Four years after the Utah state legislature passed a resolution officially declaring porn a “public health hazard,” a new bill introduced in the state this week takes that declaration one step further.
If passed, the bill sponsored by Republican Brady Brammer would require every porn site to post a health hazard warning label on every video or still image containing sexually explicit content, or even nudity. The “health” warning would be required to remain on-screen for at least 15 seconds before the user may being viewing the desired image or video.
The warning requirement would also apply to print publications, which under the bill must display the “health hazard” label prominently on their front covers.
Porn sites that fail to post the warning labels would be subject to fines of $2,500—for each offense. In other words, a single video without a warning viewed by 1,000 Utah users would cost the offending porn site a whopping $2.5 million in fines, according to a report by UtahPolicy.com.
Brammer compared the bill to California’s “toxic warning” law, which requires manufacturers to label products warning consumers of any harmful substances they contain.
The warnings would be based on the same largely debunked and iffy “studies” promoted by anti-porn organizations designed to show the alleged hazardous effects of viewing sexual content.
"Exposing minors to pornography is known to the state of Utah to cause negative impacts to brain development, emotional development, and the ability to maintain intimate relationships,” the warning label would read, as required by Brammer’s bill. “Such exposure may lead to harmful and addictive sexual behavior, low self-esteem, and the improper objectification of and sexual violence towards others, among numerous other harms."
Brammer told UtahPolicy.com that he submitted his bill for vetting by state legislative attorneys, and none gave him so much as a note about the constitutionality of the proposed law, which directs its fines only at porn sites that post original adult material, not at the internet platforms or services that may transmit or redistribute the explicit images.
The proposed law defines “pornography” as “any description or representation, in whatsoever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse,” that may appeal to “the prurient interest in sex of minors.”
Photo By Andrew Smith / Wikimedia Commons
