Revisiting the Great Porn Ban of 2024
This is what progress looks like.
One year before PornHub went dark in Texas, Current Revolt was hyping the imminent downfall of the pervert industrial complex.
Today we bring you this classic piece of coverage from the 88th Legislative Session, originally published March 15, 2023.
After one generation of universal internet access, we have learned that chronic masturbation is probably worse than a herion addiction.
Two years ago, we highlighted a House Resolution by Valoree Swanson to proclaim that pornography was a public health emergency. In 2023, Texas has taken a few steps backwards, and the House recently dedicated Valentine’s Day to an assortment of gay sex corporate interest groups . Many people said the resolution was a threatening reminder that any efforts to restrict the promotion of gay sex to children will be met with economic warfare by multinational corporations.
However, it’s undeniable that pornography is a much bigger problem than these alphabet people, because without unlimited free pornography on demand, you wouldn’t have a society that would tolerate these people running amok.
Two Republican Representatives filed a bill that will put us on the slippery slope to a total ban on pornography for reasons of public health.
Yes, you read right—the slope is slippery and we are actively covering it with lube.
Nate Schatzline and Terri Leo-Wilson filed the exact same bill on the same day (weird but ok) that would create grounds for legal action against porn sites that do not require visitors to take certain steps to verify they are 18 years or older before displaying smut to the viewer.
The Good
This is a complicated issue, as the justification for allowing pornography to proliferate has been that it is “free speech” or that it is “freedom” for sex tapes to be uploaded and distributed showing everyone’s daughters. Basically, we have to start somewhere, and this bill is somewhere.
The bill would make entities disseminating pornography legally liable for not properly verifying ages.
Demands strict privacy and for personal data to be erased after verification.
Would not affect non-porn sites, using “1/3 of content” as the demarkation for its application. (If 1/3 or more of your material is porn, you are a porn site)
The Bad
Damages awarded to victims of noncompliant porn sites is not specified, which is problematic for a number of reasons.
How do you determine the monetary damages of a kid looking at pornography? That is a legal mountain to climb, and you’re going to need a pretty extreme case to get any money. Lawyer fees and a few trivial awards may not be enough for these billion-dollar sites to fully comply.
Search engines are exempt.
Kids can just type “bobs n vagena” into Google and they will be flooded with porn. This is one hell of a loophole.
Internet service providers are exempt.
This is where you should target if you want a more effective deterrent.
I like to use the example of child pornography to showcase that it is actually very easy to block porn from being easily accessed. I haven’t tried it out, but I imagine you cannot just search Google for “child porn” and get the same success you get with adult porn. The same incentives that make this possible can be expanded.
This is a good start.
Your sex life is not politics. If we want a serious government with serious people in it, we can’t welcome people whose underlying special interest is to tell you about the weird sex they like to have. All of these sex-based agendas are heads from the same hydra.
We know what we must do politically regarding problems in society such as “hardcore sex everywhere.” We have a book that gives most of the answers.
Online gambling has solved the age verification challenge. Apply the same solution to porn. Stem the dehumanizing deluge of degeneracy we force teenagers to swim through.
Back in the day when PORN was illegal, you did not have the slew of pervert and criminal sex against children that has exploded since smut and evil were granted 1st Amendment protections. If I remember correctly, there had been studies done showing the societal and mental harm it caused over prolonged viewing. I think the sickness in our society can be tracked back to the proliferation of porn and it was also considered addictive behavior. What used to happen in the dark and the dark web has invaded every aspect of our daily lives and the acceptance of much of its attendant perversions and criminal acts thru this incremental exposure over the years has most definitely caused untold harm to our society at large, the biggest victims being women and children. This is more in line with being a health issue of extreme harm to society than it is a 1st amendment issue. Don't buy into this false narrative that it is about "muh speech".