Utah state senator says porn is a public health crisis

A Utah state senate committee says pornography is a public health crisis and a threat to society. The committee is now asking the senate to back the resolution.

State Senator Todd Weiler is the sponsor of the resolution and says porn should be treated like tobacco, in order to protect children.  

Here is part of his interview with As It Happens:

Carol Off: Why should pornography be declared a public health crisis?

Todd Weiler:  Well, I think that the science and the research is showing that pornography, like tobacco, is addictive and it's harmful to relationships, harmful to families. It's harmful to people's self esteem and self identity so I think that like tobacco, we're learning more about pornography — and it's effervescent now with the internet.

CO: What's the science that indicates to you that proves that this is a public health issue, not a moral issue.

TW: Well I think it is a moral issue for a lot of people —  and I'm not trying to impose morals or religion on anyone, but there have been studies out of United Kingdom and Cambridge as recently as 2014 [showing] M.R.I. brain scans of compulsive pornography users lighting up like a Christmas tree in very similar patterns to cocaine and heroin addicts when they're shown those substances.

I'm actually basing my resolution off of some research that was presented at a conference called Pornography: A Public Health Crisis, that was at the U.S. Capitol last summer. It was put on by the National Center for Sexual Exploitation. There's a number of papers that were presented at that symposium and my resolution is based on a lot of that research.

CO: There seems to be conflicting studies, aren't there? Because when you talk about studies out of the United Kingdom, this is a massive study with forty thousand research articles in it, that show the effects of pornography on teens. They're unable to substantiate any of the effects that you have noted in your bill … What do you say to the studies that contradict what you're saying?

TW: Well certainly there is contradictory science on pornography and there's contradictory science on global warming, but we don't dismiss global warming as a government either just because some scientists disagree. You know, I've been contacted by neuroscientists from U.C.L.A. And from the United States Navy and they're telling me that I'm right on.

The U.S. Navy has been researching the impacts of pornography because of the detrimental impact on their enlisted men and I'm sure officers as well in terms of their interpersonal relationships and violence and other things.

CO: The arguments I guess —  and they're not defending pornography or saying it's great or saying it's a healthy thing or unhealthy thing, it seems to be there's a lot of evidence that the marriages are sometimes not helped or hindered by it. That people watch pornography for sexual arousal and that's why they watch it.

TW: Yeah and again my resolution would not in any way ban pornography or anything that someone's doing in [the] privacy of their bedroom. My goal is to protect children from pornography like we try to protect children from tobacco. That wasn't always the case, we changed our views on that as a country in the United States dramatically in the last 70 years. And in England, under Prime Minister Cameron, they made the internet porn free, basically, unless you opt in to it, and that's really my goal. I'd like to see the United States move in that direction as well.

Take a listen to our full interview with State Senator Todd Weiler.