The recent Supreme Court ruling authorizing age verification laws will add another hurdle for pornographers seeking to peddle obscene material to children, but age verification laws may have the unintended side benefit of encouraging adults to free themselves from addiction to online pornography.
On its final day in session, June 27, the Supreme Court released its ruling in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, upholding the constitutionality of age verification laws. Under Texas H.B. 1181, websites featuring sexually explicit material must ask users to provide a government-issued identification, digital ID, or another “commercially reasonable method” of proving their age — ways which will disclose personal sensitive data. A total of 24 states have similar laws on the books.
The laws are not fool proof, but will still certainly prevent some minors from accessing online porn. But they will also cause adults to think twice about going to those websites, knowing that they have to upload sensitive personal identification to an unsecure porn website.
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Age verification “undermines anonymous [porn] browsing,” The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an internet privacy group, explained. “A person who submits identifying information online can never be sure if websites will keep that information or how that information might be used or disclosed. This leaves users highly vulnerable to data breaches and other security harms.”
Some of the ruling’s determined critics noted the add-on effect, but they consider it a bug, not a feature. Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), complained age verification “deters adults from viewing vast amounts of First Amendment-protected content.”
“Data breaches are inevitable,” said Bob Corn-Revere of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) — a libertarian organization which has waged a long, commendable fight against campus free speech restrictions, and which filed an amicus brief in the case. “How many will it take before we understand the threat today’s ruling presents?”
For once, the ACLU makes a valid point: data breaches are inevitable. Consider these headlines of recent breaches published within the last month:
- AT&T appears poised to pay a $177 million settlement over two data breaches in 2019 and 2024 impacting 73 million current or former customers.
- Cyber detectives believed they had discovered data for sale on the dark web belonging to Verizon’s 61 million customers.
- The Dutch-Belgian food retailer Ahold Delhaiz — whose U.S. affiliate operates Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop — revealed that cybercriminals stole the sensitive data of 2.2 million shoppers last November.
- Krispy Kreme revealed that hackers hoisted the personal data of 161,676 people, mostly employees, last November. (Krispy Kreme carries its own risk of public shame.)
Uncertainty runs deeper, as companies often reveal that bad actors have purloined their users’ sensitive data only months after the fact, if at all.
This list excludes the most infamous cyberhacking case of modern times: the data breach of the adultery facilitation website AshleyMadison.com. In 2015, hackers obtained the private information of 32 million registered users, including an estimated 15,000 .mil. or .gov email addresses, then posted the aggregated adulterers’ data with a word of advice: “Find yourself in here? It was ALM that failed you and lied to you. Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life. Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you’ll get over it.”
Such hacks of online porn websites, some of which feature child pornography, will undoubtedly open some up to blackmail or cyberthreats, as hackers intercept records of online porn consumption — or website employees deliberately leak some or all user data. (If a rogue IRS contractor can leak the president’s tax forms, someone’s sexual curiosities would prove irresistible.)
That assumes the problem stems from a leak, not an inadvertent self-disclosure, like former Congressman Anthony Weiner.
It may not surprise anyone that the ACLU, founded by communists (whose co-founder, Roger Baldwin, wrote an apology for communist tyranny titled “Liberty Under the Soviets” before changing his views), seems unhappy the law may induce adults not to consume “vast amounts” of online porn. It’s all-the-more understandable, since ACLU attorney Quinn Emanuel (unsuccessfully) represented the porn industry’s Orwellian-named front group, the Free Speech Coalition, Inc. (a group which undoubtedly puts its emphasis on the “Inc.”).
But it is less clear why FIRE, or any group dedicated to educational excellence, would want to facilitate porn access. Studies show compulsive porn exposure shrinks the brain, reduces working memory, and worsens executive decision-making skills.
A growing number of Americans describe their relationship as an addiction — and, like the tobacco industry, pornographers target minors whose brains have not fully developed. A 15-year-old boy named Daniel found himself slipping into compulsive behavior that he found repulsive shortly after his parents bought him a laptop. “I was watching things that disturbed me that weren’t in keeping with what I knew my sexuality was, things like transsexual porn and gay porn. I had decreased concentration. I simply couldn’t focus on normal, everyday activities,” admitted the now-recovered addict. “I was completely in denial but I was addicted for six years.” He finally kicked the habit after going cold turkey for 100 days.
But addiction is not limited to children. “At my lowest point, I was spending an unhinged amount of time viewing images — I’m talking like 20 to 30 hours a week, sometimes even staying up until 5:00 a.m. on a work night,” said a porn addict named Mark.
If nothing else, age verification laws may finally slay the myth of anonymous online porn consumption — a canard rivaled only by the myth of “ethical porn.” Streaming sites already secretly monitor users’ activity; this merely removes the virtual fig leaf of privacy.
Porn consumption is not anonymous, because nothing in creation ultimately enjoys true anonymity. God sees all. The Psalmist waxed eloquent, “The Lord looketh from Heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men” (Psalm 33:13). God is aware of His children’s online activity, regardless of state legislative requirements, misleading ID use, or filter evasion.
Reducing porn consumption will yield social benefits. If tying users’ online porn consumption to their real-life identification helps people realize God’s eyes pierce all of life’s actions until His judgment inevitably reveals them, it may pay eternal benefits. Those with “ears to hear” may find they finally have the “eyes to see” only pure images that feed their souls.
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand. He previously worked as a reporter for The Daily Wire, as U.S. Bureau Chief of LifeSiteNews, as Executive Editor at the Acton Institute, and as Managing Editor of FrontPageMag.com. Ben co-authored a book with David Horowitz, written two book-length reports, and did his Master’s thesis on aspects of the intersection between the Old and New Testaments. Before becoming a writer, he spent more than a decade working in radio. He is currently pastor of Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church. He lives in Ohio with his wife and four children and his children’s three cats.
