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H. 3875

STATUS INFORMATION

House Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. G.R. Smith, Trantham, Burns, Huggins, Hiott, Bailey, Haddon, Bennett, Dabney, McGarry, V.S. Moss and Oremus
Document Path: l:\council\bills\jn\3243cz21.docx

Introduced in the House on February 11, 2021
Currently residing in the House Committee on Judiciary

Summary: Pornography

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
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   2/11/2021  House   Introduced (House Journal-page 3)
   2/11/2021  House   Referred to Committee on Judiciary (House Journal-page 3)

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VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

2/11/2021

TO RECOGNIZE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD OF PORNOGRAPHY WHICH LEADS TO A BROAD SPECTRUM OF INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETAL HARMS, TO EXPRESS THE NEED TO ADDRESS THE PORNOGRAPHY EPIDEMIC BY ENCOURAGING EDUCATION, PREVENTION, RESEARCH, AND POLICY CHANGES TO ADDRESS THE PROLIFERATION OF PORNOGRAPHY ON THE INTERNET AND TO CALL FOR REGULATION OF PORNOGRAPHY ON THE INTERNET TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH THE OBSCENITY LAWS OF THE STATE.

Whereas, the members of the South Carolina General Assembly recognize that pornography is creating a public health crisis and contributes to the hypersexualization of teens and even prepubescent children in our society; and

Whereas, efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction, to educate individuals and families concerning its harmful effects, and to develop recovery programs must be addressed systemically in a manner that holds providers accountable; and

Whereas, due to advances in technology and the universal availability of the Internet, young children are exposed to pornography at an alarming rate and it often serves as their main source of education regarding human sexuality; and

Whereas, twenty-seven percent of young adults between the ages of twenty-five and thirty reported that they first viewed pornography before the onset of puberty; and

Whereas, this early exposure may lead to low self-esteem and body-image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and an increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior; and

Whereas, pornography objectifies women, normalizes violence and the abuse of women and children, and depicts rape and abuse as harmless, which increases the demand for sex trafficking, prostitution, child sexual abuse images, and child pornography; and

Whereas, potential detrimental effects on users of pornography can impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promote problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction; and

Whereas, recent neurological research indicates that pornography is potentially biologically addictive, which means the user requires more novelty, often in the form of more shocking material, in order to be satisfied; and

Whereas, pornography use is linked to lessening desire in young men to marry, dissatisfaction in marriage, and infidelity and this link demonstrates that pornography has a detrimental effect on the family unit; and

Whereas, it is important to recognize the cancer on society that pornography poses when it is distributed carelessly over the Internet with little regard for the devastating and long-lasting effects that exposure to it can cause, and begin to address the regulation of it to ensure compliance with the state's obscenity laws to protect the State's citizens and youth in particular from such exposure. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize and acknowledge the public health hazard of pornography which leads to a broad spectrum of individual and societal harms, express the need to address the pornography epidemic by encouraging education, prevention, research, and policy changes to address the proliferation of pornography on the Internet and call for regulation of pornography on the Internet to ensure compliance with the obscenity laws of the State.

This web page was last updated on February 16, 2021 at 12:14 PM