Pornography is a Public Health Crisis say America’s Republicans

Republicans claim Pornography is a Public Health Crisis

Following the recent tragic events in America with the shootings of black men and the sniper attacks on Dallas Police, the American Republican Party have adopted a new draft platform for their campaigning.

Is it to declare that the prevalence of guns in the USA is a danger to lives with over 13,000 gun deaths in 2015? No. Is it the 372 Mass Shootings killing almost 500 people? No. It is that Pornography is public health crisis” and a “public menace” that is destroying lives!

[bctt tweet=”Dear Republicans, how many people have been killed by pornography?”]

Frankly, if we hadn’t seen this with our own eyes, we’d never have believed it, yet this is exactly what the Right Wing of American politics believes.

According to reports, the new wording was pushed by Mary Forrester a North Carolina delegate at the request of the conservative Christian group “Concerned Women for America” and replaces their 2012 statement about pornography, which states:

“We urge active prosecution against child pornography, which is closely linked to the horrors of human trafficking. Current laws on all forms of pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced.”

Of course there are fundamental flaws in that particular statement in that, whilst child pornography is a terrible thing, there is no real, demonstrable link between that and the trafficking of adults for the purposes of prostitution (the figures for which are often grossly exaggerated, usually by “Rescue Industry” groups who profit from “saving” women who have, allegedly been trafficked, even when they’re doing it of their own free will).

That statement also clearly sets out their views that, because they don’t like pornography, it’s not enough that they shouldn’t look at it, but, because of this, they think that nobody else should be allowed to see it either.

Presumably, of course, they consider everyone else to be so morally bankrupt and devoid of conscience that just seeing such material will instantly turn us all into sex criminals and rapists because we don’t share their Christian values…

What does the Republican’s call for banning pornography mean for the UK?

Well, fortunately, nothing as such, except for the fact that a large amount of commercial pornography is produced in the USA (and is made under their 18 USC 2257 law which ensures that all performers are of legal age).

However there is a more disturbing fact that, now Theresa May (not Teresa May the porn star!) has become Prime Minister, she will no doubt be pushing the Tories “Digital Economy Bill”, one of the provisions of which is to require all “pornographic” websites to include age verification as we commented on in a recent blog post.

The fact that such verification is almost impossible to achieve and is easy to by-pass and will do nothing to block all those sites outside the UK which do not and cannot be required to have age verification doesn’t seem to have occurred to the Conservatives, as far as they are concerned they are “doing something” about a problem which concerns the Daily Mail and Mumsnet reading audiences.

As always, it seems that the argument is “We don’t like this, so YOU shouldn’t be allowed to see it”. This is not based on any evidence because despite (or because of) more than 50 years of research, there has never been a proven link between pornography and sexual offences (just lots of anecdotal claims) yet the fact, put forward, for instance, by Professor Milton Diamond of the University of Hawai’i show that “It is certainly clear from the data reviewed, and the new data and analysis presented, that a massive increase in available pornography in Japan, the United States and elsewhere has been correlated with a dramatic decrease in sexual crimes and most so among youngsters as perpetrators or victims.”

Of course these inconvenient facts will never stop our Nanny State Morality Police from trying to protect us from ourselves, since they know they’re doing the “right thing” and won’t listen to any arguments which don’t fit with their blinkered perspectives.

There is also one other matter, that Theresa May has been a strong advocate of the Snoopers Charter which will require your ISP to record every website you visit, just in case you might do something bad which the Authorities may need to know about in the future!

Do you work in the Adult Industry? Are you concerned that this new Moral Puritanism will affect your livelihood?

Or are you an adult who is capable of making up your own mind about what is safe for you to see and you don’t want governments looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re not looking at anything they don’t approve of?

Tell us what you think in the comments…