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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
I think the point here is to not look at porn becaue his son is then going to find out about it. "He’s sharing what kind of porn he looks at with a minor" is about as stupid take on this as that article is to begin with.
Every politician that does shit like this gets caught taking it up the ass eventually. And, like, you go girl, but did you really need to be such a dick about everything along the way?
While having weekly reports sent to your son on your internet viewing and getting the same on your son is creepy as hell I think the article raises a better concern of : who else at this company can see this info and is this on his phone used for government work?
How did this start? The conversation had to be at some point
Well sort of porn do you look at son? Don't worry, this won't be a one way street. I love PoV cream pies. Now I need you to report to me everytime you look... at what was it again, trans gangbang? Oh thats a good one. Let me know if those temptresses get ya!
The reality is that it's a mechanism of shame/control. You teach the kid that looking at porn is sinful, masturbation is sinful/shameful, etc... Then you install "accountability" software that rats out the kid whenever he pulls it up. He's just repackaging an authoritarian, abusive household as "accountability." They also have devices that connect to your TV and will shut off the audio (based on the closed captions) if it detects a profanity.
I imagine something more like this:
Son, I got an alert that you're watching porn. I'll be there in 5.
Dad, why can't we just watch porn on our own?
Don't be silly son, how else will we hold each other accountable?
And all this regular effort in avoiding it probably just makes the son more motivated to find ways to avoid detection. Prepaid smartphone, that sort of thing.
This sounds like he and his son have a porn addiction and they work together to act as a deterrent. But I'm sure they just get around the "parental controls" they installed on each other's devices.
I don't know what's worse. The fact that he has a buddy system to monitor porn intake or that its his son that looks at his porn history. Guys like this only get weirder as you get to hear more of their story.
“It sends a report to your accountability partner. My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. So he and I get a report about all the things that are on our phones, all of our devices, once a week. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice. I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate.”
Am I just cynical that this sounds more like intentionally training your son to avoid a paper trail from "official" devices? He's a 17 year old boy, he is almost definitely looking at porn.
I bet he is. He probably has found some ways to get around this monitoring system. This is just so damn stupid, how can you be so naive to think this would work?
They all too often give of the vibes of "smells a stranger's hair as they walk by."
And given literally every photo of this dude gives me those "hugs a little bit too long for it to be not weird" vibes hand in hand with the other, this seems pretty on brand.
Um, this is strange behavior acting as righteousness...WTF. Imagine if you were his son and got pinged that your dad is watching porn. I would be totally grossed the hell out if that happened between me and my dad. I'm grimacing as I type this. Or, imagine being the dad watching porn and knowing your son is actively aware that you are doing that. What the hell would be going through your mind to make that okay?
Or, think about what the son is really learning from this relationship. Sex is bad and people should be monitored for sexual activity. Also, he's learning that controlling others to that level is acceptable and celebrated. This kid might turn out to be a highly abusive partner that thinks it's okay to monitor their partner's phone at all times.
It also tells us that Mike Johnson is probably interested in monitoring people's internet habits, especially when it comes to accessing porn. Personally, that is not what I would like for a congressman.
The whole thing is uncomfortably odd and seems like a major red flag.
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.
No, son....ya got it all wrong! I was wanted to repaint the stucco walls in the basement and wanted to be sure the latex paint would work.....that's why I Googled "Latex Bondage"....
...That's OK dad....I think you misunderstood too. I was just trying to learn more about this cool game on Steam... https://steamdb.info/app/1274450/info/
Why do religious right people always have to make it so weird. Just share porn with your close friends like a semi-normal person, goddammit. Why does it always have to be their own children, christ. Have a normal chat and an AD chat, and don't mix 'em.
Sounds like no one here has that special father son bond that people like Speaker Johnson his son, or me and my dad have. That special bond when your father relies on you to monitor his electronic devices to ensure he isn't viewing porn or masturbating.
I feel sorry that none of you have experienced that. I bet you don't even have that special uncle nephew bond that only comes from playing hide the peanut butter, or Honey Lickers.
I cannot comprehend wanting to discuss something like this with any outward facing news agency.....unless you are that painfully unaware of both the internet and ridicule.
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
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.
What you’re missing, I think, is that, provided the opportunity, his, belief system would tell him that monitoring our porn intake would also be a good idea. Maybe mandatory software on all our phones to help us all become better Christians.