Utah may have some great places to live, but due to a fairly repressive ate government, it’s not a great place to enjoy all the comforts of home.
Specifically, watching the occasional adult film.
Last April, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed legislation declaring porn was a “public health crisis” with “detrimental effects” and even got a smut-sniffing dog to help curb the epidemic. Now, one of the proponents of that measure, Senator Todd Weiler, is trying to get a bill of his own on the books that would let people sue companies that load pornography on the internet. Weiler — who’s also working on a bill requiring libraries to filter porn from their wifi connections — believes the measure will help hold pornographers liable for the impacts of their products.
“I’m trying to kind of track the same path that was taken against tobacco 70 years ago,” Weiler told KSL. “It’s just basically a message to the pornography industry that if someone in Utah can prove damages from the product, that they may be held liable financially.” Instead of taking a moment to point out that the consumption of porn — unlike tobacco — has exactly zero proven deleterious physical effects, lawmakers in other states (including Virginia and Tennessee) may follow suit.
PornHub, meanwhile, has a huge stack of numbers and charts suggesting that Utah’s porn usage is entirely normal — even bland — in comparison to other states.
Here’s to hoping Mssrs. Herbert and Weiler consult their constituencies before pressing the issue further, because, y’know, democracy.
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