Social platform X formally allows pornography

The platform long known as Twitter is allowing pornography so long as it is consensually created and distributed, according to company guidelines it recently published. Users and other content generators must clearly label pornographic content and must not prominently display it as a profile picture, the company said. Warnings will initially block posts containing adult content, and accounts that regularly post pornographic content will either have to place warnings on their accounts or have those warnings placed on their account by the company, the guidelines said.

Although the formal policy is new, the platform for years has indirectly allowed pornography, based on reports from Social Media Today and the Associated Press.

Will children be exposed to pornography on the platform? Users are blocked by a warning, according to the social media platform. They cannot click through the warning to the content until they either include a birthdate on an X platform profile or until they turn 18, the company said. Users older than 18 can also opt out of seeing adult content, it said.

“We restrict viewers who are under 18, or who do not include a birth date on their profile, from viewing adult content,” the platform X said in another statement.

Why is the company doing this? The company believes in the autonomy of adults, it said in its statement. It also says it believes in giving adults liberty to express their beliefs, desires, and experiences. The social media platform claimed that sexual multimedia or text are legitimate forms of artistic expression.

Scripture repeatedly condemns sexual immorality. Dozens of research studies have shown that consuming pornography has a devastating effect on individual users, their romantic relationships, and on society as a whole. Websites like FightTheNewDrug.org, which is also part of the PHASE Alliance to reduce sexual exploitation, have documented pornography’s harms in society and sought to provide resources for those seeking to escape addiction to pornography.

Dig deeper: Read Andrew T. Walker’s column in WORLD Opinions about how humans are not just their sexual desires and how Christianity offers a vision of the entire human.