Porn again

At least 15 States have passed resolutions declaring pornography a public health crisis. Others are moving in that direction. Ohio now has H. R. No. 180—a resolution “to declare that pornography is a public health hazard with statewide and national public health impacts leading to a broad spectrum of individual and societal harms.”

Battles against pornography have been won and lost, but mostly lost in the last fifty years. The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes...” That effort failed because it had no widespread support and because it spawned a black market that fostered the growth of criminal organizations the activities of which went far beyond running rum. Porn these days can be transported much easier than kegs of beer or cases of liquor. Accessing it is about as easy as getting water through a faucet at the kitchen sink.

The latest battle cries from conservatives are as quixotic as those from dedicated members of temperance movements in decades past. They will not bring the porn industry to its knees. And they will not significantly reduce the demand for ‘filth’. Most admit that their efforts will have little immediate impact but signal future attempts to bring about dramatic changes in our society. For better or worse, they will not change human nature.

Studies on the effects of pornography are notoriously difficult to implement. And the results of the bulk of those studies are either contradictory or inconclusive. Many theories advance plausible hypotheses that fail to be confirmed. While some writers claim the use of pornography correlates with the commission of crimes, others claim pornography protects at least some citizens, since it affords its users a ‘catharsis’: getting off in private, not surprisingly, reduces the drive for sex. Pick a theory. But then try to prove it.

Ridding society of pornographic materials or even applying severe restrictions to them would be every bit as difficult as removing a substantial number of guns from the homes and businesses of American citizens. For all who have a special love for the Second Amendment, there are as many with a special love for the First. Curiously, many supporters of these declarations of porn as a threat to young people say nothing about the threat of gun violence to youth. To some minds, dying before seeing porn—saving souls—must be preferred.

No one has yet made clear how the censorship of pornography will proceed. And it may not matter, because, very often, sounding alarm bells wins votes, and winning votes is the main objective in this round. With one alarm after another, we will likely be deafened. But that may help us to attend to matters much more important. Protecting children against exploitation and protecting all human beings against violence, both physical and psychological, are the highest priorities. They should remain so. The greatest efforts should be applied toward those ends.

Nevertheless, pornography does not have to dominate any corner of our country. No one should ever be assaulted by it. For the most part, regulations to create separate areas in stores for adult materials satisfy a couple of concerns: ensuring the freedom of adults to have access to products of their choice for private use, and preventing exposure of those products to minors and to adults who do not want to see them. That model could be implemented online for x-rated media, though not without strong legislation, continuing enforcement, and a fair amount of technical reconfiguration. Since the Web is World Wide, America, if it wants to, will have to restrict, somehow, the delivery of pornographic content from other nations.

Parental controls can be built into most devices that connect to the internet, and they can be made more effective. And just as laws restrict sales of alcohol and tobacco to adults, laws can restrict internet providers, web hosts, webmasters, software developers, manufacturers and sellers of smartphones, and the management of companies delivering content intended only for interested adults from allowing minors to access that content. Strict policies governing registration and login to websites providing erotic content—calling for more than a checkbox affirming that a viewer is not a minor—will begin to address some concerns that many people have regarding the protection of children and, more generally, the restoration of ideals and the improvement of the moral tone of our society.

Declarations of concern for the proliferation of pornography and the harm it causes have a rightful place in our legislatures, in our country. But passing laws that make desired changes while balancing, as much as possible, the rights of all citizens will be more difficult. Identifying a problem is most often easier than solving it. Sounding an alarm is only a call for action. Getting action, in the case against pornography, will be complicated, difficult, and quite possibly just an aspiration for many years to come.