Responding to Anonymous Coward: The laws as currently written require ANYONE of ANY age to furnish identification in order to watch porn, and many people, frankly, don't want ANYONE to know they watch porn, and that's their right. In particular, they don't want the GOVERNMENT to know they watch porn. Beyond that, NO ONE is hurt by watching porn, not even children, although if their parents were sexually sane and they found that their kids had accessed adult material, the parents would DISCUSS with the kids what they had seen and explain that sex is something adults do with each other, and that it's not something youngsters should try until they're old enough.
As a journalist for 35 years for Adult Video News (AVN), considered by most to be the "bible" of the adult entertainment industry, and as someone who has spent all that time studying the effects of religion on sexually explicit content (porn) (and even collected many of those articles into a book, "Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity's War on Sexxx,") I can state categorically that most people in this country enjoy porn (including the residents of Utah, which has had the highest per capita number of online subscriptions to porn sites in the country) and many consider it to be a marital aid, showing them new sexual positions they hadn't thought of on their own. Simply put, Novicoff's article is crap.
South Carolina is the one making the news right now, but their bill is just a boilerplate created by (possibly disbarred) attorney Chris Sevier, who's also created similar bills for 22 other states, where conservative pols are just waiting to introduce them. I wrote about it here: https://avn.com/business/articles/legal/s-carolina-1st-state-to-tackle-mandatory-porn-filtering-bill-705845.html (possibly NSFW)
As long as we're talking about censoring free speech, how about censoring the right-wing lies that Planned Parenthood sells aborted baby parts, since that lie is apparently what set William Dear to shoot up the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility, killing 3?
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by markkernes.
Why These Are Bad Laws
Responding to Anonymous Coward: The laws as currently written require ANYONE of ANY age to furnish identification in order to watch porn, and many people, frankly, don't want ANYONE to know they watch porn, and that's their right. In particular, they don't want the GOVERNMENT to know they watch porn. Beyond that, NO ONE is hurt by watching porn, not even children, although if their parents were sexually sane and they found that their kids had accessed adult material, the parents would DISCUSS with the kids what they had seen and explain that sex is something adults do with each other, and that it's not something youngsters should try until they're old enough.
Religion and Porn
As a journalist for 35 years for Adult Video News (AVN), considered by most to be the "bible" of the adult entertainment industry, and as someone who has spent all that time studying the effects of religion on sexually explicit content (porn) (and even collected many of those articles into a book, "Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity's War on Sexxx,") I can state categorically that most people in this country enjoy porn (including the residents of Utah, which has had the highest per capita number of online subscriptions to porn sites in the country) and many consider it to be a marital aid, showing them new sexual positions they hadn't thought of on their own. Simply put, Novicoff's article is crap.
Sadly, It Ain't Just SC
South Carolina is the one making the news right now, but their bill is just a boilerplate created by (possibly disbarred) attorney Chris Sevier, who's also created similar bills for 22 other states, where conservative pols are just waiting to introduce them. I wrote about it here: https://avn.com/business/articles/legal/s-carolina-1st-state-to-tackle-mandatory-porn-filtering-bill-705845.html (possibly NSFW)
While You're At It, How About Censoring Winger Planned Parenthood Lies
As long as we're talking about censoring free speech, how about censoring the right-wing lies that Planned Parenthood sells aborted baby parts, since that lie is apparently what set William Dear to shoot up the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility, killing 3?