Something Good Republicans Are Doing

[IMPress Polly]

Well mostly Republicans anyway. Admittedly, not being much of a rightist, I complain about Republicans a lot. I know. It must be painful for you to see, tPF. So anyway, I wanted to take a moment today to highlight an area of agreement that I have with what I view as a significant state measure that was introduced and supported mainly by Republicans.

This month Louisiana became the first U.S. state to implement a law requiring online pornographers to concretely verify the age of users accessing their content and bar access to anyone who cannot prove they're at least 18 years old. The bill was introduced by Republican state legislator Laurie Schlegel, who is also a professional counselor and a certified sex addiction therapist who specializes in treating people who struggle with addictions related to sex, including pornography addiction. Schlegel says that she was inspired to introduce the bill after hearing a discussion alt-pop singer/songwriter Billie Eilish had with radio host Howard Stern wherein Eilish said that she started watching porn at 11 years old and that it negatively affected her brain and intimate relationships, causing her to submit to degrading acts in real life that she never would have otherwise.

Support for the bill wasn't strictly Republican in nature, as, for example, it was signed into law by Louisiana's Democratic governor John Bel Edwards, but it garnered traction mostly among Republican legislators. Anyway, people here are likely familiar with my pathos regarding the sex industry by now. I feel strongly about things like this. I only hope measures like this catch on more broadly because it's frankly insane that we allow pornographers totally unrestricted access to a child audience today. That is all.

[Ethereal]

I mean, whatever. It won't accomplish anything, though.

[Ethereal]

By the way, if your kids are watching porn on the internet, then that is your fault. There is no rule that says children must be allowed to have smartphones and tablets and 24/7 access to the internet. I grew up without any of those things and I'm better off because of it. Maybe parents should stop being so lazy and actually raise their own children instead of asking the government to do it for them.

[RMNIXON]

This is the sort of legislation that most often has bipartisan support. But I doubt it will do much because access to porn is so easy these days.


And BTW if Porn can harm a child's view of sexuality and intimacy what about the gender confusion agenda being pushed in the public schools?

[Cotton1]

Porn is disgusting. It's degrading to men

[carolina73]

Porn is disgusting. It's degrading to men

That's right, when all we are is a piece of meat to woman. We demand respect for technique!

[zelmo1234]

Thanks Polly, you and I don't often agree, but on this one we do!

[donttread]

Well mostly Republicans anyway. Admittedly, not being much of a rightist, I complain about Republicans a lot. I know. It must be painful for you to see, tPF. So anyway, I wanted to take a moment today to highlight an area of agreement that I have with what I view as a significant state measure that was introduced and supported mainly by Republicans.

This month Louisiana became the first U.S. state to implement a law requiring online pornographers to concretely verify the age of users accessing their content and bar access to anyone who cannot prove they're at least 18 years old. The bill was introduced by Republican state legislator Laurie Schlegel, who is also a professional counselor and a certified sex addiction therapist who specializes in treating people who struggle with addictions related to sex, including pornography addiction. Schlegel says that she was inspired to introduce the bill after hearing a discussion alt-pop singer/songwriter Billie Eilish had with radio host Howard Stern wherein Eilish said that she started watching porn at 11 years old and that it negatively affected her brain and intimate relationships, causing her to submit to degrading acts in real life that she never would have otherwise.

Support for the bill wasn't strictly Republican in nature, as, for example, it was signed into law by Louisiana's Democratic governor John Bel Edwards, but it garnered traction mostly among Republican legislators. Anyway, people here are likely familiar with my pathos regarding the sex industry by now. I feel strongly about things like this. I only hope measures like this catch on more broadly because it's frankly insane that we allow pornographers totally unrestricted access to a child audience today. That is all.

Is it doable to actually stop teen access? "If so I'm all for it. A 15 year old couldn't walk in and buy playboy back in the day. We had to steal someone's dad's

[IMPress Polly]

By the way, if your kids are watching porn on the internet, then that is your fault. There is no rule that says children must be allowed to have smartphones and tablets and 24/7 access to the internet. I grew up without any of those things and I'm better off because of it. Maybe parents should stop being so lazy and actually raise their own children instead of asking the government to do it for them.

You also grew up in a time when the sellers of pornographic content were tasked with screening out potential underage purchasers. Today not even a purchase is required.

Asking parents to make up for the social irresponsibility and selfishness of today's pornographers is exactly the experiment we have been running these last couple decades and it hasn't worked out too well. I say it's time we do something different and demand some actual responsibility from the distributors.

[IMPress Polly]

This is the sort of legislation that most often has bipartisan support. But I doubt it will do much because access to porn is so easy these days.


And BTW if Porn can harm a child's view of sexuality and intimacy what about the gender confusion agenda being pushed in the public schools?

The whole purpose of this law is to make it more difficult for children to access. I'm all for it and think it should be given a chance.

As to gender identity politics, we discuss that all the time in this forum (it's like the single most common topic here in the "Gender, Sexuality, and Race Room" anymore) and I think like 90% of us here are in basic agreement about that matter anyway.