Can the Spread of Pornography Be Stopped?

My VIP for this week is Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) because he is actively working to protect children and victim-survivors from the harm of pornography. Hanna Seariac published an article in The Deseret News about the senator’s efforts. 

According to Seariac, “pornography was relegated to VCRs, magazines and brick-and-mortar buildings” prior to the explosion of pornography on the Internet in the 2010s. “Now pornography websites bring in billions of users and it’s available in people’s pockets at virtually any time.”

Having pornography much more available is one thing, but the change of morals is something else.

Gallup polling data from 2023 shows that 39% of respondents said pornography is morally acceptable. That’s up from 30% in 2011 when Gallup first started asking the question. Other survey data shows 37% of baby boomers (people born from 1946 to 1964) think pornography is “very bad” for society. By comparison, 14% of young adults hold that same view. 51% of respondents said they disagreed with the idea that pornography was morally wrong.

Viewership has also increased. Using data from the General Social Survey, a group of economists, a policy analyst and a sociologist evaluated pornography consumption of 18 to 26 years-old from 1973 to 2012. 45% of young men said they viewed pornography between 1973 -1980 and that increased to 61% between 1999 and 2012. These researchers pointed toward the spread of the internet as potential driver of the increase.

According to Seariac, attempts have been made to slow or stop the use of pornography. Utah and fourteen other states passed “resolutions to declare pornography a public health crisis.” In addition, “Psychology and health communication researchers have sounded the alarm, pointing toward negative impacts of viewership like increased physical aggression and a distorted perception of intimacy.”

Senator Lee took the issue to Washington, D.C., and is trying “to get legislation passed aimed at protecting children from seeing pornography and giving victim-survivors paths to legal recourse.”

Lee said that Congress has passed laws – such as The Communications Decency Act (title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) -- to protect children. However, this law was struck down by the Supreme Court as too broad.

The SCREEN Act, according to Lee, found “the sweet spot” and may be constitutional. He believes that this law will “survive if it becomes law, which it should.” This law focuses on “age verification with regard to commercial purveyors of pornography.” Seariac explained why.

This bill requires commercial websites distributing pornography to use technology to verify the ages of its users. Children would be blocked from seeing content defined as harmful in the bill including images and videos “taken as a whole and with respect to minors, appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion.” Lee compared it to the sale of cigarettes. “Just as you can’t sell cigarettes to a minor and give them to a minor, you also shouldn’t directly market cigarettes to a minor,” he said.

Seariac’s article has much more explanation. “In some states which have passed laws restricting children’s access to pornography, there’s been a discernible impact on the industry.” After Utah passed its law, “Pornhub blocked access to all users who attempt to access the site.” Lee hopes to “put a lot of these bad actors out of business.”