Advancing public policy to protect children and strengthen families is among our top priorities at Family Policy Alliance.® In today’s culture, one of the most pervasive forms of harm to children and families is pornography – which is why we are focused on curbing the pornography industry.

Unfortunately, 2020 has created a “perfect storm” for the proliferation of pornography in America. During the COVID-19 pandemic when Americans were quarantined at home, many lost their jobs or had to work less and school children were required to learn online, pornography viewing and distribution increased at an alarming rate…taking children and families as victims.

That is why throughout this year, we’ve asked you to take action against the burgeoning pornography industry.  Specifically, we asked you to sign a petition to Attorney General William Barr calling on the Department of Justice to enforce federal obscenity laws that have been largely ignored for far too long.  Despite a first-of-its-kind pledge made by then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 to aggressively enforce these laws, the Department of Justice has so far failed to make obscenity prosecution a national priority.

Over the course of many months, more than 17,500 of you have made your voices heard and signed the petition to Attorney General Barr. I’m pleased to report that yesterday, we delivered your petition to the Attorney General’s office. 

You may be asking “so what do we do now?”

Well, our work is certainly not done.  Most importantly at this time, we invite you to pray with us that our petition and the calls of thousands of Americans concerned for the welfare of children and families will be heard and heeded at the Department of Justice.  We can pray specifically for Attorney General Barr who leads the 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices that are responsible for enforcing federal law.  And as we look forward to the 2021 state legislative sessions, we will continue to educate you on public policy to strengthen existing anti-pornography laws and create new laws to curb the growth and negative effects of pornography in our country.  Stay tuned!

For families,

Amanda Banks
Director, External Relations

Nearly half a century ago, the Supreme Court issued an opinion that would change the legal landscape of the pornography industry. In Miller v. California, the Supreme Court cloaked pornography in First Amendment protections, allowing the porn industry to get away with exploiting countless lives both on screen and those who viewed the content. Ever since then, courts have struck down lawmakers’ efforts to restrict pornography, and prosecutors have been afraid to even enforce laws already on the books that do pass Supreme Court muster. There are even sections of law that allow porn sites to get away with their blatant abuse by passively permitting others to post on their site.

The First Amendment was never meant to protect the exploitative, multi-billion-dollar industry of pornography. The industry has sexually abused countless young children—and then broadcast the video or image of their abuse to the whole world on sites like Pornhub. Pornhub is the largest pornography website on the planet with over 42 billion visits a year. Pornhub is knowingly complicit in the human trafficking industry.

And of course, a site like Pornhub could not miss an opportunity to exploit ongoing international and national crises – like COVID-19 and racial tensions in the U.S. In the height of the pandemic, Pornhub did its best to use the crisis as an opportunity to gain even greater foothold in homes by offering increased access to its harmful content. In the last several months, Pornhub also allowed videos expressly created to denigrate minorities to circulate on its site. The hypocrisy was overwhelming when they also claimed to fight for equality. Pornhub’s version of equality is equally exploiting everyone.

We believe that everyone has dignity and value because they are created in the image of God. We believe that the porn industry exploits women and children, as well as the men they prey on to fund their bloated bank accounts.  And we believe that the porn industry should be held accountable for the content that they put on the internet.

If you agree and haven’t yet had a chance, would you take 30 seconds to add your name to our petition to President Trump’s Attorney General Barr, asking him to make prosecuting obscenity a top priority in his office? This is just one way that we can start changing the culture when it comes to holding the porn industry accountable.

Sincerely,

Brittany Jones, Esq.
Policy Manager

 

 

In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump made a very encouraging promise: For the first time in years, the U.S. would enforce existing laws against obscene pornography. But that promise remains unfulfilled, despite official pleas from pro-family congressmen. That’s why we are inviting you to join thousands of other Americans in calling on U.S. Attorney General William Barr to fulfill President Trump’s pledge.

Now, even more evidence has emerged that reveals the horrific damage caused by hard-core porn.

Consider the tragic story of Rose. She was raped at knife point by three men over a period of 12 hours when she was 14 years old. The men recorded the assault and uploaded the video to Pornhub. When the video of the rape got out, Rose was forced to relive her trauma again and again by people who had seen the video – bullied by some and avoided by others.

Rose begged Pornhub to take down the video. She was a minor. She was kidnapped and violently assaulted, suffering serious injuries. For six months, Rose begged. It wasn’t until Rose faked an email account and pretended to be a lawyer that Pornhub finally removed the video. But the damage was beyond repair.

The stories continue. Just recently, police were finally able to track down a missing trafficked teen after a year-long search. They found her after her own mother was tipped off that the young girl might be on Pornhub. She was. Sixty videos and photos of the young girl had been uploaded to the website by her kidnapper, trafficker and rapist.

There are countless more stories like these.

Pornhub is the nation’s largest porn site, with 42 billion visits last year. Yet, not all porn is legal in the United States. Everyone knows that child porn is illegal. But so are videos of rape, depictions of sex-trafficking victims, and

Simple – because they aren’t being prosecuted, and they won’t police themselves.

That’s why four members of Congress – Reps. Jim Banks, Vicky Hartzler, Mark Meadows and Brian Babin – sent a letter to Attorney General Barr asking him to fulfill President Trump’s pledge to prosecute obscene pornography. They have yet to receive a substantive response.

Please join with Family Policy Alliance and a rising chorus of thousands of Americans in calling on AG Barr for action. You can add your name in about 30 seconds.

Thank you for speaking up and spreading the word!

The Family Policy Alliance Team

With increased access to pornography on the internet, we are observing a simultaneous rise in the harms of pornography. Pornography by its very design is intended to be addictive and multiple studies have shown the detrimental impacts that pornography has on the brain. But it also has widespread effects on families and society as a whole. It is hurting kids who have the highest levels of access in history to extremely graphic images online. And unfortunately, they are gaining this access at younger and younger ages. Further, pornography has direct impacts on marriages and the productivity of its viewers as a whole. These are the harms that most people know and can easily understand.

But what many people don’t know, or won’t talk about, are the harms that come because of the increased demand for pornography. The increase in demand for pornography is known to also lead to increases in both human trafficking and the abuse of women & children. In fact, many have begun to call pornography the modern-day form of slavery.

So, what can we do about it? Because of how the Supreme Court has defined obscenity under the First Amendment, child pornography is normally the only form of pornography that the courts will allow the legislature to completely ban. And in fact, we have laws that do ban child pornography and other forms of obscenity. However, many of these laws aren’t being strictly enforced.

Under President Bush, the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force was created to fight hard core pornography. But this task force was dismantled under the Obama Administration. Yet, in the last several years, the availability of graphic pornography has only increased.

When President Trump was campaigning, he signed a pledge to fight obscenity and the exploitation of children. However, we haven’t seen the fruition of that pledge yet. That is why a group of congressmen, led by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), sent a letter to Attorney General Barr asking that he make prosecuting obscenity a top priority of his Department.

The letter was also signed by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), Rep. Vicki Hartzler (R-MO), and Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX). We applaud these representatives for making this bold move. The letter pointed out that many states have already passed resolutions stating that pornography is a public health crisis. Those states are highlighted on the map below.

This is an issue that even many conservatives have ignored for years. But it is not something we can just ignore any more. Pledges aren’t enough. This is especially true when it comes to fighting pornography and sexual exploitation.

We urge you to contact Attorney General Barr and ask that he make good on the promises of the Trump administration by enforcing the laws on the books (just select “Messages to the Attorney General” as the topic of your message).

This is just a start. While we are opposed to any depictions that degrade and exploit another human being for financial gain through pornography, we recognize enforcing existing laws is something that this Administration can start doing now to fight the scourge of pornography.

For the dignity of every human life,

Brittany Jones, Esq
Policy Manager