Pornography – Page 2 – Family Council

“I Found Pornhub Anyway”

Sep 4, 2023Jerry CoxDecencyChild Welfare, Obscenity, Pornography

I was ten years old when I watched porn for the first time. I found myself on Pornhub, which I stumbled across by accident and returned to out of curiosity. The website has no age verification, no ID requirement, not even a prompt asking me if I was over 18. The site is easy to find, impossible to avoid, and has become a frequent rite of passage for kids my age. . . . Today I’m 16, and my peers are suffering from an addiction to what many call “the new drug.” Porn is the disastrous replacement for intimacy among my sexless, anxiety-ridden generation.

Homeschooler Isabel Hogben from Redwood City, California, recently wrote those words as part of an eye-opening essay at The Free Press.

Hogben argues that pornography is not free speech and it is not content. It’s a dangerous substance, and it must be controlled like one.

Among other things, Hogben describes how extreme today’s pornography is compared to porn produced in years past.

She also notes that porn consumption harms adolescent brains that are still developing, and she highlights research that shows pornography’s effects on the brain are identical to drug addiction.

“It’s as much a dangerous substance as illicit drugs,” she writes.

Hogben’s essay — which you can read here — underscores why it is so important that the Arkansas Legislature passed restrictions on pornographic websites this year.

Act 612 of 2023 by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Mindy McAlindon (R – Centerton) requires pornographic websites to use age verification to ensure their users are 18 or older.

The law, which took effect on August 1, prompted PornHub to disable access to its website from Arkansas.

Technology has given children unprecedented access to pornography, and Family Council is deeply grateful to Sen. Tyler Dees and Rep. Mindy McAlindon for sponsoring Act 612 and to the members of the Arkansas General Assembly for overwhelmingly supporting the passage of this good law.

Act 612 of 2023 may be one of the best laws that the Arkansas Legislature enacted this year, because it’s going to help protect children in the state from harmful content online. That’s something to celebrate.

You Can Read Isabel Hogben’s Entire Essay Here.

Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill Protecting Children From Pornographic Websites

Mar 30, 2023Jerry CoxLegislationArkansas Legislature, Child Welfare, Obscenity, Pornography

On Wednesday the Arkansas Legislature officially passed a bill that will help protect children from Internet pornography.

S.B. 66 by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Mindy McAlindon (R – Centerton) requires pornographic websites to use a government-issued ID or a commercially available age verification method to ensure their users are age 18 or older.

The bill previously passed in the Arkansas Senate, and was slightly amended before passing in the Arkansas House of Representatives.

On Wednesday, the Arkansas Senate voted to concur in the changes the House made.

S.B. 66 now goes to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to be signed into law.

Going forward, this good law will require porn sites to take important steps to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material online.

Websites that violate S.B. 66 could be held liable under the law.

Other states have considered legislation very similar to S.B. 66.

Technology has given children unprecedented access to pornography. Among other things, pornography is believed to contribute to mental health problems.

S.B. 66 will help address this problem in Arkansas.

Family Council is deeply grateful to Sen. Tyler Dees and Rep. Mindy McAlindon for sponsoring S.B. 66 and to the members of the Arkansas General Assembly for overwhelmingly supporting the passage of this good law.

This may be one of the best laws that the Arkansas Legislature enacts this year, because it’s going to help protect children in the state from harmful content online. That’s something to celebrate.

Arkansas House Narrowly Passes Bill to Protect Children from Obscenity at Libraries

Mar 16, 2023Jerry CoxLegislation, LibraryArkansas Legislature, Library, Obscenity, Pornography

On Wednesday the Arkansas House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill addressing obscenity and other harmful material in public libraries.

S.B. 81 by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Russellville) and Rep. Justin Gonzales (R – Okolona) prohibits giving or sending harmful sexual material to a child.

The bill eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

On Wednesday, the measure received 56 votes in the Arkansas House of Representatives; it takes 51 votes to pass a bill.

Family Council has heard repeatedly from people who are deeply troubled by obscene children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

For example, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

The library in Jonesboro went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

Some of the people who have testified publicly against S.B. 81 this year have signaled that they want to be free to share obscene material with children at a library.

S.B. 81 is a good bill that will help prevent that.