I came across an article on Reddit (yes, college boys in my large lecture class, I know how to use Reddit too) with a headline claiming that Utah was banning porn. At first, I was shocked. Was this a joke? Could they actually enact legislation to ban pornographic material across an entire state? Isn’t there some kind of freedom of speech issue there? So, I started to read up on this law and Utah’s porn history–it’s all thankfully less NSFW than you might anticipate.

Here are the facts: Senator Todd Weiler, a state senator in the great state of Utah, introduced legislation this past week in attempt to have the state consider porn a “public health crisis.” Ironically, this is kind of along the same vein as what happened with the Zika virus recently, but on a smaller scale since it would only be statewide. The main concern Weiler seems to have is how accessible porn is becoming, especially to young teens, as he claims it “perpetuates a sexually toxic environment.” The proposed bill lists around 18 points describing the negatives affect that porn could have on society including, but not limited to, marriage failure, the fact that it treats women as objects, and that it can impact brain development and cause addiction.

So, Utah is not quite banning porn. Senator Weiler seems to be more interested in getting the potential negative effects on everybody’s radar; in fact, one of the specifically stated goals of the bill is to do just that:

This resolution recognizes the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level in order to address the pornography epidemic that is harming the citizens of Utah and the nation.

To be fair, this whole thing may be a little overblown. “Epidemic” and “public health crisis” seem like strong words to be using when we’re just talking about porn, right? Honestly, after looking at some of the data behind porn addiction in the U.S., it seems like it’s a pretty scary reality for some people. On top of addiction, according to some studies, the average age of exposure to porn may be as low as 11 years old, which certainly doesn’t seem like a good thing.

Utah in particular has has an especially interesting history as far as porn is concerned. In 2005, Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. signed H.B. 260 into law, which essentially required internet providers to block pornographic websites at the request of consumers and heightened penalties for distributing porn, especially to minors. Then, in 2009, a man by the name of Benjamin Edelman conducted a study on which states consumed the most porn and why. The results? Almost every way you look at it, Utah came out on top, whether it was users per thousand people, per thousand homeowners, or per thousand broadband users.

In 2013, satire sites made fun of Utah by spreading a story that one of its cities had implemented a 30-day in jail minimum for first offense porn watching. The best part of this satirical news? People believed it, and, for a while, the nation thought Utah had really implemented jail sentences for watching porn–which is obviously ridiculous. The good news for Utah residents is that their laws to decrease porn use and subsequent embarrassment for being the country’s highest porn consumer led to some overall changes, and they have now slid back down the scale to a more moderate consumption of adult videos per capita–as you can see below in a graphic drawn up from Pornhub data in April of 2014.

All in all, I don’t really think this bill is the draconian First Amendment violation that it originally appeared to be. What Utah is trying to do is educate people on the potentially harmful effects that porn can have on children, teens, and even adults (when they get too attached). The senator seemingly has the stats to back up his claim and porn problems seem to be a lot more prevalent in our country than I ever really assumed they were, so maybe some public awareness could be a good thing. Then again, with the attention grabbing and misrepresentative headlines this legislation has been getting, I expect this bill to have some stiff opposition.

Alexandra Simone

Alex Simone is an Editorial Senior Fellow at Law Street and a student at The George Washington University, studying Political Science. She is passionate about law and government, but also enjoys the finer things in life like watching crime dramas and enjoying a nice DC brunch. Contact Alex at ASimone@LawStreetmedia.com

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Revenge porn is a real problem, especially in the age of the internet. But now, one of the go-to destinations for internet smut is taking action against revenge porn, by making it easier for victims to get the videos and photos taken down. While this big change by PornHub certainly won’t prevent all cases of revenge porn, it’s definitely a strong symbolic move.

Revenge porn can take a few forms, but the most traditional are videos or pictures in the possession of an individual’s former partner that are posted online or shared in an attempt to get “revenge” for some perceived wrongdoing, or even just embarrass the individual. The victims are usually, but certainly not always, female.

While PornHub has always had policies in place to get rid of any revenge porn that was posted or taken without an individual’s knowledge, the company just announced that that process will be streamlined with the introduction of a new form that will allow users to report abuses right away. Previously, the appeals process was done via email, but PornHub wants to cut through that “red tape” and also deter the posting of non-consensual content.

Corey Price, the PornHub Vice President said in a press release:

With nearly 60 million visitors to Pornhub daily, it’s imperative that we remain ahead of this perpetuating victimization of innocent individuals and continue to combat this illicit behavior. We will persist in enacting measures that we believe will strongly reinforce Pornhub’s stance against revenge porn. We are fully committed to the removal of this type of content from our site, in the pursuit of instilling a sense of safety and community that keeps our users’ minds at ease.

This certainly won’t lead to a complete removal of all revenge porn from PornHub’s site, much less the internet as a whole. Given the ease with which new videos can be uploaded, as well as the fact that the system to take it down relies on user participation, revenge porn will probably still make its appearances. There are also more things the company could be doing–according to Mary Anne Franks, who teaches law at the University of Miami and works as the Vice President of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative–sites should be more proactive about making sure that illegal content doesn’t become publicly available in the first place. According to the Verge:

The deterrents she suggests seem easy to implement: a clearly displayed reminder that revenge porn is illegal in most US states, or a simple checkbox for users to verify that the materials they upload are being distributed with the full consent of all parties.

So it’s not perfect. But as a company that saw 18.5 billion visits in 2014 alone, PornHub is making a rather visible statement that revenge porn is wrong, and should not be tolerated.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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