SALT LAKE CITY - A new documentary about online pornography and its availability to minors is making its way around the U.S. with hopes of bringing about a solution.
Directed by Bryan Hall of the independent film company Living Biography, Traffic Control: The People's War on Internet Porn takes a candid look at how kids and teenagers have access to adult content on the Internet. Hall first became interested in the topic after he heard about the Internet Community Portal Act, aka CP80, a controversial but First Amendment-conscious piece of legislation that aims to protect minors from having access to adult content online.
"The main intention was to highlight the solution," Hall told AVNOnline.com. "Whether it gets passed or not, we thought it was at least something credible enough that eventually the American people would hear about it. We wanted to get in on the groundswell of what we think is a legitimate argument and capture it on film."
Hall immediately took to the streets to interview hundreds of teenagers about their access to adult content. What he discovered came as a great shock. "We all kind of knew that there was going to be a certain percentage of kids and teenagers that would be viewing porn because it was unregulated, and we anticipated that we would capture some of that on film. But, the very first time we hit the streets and starting asking teenagers how much porn kids look at these days, it came up that they'd made their own," Hall said. "We started asking other kids, and sure enough, everywhere, all the kids knew about this under-culture, and the parents clearly have no idea. In hindsight, I don't know why it was such a surprise to us. If we don't have anything to stop them from seeing it, they're just going to mimic what they see and do what they're taught."
In addition to talking with teenagers, Hall also interviewed adult entertainment peddlers, ex-porn stars, psychological experts, business owners, technologists, online porn addicts, educators, and members of the Free Speech Coalition.
Although the trailer for the film is, Hall admitted, a bit "sensationalistic," the filmmaker stressed that he is not necessarily pointing fingers at the adult industry for perpetuating such problems. "People might say to themselves that I'm going to attack anything that is from the adult industry, but I'm not," he stated. "I don't have a problem with adults watching porn, consuming it, making it—whatever. The film is addressing the simple fact that we have laws on the books about kids having access to adult content, but we don't have it on the Internet. The only thing the film is asking is, 'Why is there not any kind of regulation on behalf of the kids on the Internet when there is in every other aspect?'"
Hall said after he was three-quarters of the way through making Traffic Control, he realized he would never be able to address the issue accurately. Therefore, he's planning two additional installments. Hall added that, whereas Traffic Control mainly casts a spotlight on CP80, the second and third movies will give a greater voice to the adult industry.
"I'm actually very interested in highlighting any of the legitimates [on behalf of the adult industry to combat children's access to porn] that I see, because I do believe that the problem has to have a joint effort from people in the industry and people in the community," he said. "I think there are two things that need to happen: I think that the adult content providers need to be more responsible, and I think that the right wing needs to pull their heads out of the sand. If both of those groups would come together [and] admit that there is an issue—and they came together to address it—I think we'd be fine. But the debate continues on and everybody plays the 'ignorance' game or the 'selfish' game."
In the end, Hall added, it's not about what's right or wrong for consenting adults, but rather, what's appropriate for children. "I don't care if you consume all the porn you want, but it's just not right for 12-year-olds to be doing it."
