Today’s pornography is not the dirty magazines you grew up with. With the advent of the smartphone with video capabilities and connection to the internet, anyone anywhere can produce pornography now. Sites like PornHub, privately owned and operated out of Canada, are infested with videos of rape, child assaults, and human trafficking. Pleas by rape victims and law enforcement to take down videos are ignored. Tech companies have repeatedly refused to take responsibility for the awful content they host.
Any child can easily view porn on their iPad or phone. Billie Eilish said that being exposed to porn at age 11 “really messed her up.” The average age for first viewing porn in the USA is 12, with 15 percent of American children having seen porn at age 10, per Common Sense Media. And what are they watching? Videos where men abuse women and girls, choke them, and excrete bodily fluids on them. OnlyFans, touted for women to capitalize on porn, is the “Wrecking of the Good Girl,” because to get more views and monetize the platform, women have to perform ever more degrading and sensational acts, like Lily Phillips having sex with 100 men in a single day. Girls are showing up in ERs globally with choke marks on their necks and anal tearing — and wondering why they don’t like sex. Today’s porn teaches boys and girls are that this is how you have sex.
In Louisiana, state representative Laurie Schlegel put forth a bill in 2023 that requires porn sites make a user prove they are over 18 through the Louisiana DMV. The logic is good: you have to show ID to buy a porn video in a store or enter a strip club. Why is the internet miraculously free of long-established restrictions on brick-and-mortar establishments?
A side note on politics: I’m stunned a Republican put this legislation forward. I thought Republicans viewed porn as a First Amendment right. Somehow, Schlegel got her male counterparts on board. I guess they didn’t want to explain to their constituents why they believe porn should be easily accessible for kids.
There’s also never been this many Republican women in state legislatures before. I’ve worked with them to pass similar laws in 19 states in the past year, and they have a new and unique voice. They don’t like anything that objectifies and degrades women, and they’re keenly interested in protecting children. As the executive director of a national feminist organization, I’m surprised to find them willing to stand up for the rights of women and girls, particularly as those rights are being eroded by the minute, nationally and globally.
Louisiana’s law was challenged in court by the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a proxy for PornHub. Key points about the law: the site’s content has to be 33 percent or more pornographic content and must make the user to prove they are over 18. Websites that don’t comply can face:
- Damage lawsuits
- State civil penalties of up to $5,000 per day
- An additional civil penalty of $10,000 per violation for “knowingly failing” to comply
The Free Speech Coalition’s lawsuit against Louisiana was tossed by a federal judge last year. The effect of the law’s passage was immediate: PornHub’s traffic from Louisiana dropped by 83 percent. Rather than comply, PornHub blocked Louisiana users from accessing its site. It subsequently did this with all states that passed age-verification laws. California proposed a similar law, and it failed. Arizona’s Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed their bill, citing First Amendment concerns.
The Free Speech Coalition brought a lawsuit against Texas’ age-verification law, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th District ruled in favor of Texas last March. The FSC appealed to the Supreme Court, which initially declined to hear it, but in July, Justice Alito decided to docket the case. It will be heard at SCOTUS on January 15.
At issue is whether a state has a reasonable interest in protecting its minors, and free speech rights are not as guaranteed for minors as they are adults. The adult entertainment industry, the ACLU, and PornHub seek to overturn the Texas law as a violation of the First Amendment. SCOTUS will have to decide if America is fine with children being exposed to violent porn as long as one adult is not inconvenienced.
Women’s Liberation Front submitted an amicus brief supporting the Texas law from a feminist perspective: the harms from today’s porn to women and girls are severe, and cannot be overstated, and children should be protected from viewing videos of women and girls being degraded and abused.
We will find out this summer, as a nation, if our country’s highest court agrees.
Sharon Byrne is executive director of Women’s Liberation Front.