The governor of Utah signed legislation on Tuesday that would require all cellphones and tablets sold in the state to automatically block access to pornography.
Governor Spencer Cox said the measure would send an “important message” about preventing children from accessing explicit content online.
The measure will not be implemented, however, unless five other states enact similar laws by 2031.
While Electronic Frontier Foundation media relations director Rebecca Jeschke told The Verge that they don’t know of any other states working on similar plans, there is a growing awareness around the negative impact of pornography.
As author and Caldron Pool contributor Kurt Mahlburg noted, “Like so many aspects of the sexual revolution, our decades-long experiment with porn has provided us with mountains of research about its culture-wide impact.
“Its links to mental health problems, sexual dissatisfaction, infidelity and even crime have led American lawmakers to declare porn a public health crisis in 16 states.“
This is especially concerning when we consider the prevalence of pornography and its wide-spread hold on society.
Last year, just one pornographic website boasted of receiving 42 billion visits, which is an average of 115 million visits every 24 hours. For perspective, that’s the collective equivalent of the entire populations of Canada, Australia, Poland and the Netherlands all visiting in one day.
Every minute, of every day, the website recorded more than 80,000 visitors. And in one year alone, over 115 billion pornographic videos were viewed, with more than 600 thousand years worth of porn consumed worldwide.
Also, see:
Porn Is a Political Weapon: “Virtuous Men Are Hard to Get Shackles On”
Pornography is a Public Health Crisis
How Porn Reshapes A Nation
