Photo via UENVideo/YouTube, vazovsky/Flickr (CC0 1.0)
March 24, 2021, 11:29 am
A new bit of legislation signed into law in Utah on Tuesday requires all cellphone and tablets sold within the state’s borders to automatically block pornography. However, before you hit the breaks on buying that new smartphone, you can rest easy — the law will not be enforced until and unless five other states pass similar bills because otherwise it would be too difficult to implement.
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It does seem like your average Utah resident could just jump over state lines to get a porn-enabled device if they wanted to, but critics fear that “copycat bills” will quickly pop up in neighboring conservative states. This seems likely as many such states followed Utah’s lead when they declared porn consumption a “public health crisis” in 2016.
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Utah, being our most Mormon state, has often targeted pornography distribution and access in its legislation, doing battle each time with freedom of speech advocates.
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“This is another example of the Legislature dodging the constitutional impacts of the legislation they pass,” said ACLU attorney Jason Groth.
The human rights organization has indicated that it may challenge this law in court for being unconstitutional. Utah Governor Spencer Cox called the bill’s passage an “important message” on keeping kids away from the saucy side of the internet.
Meanwhile, adult film star Cherie DeVille penned an entire open letter to Cox condemning this bill, pointing out that if parents don’t want their kids to be viewing porn on their phones, they can always do a parenting.
“When I was growing up, my parents monitored everything I watched,” she wrote. “Today, technology makes this more challenging, but my sister manages to keep R-rated movies away from her kids. If you want to monitor what your kid watches on their phone, install parental controls that have existed since AOL.”
“If your kid still manages to watch porn, here’s an idea: Take away their phone. Why does any child need a cellphone anyway?”
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DeVille and other critics of this bill have also repeatedly pointed out the report that found Utah to be the state with the most traffic per capita to pornography websites in the nation. The star further accused Utah Republicans of secretly intending to try and stop adults from viewing pornography, which we all know is like trying to beat the tide back with a rake.
Didn’t porn hub analytics show that the highest consumers of online pornography came from Utah?
— Cathy Barron
(@barron5cats) March 16, 2021
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the free market actually wants legal drugs, the ability to fuck whoever they want (or don’t want), nontraditional relationships/family structures, racial justice, financial equality (or closer to it) and a lot of other things the government says is “bad for our health and safety”
— 𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚑
(@honeydew__isle) March 16, 2021
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“What’s the difference between iPads, PCs, and cellphones?” she asks. “All this bill does is ensure adult men get lube on the PC keyboard instead of their iPhone screen.”
*First Published: March 24, 2021, 11:29 am
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