It is life changing really. I don't recall ever paying for digital content. I still go to the theatres for an exceptional movie but that's it. It has made me learn more about computers, be a bit savvy in tech. I can't count how many times that has helped me get through my job. It really is an important life skill
I watched Apocalypto for a school paper at age 15 (from a list of options given to me), and honestly I think some softcore porn would have been better. Some rated R stuff is fine for a kid to watch, Apocalypto definitely wasn't.
Also that same year I researched and did presentations on Chinese history (was a prehistorical to maybe a couple hundred years ago timeline) and at least in my research I covered things like the foot tying thing (to make feet smaller) and that didn't prepare me for the scene in Marco Polo (I think on Netflix) where that happened (and I didn't finish the episode or continue the series because it's just too fucked up).
Porn can be fucked up, some porn is definitely NSFL, but there are a lot of things that are so much worse than the average porn site.
I wish they actually tried to "protect the children" but the politicians are very clearly not.
I was beating my meat like a boxer with a speedbag to the Playboy magazines I found when I was 11. And that was well before the internet was available. Kids are gonna find something to whack/flick it to, get over it.
Remember those mail-order catalogues? Specifically the women's underwear section. Horny teenagers are going to find something. And they have a vivid imagination.
One should be vastly more worried about people who when they think of children think of porn, or vice-versa.
Normal people might think of children and think of playground safety or maybe how SUVs should be banned because they're so much more dangerous for children on streets than normal cars.
People whose top concern when it comes to "children" is "porn" are emotionally invested in a certain kind of association that normal people don't usually have in their minds in such strong terms.
I watched porn as a teen. Look, maybe in America you're all puritans or whatever, but I started looking at magazines when I was 13 and then later found online porn (and hell I was LATE to the game according to my classmates). This is a reality y'all have to come to terms with. Teens watch porn.