Three States Have Age Verification Requirements To Access Internet Pornography: Why Not Tennessee?

Image Credit: Lars Plougmann / CC

Submitted by Conni Leonessa RN, Pediatric Nurse –

In three states, Utah, Mississippi and Louisiana, a person must present identification showing that they are over the age of eighteen to access internet pornography. (1)  Four more states, Florida, Kansas, South Dakota and West Virginia are introducing similar legislation; why not Tennessee? (2)

Sam Black, Director of Recovery Education at Covenant Eyes, an organization that helps people break free from porn addiction and author of THE HEALING CHURCH: What the church gets wrong about pornography and how to fix it, tells a story. He writes what a mother of a seven-year-old son shared with him. She trained and prepared her son how to act if he was ever exposed to pornography. 

Her son visited his friend who had just received an iPad for his birthday. His friend showed him pornography. Her son did as he was trained, he looked away and told his parents. The son’s parents spoke to his friend’s parents who were shocked at how easily their 7-year-old son could access porn. It turns out that their son shared the pornography with several other neighborhood children. The child who was trained was the only one to reveal this to his parents.

In his experience, Mr. Black shares that when it comes to children exposed to pornography, it is not a matter of if they are exposed, but of when! He states most people are exposed to porn very young. Children are naturally curious about the opposite sex. They are very naïve and then are exposed to the most vile, brutal, demeaning hardcore porn. Their immature minds don’t know what to do with this.

Most exposure is unintentional. According to Kristen Jenson MA, founder of the organization: Defend Young Minds and author of GOOD PICTURES BAD PICTURES, children as young as 5 can be exposed. They are exposed through Smart Phones, computers, iPads, school issued devices such as Chrome books, apps, gaming rooms, chat rooms, social media sites. She mentions studies that show children exposed to porn frequently show it to their peers. Also, if a child does not disclose his or her initial exposure, the chance of him or her ever talking to an adult decrease substantially.

Researcher Lacy Bentley found that 80% of children exposed to porn will look for more. Dr. John Foubert’s research found that by ages 8-11, 93% of boys and 63% of girls have been exposed. Author and speaker Josh McDowell, in a conference given in 2018, stated that 47 million porn videos are viewed daily by children in the U.S. ( 4) There are no age restrictions to access porn except for the few states who care enough about children to put the restrictions in place!

Today’s porn is not your grandfather’s Playboy! According to the documentary “Beyond Fantasy,” the most popular porn genre is “teen porn.” Young women 18 and up dress as prepubescent girls, wearing school uniforms, pigtails, and holding teddy bears. These so-called “teens” are seduced or coerced to have sex with an adult, in other words, legalized child porn.  Another popular genre is “babysitter porn.” The goal of the adult is to get the child to “do it.” Other popular genres are incest porn, gay porn, trans porn and child porn, which one user described as the “heroin of porn.”

Today’s porn is filled with brutal violence, gang rapes, beatings, strangulation, choking, and verbal abuse. Dr. John Foubert sites a study done in the year 2000 where the researchers viewed the most popular porn videos and found that 88% of the scenes contained some type of physical or verbal violence, mostly against women. (5)

Porn use changes a child’s brain. According to Josh McDowell, facts show that nicotine takes 7 seconds to reach the brain, alcohol 6 minutes, heroin 15 seconds, and porn half a second. When a person is exposed to these substances or situations, dopamine, a neurotransmitter, is released. Dopamine is the “feel good” chemical. It is responsible for feelings of desire and reward. Viewing porn causes a 200% spike in dopamine; it is equivalent to a shot of morphine. Childrens’ immature brains don’t know how to process this. Because of this, children are much more likely to become addicted. A child’s prefrontal cortex, the area of judgment and impulse control, is not fully developed until approximately age 25. A child is more likely to “act out” what he or she has seen and typically acts out on younger children.

In an article, “5 Proven Ways Porn Harms Kids,” author Kristen Jenson states, “According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 40% of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by minors.” Another study showed that 1 in 3 cases of sexual assault against children is committed by siblings or other minors. Moreover, a UK study found that “harmful sexual behavior” began to manifest at around 8 ½ years of age. Greater than 50% abused a sibling. Jenson states that sibling sexual abuse is more common than parent-child sexual abuse.

Dr. Maryann Layden, Director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology program at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in treating sexual addicts, sexual assault victims and perpetrators, rapists, pedophiles, and porn addicts stated, “After I had done this work for 10 years, I suddenly realized I hadn’t treated one case of sexual violence that didn’t involve pornography.” (5)

What can be done?

Some parents are fearful that if they speak to their children about the dangers of porn, that their children will seek it out. According to Sam Black, studies show the exact opposite. He states, “Many experts say, absence of communication and preparation actually lead to children having an increased likelihood of being exposed to using porn.” He states, “I have never found an instance where giving Godly information to your children makes them more susceptible; the opposite is always true.”

Check out the resources-

https://www.defendyoungminds.com. They have wonderful resources and the book: Good Pictures Bad Pictures an excellent resource for parents. https://enough.org. Another excellent resource to equip parents in protecting their children. Their free course, Internet 101 Safety, is a must for every parent!

https://endsexualexplotation.org. Helps everyone get in the fight to protect children from sexual exploitation, sign up for their newsletter. They are making a difference!

Covenant Eyes: https://www.covenanteyes.com. An organization that has helped thousands who are struggling to overcome porn.

Lastly write to your state legislator asking them to sponsor a bill to protect children from accessing internet porn. If Mississippi, Utah and Louisiana have done this, why not here? 

Sources:

1.Arstechnica 2/14/23 7 States Push to Require ID for Watching Porn Online. Ashley Belango.

2. The Center Square: Mississippi Senate Committee Passes Age Verification bill for Porn Sites. 1/27/23 Steve Wilson.

3. US News World Report 5/3/23. Utah law requiring adult websites verify ages of their users has taken effect. Associated Press.

4 Watchmen on the Wall 2018 Josh Mc Dowell Presentation on pornography. The Family Research Council.

5. Protecting Children from Internet Porn. Understanding the Science, Risks, and Ways to Protect Your Kids. Dr. John Foubert.