Why it is hard to psychologically examine shunned online worlds?
But I would say the same relates to other shunned environments, let’s say, porn websites, which attract fifty or forty percent of online traffic, yet we have no understanding of what’s going on there. We don’t know whether it’s harming people or helping people, we don’t know whether it is changing relationships between romantic partners or not, whether it is affecting our youngsters, whom — whatever parents believe — you cannot stop from accessing this content, full stop.
The motivation they have to watch porn is much higher than parents’ motivation to stop them. Also, they are much smarter in terms of using technology. Yet, and actually this is a fact, you cannot study anything related to porn on the university because you would immediately be ostracised, you would lose your job and never publish any more.