A bill introduced in the Utah state legislature last week that would require every porn video or publication to come with a “health hazard” warning label took a big step toward becoming law on Tuesday, when the state’s House Judiciary Committee voted to approve the bill, passing it on for a vote by the full House.
The committee voted 9-2 in favor of the bill, which would require every online porn clip to be preceded by a 15-second label warning of porn’s alleged “negative impacts to brain development, emotional development, and the ability to maintain intimate relationships.”
“I’m sorry, but if you want to threaten my kids, I’m not playing nice anymore," Republican state rep Eric Hutchings said at Tuesday’s hearing on the bill, HB0243, as quoted by the Salt Lake Tribune.
The bill would slap a $2,500 fine on any porn site that failed to attach the warning, but that fine would be levied for each offense. In other words, a single porn clip viewed 1,000 times in Utah without the warning would result in a $2.5 million fine. But one Republican rep, Travis Seegmiller, said that the proposed fines were not steep enough.
“The nature of the damage is so extensive and severe and pervasive and destructive and horrific that to be honest, this seems like chump change compared to what’s happening to our kids,” the rep from St. George, Utah, said, as quoted by the Tribune.
The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the bill, saying it would unconstitutionally curtail free speech rights—and the Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry advocacy organization, also warned of the bill’s potential consequences in a statement released last week.
The FSC also said that the supposed science behind the claims of porn’s harmful effects is not “credible,” noting that the bill cites no specific research to back up its claims of a “hazard” to public health.
“Should this bill be passed, the likely targets would be a long list of targets social conservatives regularly deem obscene—from feminist art and LGBTQ film to comprehensive sex education texts,” the FSC said in the statement. “The State of Utah and its taxpayers would be on the hook for millions of dollars defending a law that is ultimately indefensible.”
Republican state rep Bradty Brammer, the author of the bill, said that he crafted its language by referring to Utah’s 2016 resolution declaring porn a “public health hazard,” according to the Associated Press.
Photo By Coolcaesar / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
