GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—Utah's controversial new device filtering bill, which was signed into law Tuesday by Governor Spencer Cox and would require all smartphones and tablets sold in the state to have anti-porn filtering software pre-activated should certain benchmarks come to pass, is widely known to have gotten pushed through the legislature by Republican State Representative Susan Pulsipher, but now a much less reported entity out of Michigan has stepped forward in local media to claim responsibility for helping author the bill and get it passed: the religiously-rooted child safety advocacy organization Protect Young Eyes.
As reported by West Michigan NBC affiliate WOOD 8, Protect Young Eyes founder Chris McKenna said his group "helped write the Utah legislation that was signed by the governor Tuesday" and indicated that he "is now determined to pass the same law in Michigan, especially as the Utah measure won't go into effect unless five other states enact similar laws."
Indeed, that is the provision written into the Utah law that some have predicted will prevent it from actually taking hold—though it set a deadline of 2031 for that to happen, and as McKenna told WOOD, "We have other states that will pass it before the end of this calendar year—I can almost guarantee that." Of course, even if that prediction does bear true, any such law concocted anywhere will face an uphill First Amendment battle.
But more to the subject at hand, who exactly IS Protect Young Eyes? And given that the group is based in Michigan, how exactly did it become involved in helping write legislation in Utah ahead of its own state?
AVN reached out to the organization Thursday through its website to ask just that, among other questions, and so far has received no response. We did learn several revealing facts about the group and its founder, however, in examining said website.
Firstly, as trumpeted in a celebratory blog post (penned by McKenna) about the Utah bill's passage, not only was PYE actively involved in composing it, but McKenna "gave virtual testimony in two separate hearings in front of the Utah House and Senate."
More significantly (but hardly of much surprise), the post prominently touts that this effort was mounted "in partnership with ... the National Center [on] Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)"—the religious lobbying group formerly known as Morality in Media that's also currently heavily engaged in campaigns against Pornhub and others. McKenna, the post proceeds to boast, "worked closely with attorneys from the Representative's office and NCOSE to craft a technically elegant and simple solution, all while preserving choice for consenting adults, constitutionality, and avoiding commerce clause issues that often arise with this type of state-level legislation."
PYE's affiliation with NCOSE, though not entirely clear, has some traceable history, in that NCOSE bestowed the group with a so-called "Dignity Defense Alert" last year for helping push the failed EARN IT Act introduced in the U.S. Senate in March 2020 by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, which would have largely curtailed the protections of Section 230 of the 1996 Communication Decency Act, colloquially known as the "First Amendment of the Internet." (Motion appears to currently be underway to reintroduce EARN IT in the sitting 177th Congress.)
Praised NCOSE in an August announcement of the accolade on its own website, "Through countless efforts including initiating and maintaining ongoing relationships with legislators, Protect Young Eyes championed the EARN IT Act through the Senate Judiciary Committee. ... As a direct result of PYE's calls for accountability in Big Tech towards safer online spaces for kids and the threat of legislation by Congress, many of the largest platforms have made significant improvements on their sites. We thank Protect Young Eyes for their advocacy and partnership!"
Elsewhere in the NCOSE announcement, it is noted that during the hearings on EARN IT, PYE founder McKenna "presented powerful testimony about the many way [sic] predators use social media platforms to access minors. Senators were outraged by what they heard and several were moved to bipartisan legislative action to create the EARN IT Act." Furthermore, in a separate passage attributed in a highly similar follow-up statement to NCOSE senior vice president and executive director Dawn Hawkins, PYE is lauded "for its instrumental role initiating this groundbreaking legislation, the EARN IT Act, which will hold technology companies accountable for the rampant child sex abuse material (CSAM) on their platforms."
So again, who is Protect Young Eyes? One need not dig very deep to discover at least its motivating core: On the page of its site dedicated to its "PROTECT App" (available for iPhone and Android, and offering parents and their children tools and tips for how to "navigate a hostile digital world"), McKenna writes, "When I was 8 years old, I found a significant stash of pornography. This exposure put me on a path that I wasn't ready for. I didn't understand this new curiosity in my brain. No one talked about things like this. The seeds planted during that exposure led to problems that carried into adulthood and marriage.
"Fast-forward to my time as a middle school ministry director," he continues, "where I watched parents drowning in a tidal wave of technology! Many of them just had no idea how to talk to their kids about difficult and awkward topics.
"These 2 experieces are the primary reasons why I created Protect Young Eyes. We stand in the gap between amazing parents who want to protect their children from online harm and tech that does not care for families."
Buried toward the bottom of the PROTECT App's promo page—and again, of little surprise—is the ostensible selling point that among the app's offerings is the ability to "Honor God with technology" by way of an "optional faith toggle with three Scripture translations for Protestants & Catholics."
On top of that, it turns out that McKenna also serves as the Digital Marketing Manager for Covenant Eyes—another Michigan-based outfit whose unmitigated aim, as boldly blazoned high on its website's homepage, is to "Defeat Porn. Together." Interestingly, that far more outwardly faith-based organization uses the trademarked and oh-so-familiar-sounding slogan "We bridge the gap between technology and relationships." Given the numerous parallels between the two bodies (not the least of which being their stikingly similar names), one might very reasonably presume that PYE is mearly a more secular offshoot of CE.
Nonetheless, being so clearly driven by religion, it may be no wonder why McKenna chose Utah as the launching pad for this seeming campaign to make porn filters enabled by default on mobile devices across the land, what with that state's Mormon-influenced history of enacting anti-porn measures—last year, it passed a bill requiring all adult material, online and off, to carry a "warning label"; in 2017 it passed one allowing parents to sue adult companies if they determined products from such had caused "emotional or psychological harm" to their children; and it was the first of what's grown to 15 states to declare by congressional resolution, in 2016, that porn constitutes a "public health crisis."
How successful McKenna and PYE will be in this campaign remains to be seen. But he makes no secret about the next move he has planned: "I will be bringing this to Michigan," he told WOOD. "Anything we can do here in West Michigan to as a community work together to protect all of our kids, not just mine, yours and everybody else's, is going to benefit us."
As to what states he may be eyeing beyond that, he holds his cards a little closer to the vest. "That information I'll keep to myself," he told the news outlet, "because we want to get there before the lobbysists do."
Stay tuned.
Protect Young Eyes logo via Facebook.
