The Sunshine State isn’t the only one fighting the culture war for conservatives and Christians. Nearby Louisiana has taken an important step to protect the innocence of our children.
Louisiana State Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Dist. 82, introduced and helped pass HB 142. Fox describes the bill as "requiring age verification for any website that contains 33.3 percent or more pornographic material."
Schlegel’s reasoning behind the bill, "Pornography is destroying our children and they’re getting unlimited access to it on the internet and so if the pornography companies aren’t going to be responsible, I thought we need to go ahead and hold them accountable."
"Pornography" and "responsible" aren’t words that usually appear in the same sentence, so we are in complete agreement with the representative. Exposing children to pornography — which includes idiot "parents" who take their children to drag shows and Pride parades — is bad for children and has a long-term effect on their development and mental health.
Protect Young Eyes.com lists five major ways exposure to pornography damages children:
1.) "Pornography harms your child’s brain. While accidental exposure is one of the most common on-ramps to pornography, your son’s or daughter’s brain is hypersensitive to reward stimuli.
"Meaning behaviors can become habitual VERY quickly. When this process occurs during the all-important adolescent years, the brain creates deep neural pathways ('ruts') that crave pornography."
2.) "Pornography harms your child’s view of sex. Pornography preys on that unwillingness to wait, removes the investment in a healthy sexual relationship, and reduces sex down to a series of compilations that selfishly (and temporarily) satisfy a niche fantasy.
"This pattern glorifies sex as the penultimate goal of relationships. Eventually convincing the user that they can have a fulfilling sex life independent of the 'baggage' that comes with a committed relationship."
3.) "Pornography harms your child’s view of others. Whether you are 4, 14, or 40, viewing pornography leads the user to objectify others."
"It teaches your son or daughter that: Sex is selfish. Sex is violent. Sexual consent is not necessary. Sexual partners are objects for pleasure. Sex is expected."
4.) "Pornography harms your child’s quality of life. Pornography takes time away from other activities like sleep, homework, and time with family. A study on the effects of pornography on 14-year-old boys showed that increased use of internet pornography decreased boys’ academic performance six months later.
"The more pornography a child views, the more risky behaviors they are apt to participate in. Activities like sexting can cause significant loss of sleep.
"Whether because sexting is done at night or due to increased anxiety associated with sexting, lower productivity levels can result."
5.) "Pornography causes children to harm other children. Peer-on-peer sexual conduct and abuse are on the rise in children, in large part, because of expanding access to pornography on smart devices in the home.
"When a child is exposed to pornographic content, there is a strong likelihood that he or she will mimic what they saw with friends or family members (usually younger siblings)."
Age verification will cut down on children’s exposure to pornography and it will also, at least in Louisiana, have the unintended benefit of helping adults quit their porn habit.
At least some men will balk at the idea of the site knowing even temporarily who they are and their age and will therefore, refuse to comply.
That will mean cutting off the porn pipeline at least for those men.
That’s a win — win.
For those whose porn habit is too strong to interrupt, complying with the age requirement is easy. Louisiana has an app called LA Wallet that allows residents to keep a digital representation of your current Louisiana-issued state ID or driver's license.
Using the LA Wallet will comply with the law and still remain relatively anonymous.
An expert told Fox, "It doesn’t identify your date of birth, it doesn’t identify who you are, where you live, what part of the state you’re in, or any information from your device or from your actual ID. It just returns that age to say that yes, this person is old enough to be allowed to go in."
The law has additional teeth, too. Schlegel explains, "Someone could sue on behalf of their child; they can sue if children are getting access to pornography. So, it would be up to the user to sue the company for not verifying age first."
We would prefer the state attorney general take on this role, since enforcing state law is his job, but private lawsuits are better than nothing.
Parents would do well to send a copy of this column to their local state legislatures and ask them, politely, what they intend to do to fight the scourge of online porn.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.