X Officially Allows Social Media Platform to Become Porn Gallery

One of the world’s largest and most influential internet platforms announced that it will formally permit pornography, according to newly published guidelines.

Late last month, X (formerly Twitter) issued new standards regarding “adult content,” which the social media giant defined as “any consensually produced and distributed material depicting adult nudity or sexual behavior that is pornographic or intended to cause sexual arousal. This also applies to AI-generated, photographic or animated content such as cartoons, hentai, or anime.” The new guidelines allow users to share pornographic adult content “provided it’s properly labeled and not prominently displayed.” The guidelines add, “We balance this freedom by restricting exposure to Adult Content for children or adult users who choose not to see it. We also prohibit content promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors, and obscene behaviors.”

The newly defined guidelines on pornography do not reflect a change in the platform’s policy, as it previously allowed users to post and share sexually explicit content before business magnate Elon Musk purchased the company in 2022.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Mary Szoch, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, stated, “X’s decision to allow pornography will make it infinitely more difficult for men and women who are striving to live virtuous lives. It will make it even more likely that young boys and girls are exposed to porn at an age where their brain is still developing. What a tragedy.”

She continued, “It’s no exaggeration to say that pornography destroys lives and ruins families. The brains of countless men and women who, often through no fault of their own, find themselves ensnared by this form of evil, are altered in the same way as they would be if they had used drugs. If not treated with the seriousness it deserves, it tears marriages apart. And all of this doesn’t even begin to touch on the impact the pornography industry has on the victims who create the pornography that feeds the industry.”

“Pornography is so exploitive, it’s impossible to ethically produce it or fully ‘consent’ to being part of its production,” commented Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at FRC. “Pornography is at the top of the list of billion-dollar industries on the march to capture our children. That X wants to be officially complicit in platforming this content is deeply disturbing, especially given Elon Musk’s skepticism of the gender cult, so obviously fueled by porn consumption.” Kilgannon also noted that the pornography industry facilitates and profits from human sex trafficking, adding, “We all deserve better than porn. God’s plan for human sexuality is beautiful, unlike the production, distribution, and platforming of the hideous lie that is pornography.”

X’s new guidelines request users who generate or post pornographic content to mark their content as such so that a filter may be placed over it. Users who are reported to X’s content moderators for failing to mark their pornographic content may have their accounts suspended or otherwise penalized. Those who, in X’s words, “choose not to see it” will have the option of either ignoring filtered content and continuing their scrolling or else removing the filter and viewing the content. Users who either register using a birth date denoting them as under the age of 18 or who do not use a birth date when registering will be blocked from removing the filter. There is currently no mechanism to verify ages or ensure birth dates entered are accurate.

“Pornography is perhaps the greatest example of what happens when freedom is not regulated by virtue. In the name of freedom, X has taken the position that it doesn’t regulate anything unless it is illegal,” commented Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at FRC. “While they claim to be neutral, in reality they will become a tool for evil that will produce very real social consequences.”

He continued, “Having pornography distributed on a site often used for collating news is insidious because it will appear even if you’re not looking for it. States may soon need to pass age verification laws to get on X because X may soon become primarily a place for pornography. Presumably, X is afraid that stopping pornography would be ‘censorship,’ which is true but also appropriate. They are demonstrating the consequences of moral relativism. If you’re afraid to identify something as evil, you’ll never be capable of stopping evil.”

Nearly one third of states across the U.S. currently require age verification processes before accessing pornographic websites, in order to prevent children from viewing pornography. This has resulted in major pornography websites, such as Pornhub, shutting down entirely in several states.

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand. Originally published by The Washington Stand.

Legal Battle Continues Over Law Protecting Children From Harmful Materials in Public Libraries

The federal lawsuit continues over Act 372 of 2023, a good law that generally prohibits giving or sending a child harmful material that contains nudity or sexual activity.

The Arkansas Legislature passed Act 372 last year to protect children from harmful material and to eliminate exemptions for public libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute. The law also clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

Act 372 was slated to take effect last August, but a coalition of libraries in Arkansas led by the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging portions of Act 372.

Last July U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks blocked two sections of Act 372 — Section 1, which makes it a Class A misdemeanor to give or send a child harmful sexual material that contains nudity or sexual activity, and Section 5, which clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

The ruling did not affect Sections 2, 3, 4, and 6 of Act 372, which eliminate exemptions for schools and libraries in the state’s obscenity statute, address inappropriate material in public school libraries, and permit the disclosure of certain library records.

Last week the libraries who filed the lawsuit asked Judge Brooks for a permanent injunction blocking Act 372. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office is defending Act 372 in court.

Act 372 isn’t just about library books—it’s about protecting our children.

Family Council has heard repeatedly from people who are deeply troubled by obscene and inappropriate 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 even went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity. Following the controversy in Jonesboro, voters opted to cut the library’s millage in half.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have included graphic children’s books in their catalogs and failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

Some of the people who testified publicly against Act 372 last spring signaled that they want to be free to share obscene material with children at a library. That simply isn’t right.

Libraries ought to be held to the same standards as everyone else when it comes to giving harmful or obscene material to children.

Public libraries are supposed to be for everyone.

Families should be able to take their children to the library without worrying what their children might see.

And taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize graphic novels that depict explicit images of minors engaged in sexual acts.

Act 372 is a good law that will help protect children in Arkansas. We believe higher courts will recognize that fact and ultimately uphold this law as constitutional.

Gov. Sanders Appoints Former Senator Jason Rapert to State Library Board

In this file photo from 2021, Sen. Rapert (left) speaks with Sen. Alan Clark and Family Council President Jerry Cox (right) at the Arkansas Capitol Building.

On Monday Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed former state senator Jason Rapert to a six-year term on the State Library Board.

According to its website, the State Library administers state and federal funds appropriated for libraries and library development, including State Aid To Public Libraries funds and federal Library Services and Technology Act funds.

During his time in the Arkansas House of Representatives and Arkansas Senate, Jason Rapert sponsored several good pieces of legislation — including Act 1213 of 2015 authorizing a privately funded monument of the Ten Commandments on the Arkansas State Capitol Grounds and Act 180 of 2019 that now prohibits abortion in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother.

Jason Rapert is a staunch conservative and a proponent of the biblical worldview. He will be a much-needed addition to the library board in light of recent concerns some people have voiced about inappropriate material in local libraries.