chatbots depicting or discussing high-impact violence, to online content pushing disordered eating, suicide and self-harm. \u201cThe codes are here to stay,\u201d Inman Grant says.<\/p>\n So, too, are the workarounds. VPNs (virtual private networks) allow users to access the internet without revealing their location, and have surged in popularity, with two products climbing<\/a> more than 100 places in app store rankings within hours of the ban coming into effect. Those VPN users are just as likely to be adults<\/a> as children, and Inman Grant notes there was no uptick<\/a> in children using VPNs in the four months after Britain\u2019s age-verification laws were enforced. Still, cybersecurity expert Susan McLean describes an example of a 14-year-old boy being caught watching live porn using a VPN only weeks ago in an Australian classroom.<\/p>\n These products do come with their own risks<\/a>, including potentially handing users\u2019 data over to cyber criminals<\/a>, whether as a result of a scam or being hacked. But for many, the temptation of using VPNs is too great. As is the ease of doing so.<\/p>\n After researching several highly rated VPNs, I open the Apple app store and type in the name of the product I\u2019m looking for. I hit the \u201cget\u201d button, wait seven seconds for the app to download, agree to a privacy notice, then click \u201ccreate account\u201d.<\/p>\n I\u2019m immediately given an account number and prompted to \u201cadd time\u201d \u2013 I choose 30 days for $8.39 \u2013 and am presented with a world map. Now it\u2019s just a matter of hitting a green \u201cconnect\u201d button, and then, \u201cswitch location\u201d to somewhere porn is not restricted. From a scrolling list, I select Chicago, then open a Google Chrome tab and type Pornhub.com.<\/p>\n I\u2019m immediately presented with more than 60 videos with sexually graphic titles, some of which refer to incest and aggressive acts. The whole process takes about three minutes. And yet, even digital natives may not be taking up the option of VPNs as eagerly as expected.<\/p>\n Leading UK feminist academic Fiona Vera-Gray notes that Gen Z have perhaps unexpectedly been happy to lead the calls for change. The eldest of the generation, now in their late 20s, were the last to go through puberty without unfettered access to online porn, but have still seen its effects first-hand. Those only a handful of years younger, however, were coaxed into their first IRL (in real life) experiences of rough sex by the types of video titles alluded to above \u2013 and far worse.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not gone unnoticed. Throughout history, Vera-Gray points out, what society considers \u201cnormal\u201d in sex has usually taken decades to evolve. Yet since the internet came of age in 2014 \u2013 with wider smartphone use, high-speed streaming and access to 4G \u2013 what we do in the bedroom has changed swiftly and dangerously. \u201cNow, if you talk to 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds having heterosexual sex, strangulation is part of it,\u201d Vera-Gray says. \u201cIt is something that girls are asking for. It is something that boys are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Nine years after Elijah saw the video of the woman in the green bikini, he and his girlfriend Sarah* \u2013 both products of a generation raised or groomed by online pornography \u2013 were regularly having rough sex. Sometimes Elijah choked Sarah. Sometimes he pulled her hair. He always assumed she liked it, until one day they were talking about a friend who was being choked very hard by her boyfriend. Elijah confessed that he wasn\u2019t really into it, and Sarah agreed that she wasn\u2019t either. \u201cIt was so liberating,\u201d says Elijah. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Oh my god, thank f—\u2018.\u201d<\/p>\n They are not outliers, either. More than half of young Australians<\/a> report being strangled, or strangling someone else, during sex, perhaps oblivious to serious risks<\/a> of cumulative brain injury, blood clots, \u201cthyroid storm\u201d<\/a>, delayed stroke, miscarriage and death. Physicians repeatedly emphasise there is no safe way to use choking during sex, and yet in school gyms and assembly halls across Australia, teenage girls and boys tell McLean about the fallout from copying the \u201cfun stuff\u201d they\u2019ve seen on the internet.<\/p>\n \u2018Who the hell wants to confront what we have done as a society and how much harm has been allowed to unfold?\u2019<\/p>\n Youth advocate and educator Daniel Principe<\/p>\n A girl tosses aside her hair to show the bruises on her neck from being choked by a boyfriend, while a young man in Sydney recalls snapping the shaft of his penis after imitating the rough sex he saw online. (\u201cIt had to be surgically attached,\u201d McLean says.) Doctors have told her of teenage girls with vaginal-tear injuries and, just last year, a midwife in Alice Springs confided to her that four out of five pregnant women she saw told her they had been choked during sex.<\/p>\n \u201cI can say categorically that what young men are being exposed to on the internet in relation to pornography is giving them a skewed view of reality, and causing harm, not only to themselves, but to female partners,\u201d says McLean, a former Victoria Police officer of nearly three decades. \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere else it\u2019s coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n The entire issue, she adds, has been wilfully ignored for too long as a result of everything from parents\u2019 discomfort with discussing taboo topics to misconceptions harboured by older generations that modern mainstream porn is the equivalent of what you might find in Playboy magazine, instead of an endless scroll of depravity.<\/p>\n Ben Vasiliou, CEO of The Man Cave, a preventative mental health charity for boys and men, is under no such misapprehension. \u201cI\u2019d be quite comfortable with my kids watching some missionary sex on the internet, if that\u2019s what they thought was interesting and arousing or educational,\u201d he says, speaking loudly over the noise of a busy Melbourne cafe. \u201cThe problem is what they\u2019re looking at is f—ing incest and strangulation and domination, thinking that threesomes are normal for 16-year-olds. Sixteen-year-olds generally shouldn\u2019t be watching strangulated three-ways.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a palpable frustration here among those who have long sounded the alarm on the issue, only for the wider community to finally take notice years later. Prominent youth advocate and educator Daniel Principe<\/a> throws up his hands in exasperation about 15 minutes into our Zoom call. It\u2019s worth noting he personally believes porn is harmful for everyone \u2013 adults included \u2013 but he\u2019s also spoken to tens of thousands of boys about porn at thousands of schools across Australia, and long argued we\u2019re feeding these teenagers \u201ca horrific diet of misogyny\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPrior to probably Adolescence on Netflix, most people have been asleep at the wheel as to the carnage, scale of pornography and the exposure where children have been impacted by this,\u201d he says. \u201cLet\u2019s be honest, who the hell wants to talk about this and confront what we have done as a society, and how much harm has been allowed to unfold because we haven\u2019t reckoned with this sooner?\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article There are ample statistics to back up Principe\u2019s argument. Prior to the ban, one in six young men in Australia watched porn daily, compared with about one in 70 young women, according to research<\/a> co-authored by Maree Crabbe, director of sexual violence prevention project It\u2019s Time We Talked. Teenage boys were first seeing porn at an average age <\/a>of 13 \u2013 at least three years before their first sexual experience with a partner \u2013 but many were even younger.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t a case that Cassie Russell deals with that doesn\u2019t involve porn, including that of her youngest client, who is six years old. Russell is a sexual assault counsellor and harmful sexual behaviour specialist in Victoria\u2019s north-west, and says her team members \u2013 who work with children aged five to 17 \u2013 have seen a significant increase in referrals for those exhibiting harmful sexual behaviour over the past six months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting several referrals a week,\u201d Russell says, talking from an office cubicle at the Mallee Sexual Assault Unit, and pornography is involved in every one, \u201cwhether the child has been exposed to it, or they\u2019re exposing other people to it\u201d.<\/p>\n By age 10, one in 10 children has accidentally come across online porn, according to research from the eSafety Commissioner,<\/a> rising to one in three kids by age 13. If there\u2019s one effective change Australia\u2019s online porn ban will bring, experts say it\u2019ll be to stop accidental exposure. Basically, when young kids search terms like \u201cpenis\u201d, \u201cvagina\u201d or \u201clesbians\u201d out of curiosity, they won\u2019t be confronted by porn. The roadblock will be there.<\/p>\n As for teenagers, the ban should at least act as a speed bump. And if that bump delays teenagers\u2019 first exposure to porn by even a year or two, says paediatric nurse Jack Muscat, that could equate to hundreds of thousands of kids who are psychologically better equipped to deal with it.<\/p>\n We\u2019re chatting over a pint at a pub in Melbourne\u2019s inner-north, and Muscat is arguing the real issue isn\u2019t one porn website or company. Instead, it\u2019s the \u201cindustrialisation of sexual socialisation\u201d, as platforms designed to maximise engagement train young men\u2019s desire, intimacy, masculinity and, ultimately, their attention. \u201cI don\u2019t think that big tech companies are looking at helping with childhood development,\u201d he says dryly, \u201cno matter what they\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n My computer mouse hovers over the \u201cstart\u201d button for the Zoom call, but I hesitate, instead taking a deep breath. I\u2019m about to enter what\u2019s usually a men-only meeting of seven porn addicts and, to be frank, it\u2019s daunting. The group\u2019s coordinator, Markus* \u2013 an addict himself \u2013 is passionate and professional over email, but he never includes his surname, so I haven\u2019t looked him up.<\/p>\n Click. \u201cHi, all,\u201d I say, waving at the screen. Tiles filled with faces gradually appear. Markus is an athletic-looking guy in his early 30s. Then there\u2019s Stephen*, a 50-something who holds the camera close to his face. Luke* \u2013 a 30-something with dark hair and glasses \u2013 comes into view, as do a handful of other men. Bald, polo shirts, one guy with tattoos. I exhale.<\/p>\n Each of them talks about when they were first exposed to porn. The guy with his camera off \u2013 the youngest in the group, who joined at age 22 \u2013 says he was 10, and encountered it accidentally. Luke, who is softly spoken, reveals his father tortured him by making him read porn magazines and watch videotapes from the age of three. I flinch at that. \u201cI remember being worried that I would never be able to get a girlfriend or a wife,\u201d Luke says, \u201cor be able to please a fully grown adult woman with my little, tiny, boy body.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m frantically typing when Stephen\u2019s baritone makes me falter. He says he\u2019s been hooked on porn since he was first exposed to magazines in the \u201980s, and his addiction escalated when he and his wife bought their first desktop computer just three months into their marriage \u2013 18 years ago. \u201cIf I don\u2019t deal with it now, my marriage is over,\u201d he says, voice now thick with anger, and wobbling. \u201cThe thing that gives me the most shame of all is that the dopamine hit is so strong and all I want to do is objectify women all the time, but my value system is completely, utterly against that.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article The men each talk in turn about the incredible shame they feel, and how isolating it is not to be able to confide in others for fear of being branded \u201cpaedophiles, sex offenders or molesters\u201d. Many of the men have tried blocking software to stop themselves accessing porn. Markus says his addiction has reached the point where he can\u2019t own any internet-connected devices. Chris* \u2013 a former alcohol and drug counsellor \u2013 deleted all internet browsers from his phone, but access to porn is still ubiquitous \u2013 almost inevitable. \u201cYou can get it on Telegram, on Discord \u2013 I know because I\u2019ve had to go through the process of blocking them,\u201d Chris says. \u201cThere\u2019s YouTube videos that are highly inappropriate \u2026 and every single social media platform outside of probably Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n Edith Cowan University researcher and sexologist Giselle Woodley<\/a> fears the new codes will only replicate this sense of shame in others, further stigmatising porn use generally. Porn, she adds, is often blamed in discussions about gendered violence, yet little consideration is given to what harm it may actually be preventing. Following the rise of the internet in the \u201990s, Woodley says Western countries saw significant reductions<\/a> in both child sex abuse and sexual violence.<\/p>\n \u201cFellowships\u201d offering support in Australia include Sex Addicts Anonymous Australia (SAA), and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA). While pornography addiction isn\u2019t recognised as a formal diagnosis in clinical guidelines, porn use lights up certain areas of the brain that align with other behavioural addictions, according to neuroscience literature. \u201cSafe spaces to play \u2013 like porn, like with sex workers, like kink clubs \u2013 are actually so vital in terms of managing sexual violence,\u201d says Woodley, \u201cbecause when you don\u2019t have those spaces is when they manifest as harmful sexual behaviours.\u201d<\/p>\n Sex workers offer a similar argument: by pushing porn users off legitimate websites, we\u2019re shepherding them into shadier places. The ban also spells financial ruin for many sex workers, according to the Scarlet Alliance, which represents them \u2013 because many rely on porn websites for cross-promotion. Then there\u2019s the additional issue of websites that have useful content on sexual health, sexual education and LGBTQ awareness being suppressed when algorithms can\u2019t demarcate between their offering and porn.<\/p>\n Ultimately, it feels like the \u201cpendulum is swinging\u201d against the sex industry, Scarlet Alliance chief executive Mish Pony says. \u201cWe\u2019re back in the \u201970s sex wars. There are certain advocates in Australia, but also internationally, who are very strongly anti-porn, and they have the ear of the government and policy-making. I\u2019m very concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than age verification, the Alliance instead supports stronger oversight of porn websites\u2019 algorithms and, even more importantly, comprehensive sexuality and consent education.<\/p>\n The need for more education is an area of alignment for most experts. The Man Cave\u2019s Vasiliou says this effort should extend to preparing young people for porn \u2013 they\u2019re going to watch it anyway \u2013 with radical honesty and \u201cmessy\u201d conversations about what porn might actually be healthy to watch. He talks to his own 16-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son about everything from foreskins to penis size, sex positions and sexual hygiene. \u201cThe challenge,\u201d Vasiliou says, \u201cis we\u2019re not having this broad debate, because we\u2019re scared about national conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what The Man Cave\u2019s work is largely about. I see it first-hand, sitting in a classroom in a working-class suburb in coastal Victoria, filled with 40 teenage boys on red plastic chairs, all of them having just rumbled in from the corridor, a cacophony of chatter and banter.<\/p>\n A pair of skilful facilitators leads them through the free-form session \u2013 a forum for the boys to discuss fears, hopes, dreams and insecurities. The facilitators are prohibited from raising the topic of porn unless the boys do so organically. But it\u2019s come up in the past few weeks anyway \u2013 boys in workshops mentioning using VPNs so they can access \u201cthe Hub\u201d. There are flippant references to Bonnie Blue, <\/a>the porn star who infamously targets \u201cbarely legal\u201d young men. And a 15-year-old boy secretly approached facilitators one day to confess his porn addiction.<\/p>\n None of that arises today, but the discussion is honest and raw in its own way, exploring volatile living situations and dangerous choices, suicide and the silence that often follows. Their day is filled with connection and vulnerability, honestly and reflection and sharing. And there\u2019s a strength they project together as a group \u2013 a warm confidence blended with sensitivity. These boys have so much capacity to learn and reflect. We just have to invite them.<\/p>\n Back in the Laing family home, the boys\u2019 father, James, is shooting hoops with his eldest boy in the driveway. The front room of the house is cluttered with toys and games \u2013 a foosball table, tubs of Lego, and a bookshelf stacked with titles like The Chronicles of Narnia. The dining table beside the kitchen is covered with crafts, and a trampoline takes up most of the backyard. \u201cIt\u2019s just bloody hard to keep them as children,\u201d says James, his head in his hands, now sitting in an armchair opposite his wife. \u201cWhat is childhood now \u2013 does it finish at six, seven years old?\u201d<\/p>\n Principe says Australia should keep educating its children about pornography \u2013 but the bottom line is, they just shouldn\u2019t see it, which is why the ban is so welcome to so many. Otherwise, \u201chow do parents compete with billion- and trillion-dollar industries that are pervasive and reach their children before they do?\u201d Principe asks. \u201cWhen does it end?\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article The Laings strictly monitor their sons\u2019 devices, but only recently the boys came home from school and started making moaning sounds, copying a classmate imitating porn. (Laura told them it\u2019s the sound female tennis players make.) Another classmate started humping his friends at recess, saying things like, \u201cCome to the bedroom, daddy\u201d. \u201cStraight away, I knew it was because his older brothers are watching porn at home,\u201d Laura says. \u201cIt\u2019s just very scary to think that even in school, they\u2019re not safe from this.\u201d<\/p>\n Nowhere seems immune. Their sons started playing the online game Roblox, then Laura and James discovered Instagram videos about how boys are now \u201craiding\u201d female players\u2019 clothes. \u201cSo, not only did I have to worry about what older kids were saying at school, it was also in technology,\u201d Laura says, exasperated. \u201cI\u2019m feeling like this is just grooming on a really weird, sinister level.\u201d<\/p>\n The parents have agreed they\u2019ll start talking to the boys about sex when they are 13, but for now, they deflect their questions and shut down innuendos. There\u2019s a longing for innocence here.<\/p>\n James, who is in his 40s, reminisces about the time he was nine, and told his mother about his first crush \u2013 a girl he met on the school bus. He mourns the fact that his sons will probably never have the same conversation, but his worst fear is they will be exposed to material that objectifies women, ruining their capacity for something as fundamental as connecting with the opposite sex. \u201cIf boys don\u2019t even understand how to form relationships with girls at a young age and respect them and become friends with them, and they\u2019re seeing them in another way, then we are done,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are done.\u201d<\/p>\n But they do have hope. During a backyard photo shoot before I leave, Laura wraps her arms around her elder son. When the photographer asks him to sweep the hair out of his eyes, Laura does it for him instead. He smiles up at her.<\/p>\n * Names have been changed.<\/p>\n If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800.<\/p>\n Get the best of Good Weekend delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Sign up for our newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d5933ffce39cedf7c141043a95450e8399307bfe.jpeg\")
James and Laura Laing hope new rules forcing age verification for online porn will help them control what their young sons (now aged 8 and 9) can access.Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n![\"Cybersecurity](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/abaa29a27bd32afed6302d2ff0010687ef15b92f.jpeg\")
Cybersecurity expert Susan McLean says parents have wilfully ignored the threat of porn for far too long. Simon Schluter<\/p>\n![\"Jefferson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b95d915573a8edb46a6a7d1c023e6fde9cdee19a.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Feminist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/49e0a8f28ea9287308ff439f1384ad6d6541a5ec.jpeg\")
Feminist academic Fiona Vera-Gray notes that in little more than a decade, choking during teen sex has become normalised.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n![\"Anti-porn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d645eec7ad557486ea7c38e88c39697f7c2b7e55.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Paediatric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ef47ab335012b0f5f7308a1ad726b09ee505ed1c.jpeg\")
Paediatric nurse Jack Muscat, who founded the health promotion workshop organisation Wise Ed.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n![\"Bonnie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d1db7f1aeb22c267c6f99378ade12c51549f97f2.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Scarlet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/44881ffd306d66df2955a4db310d534197c9b9fc.jpeg\")
Scarlet Alliance chief executive Mish Pony and president Jenna Love, who say the underage porn ban is symptomatic of the pendulum swinging against sex work. Simon Schluter<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2284f8a6bd5d134f585d08cd3ee734b6d2e66772.jpeg\")
The Man Cave facilitators Jehan Abeysekera and Patrick Holmes, who ran a school workshop the author attended. Simon Schluter<\/p>\n![\"Hunter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7b44221d42cc352eccb2bec0838cfd58f6807b4d.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Laura](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/97e70c1fee487ac14832a8f8ca4f3b4ac646e858.jpeg\")
Laura and James Laing fear nowhere online is safe for their sons.Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n