(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon discusses the current state of the cultural discussion on pornography and the possibility of its outright ban.
Jonathon recalls that in his 2016 book The Culture War, he argued that pornography was creating a “rape culture,” whereby “the majority of the population was now watching sexual abuse and degradation for recreation or entertainment.”
“I think that since the publication of The Culture War, the argument that I laid out … has been proven definitively correct, and now I think that what was once a rather fringe argument is now an argument that’s been wholesale adopted by a lot of governments,” Jonathon states.
Noting that anti-porn activists and journalists have been covering the “horrifying” effects of pornography and the torture depicted in videos on the main web pages of porn sites, which one author pointed out would be considered illegal under the Geneva Convention, Jonathon further opines that “the good news … is that people are, in fact, waking up, that anti-porn activism has actually been effective, that governments are starting to realize that not only can they do something about this, but … they really should.”
Jonathon highlighted the work of Laila Mickelwait, founder of Traffickinghub, an organization that seeks to end Pornhub’s profit from sexual crime (such as allowing the distribution of videos depicting underage girls in sex acts), and an article in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof called “The Children of Pornhub,” as examples of the activism and journalism that helped to sway public opinion on pornography.
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Human trafficking is set to overtake the drugs trade, and has already passed the illegal arms trade, as the most lucrative criminal industry in the world.
There are over 40 million children and vulnerable adults around the globe who are victims of this industry, with child sex-trafficking reported in all 50 U.S. states.
Every citizen should be appaled by this vile industry. The age range of those affected differs across the world, but precious children appear to be the key targets now. This is a global operation.
With the newly released “Sound of Freedom” already generating significant momentum around the issue, it’s crucial we send a loud message to the U.S. Congress that child trafficking must STOP in and to our country.
As a first step, Senator Marsha Blackburn’s End Child Trafficking Now Act must be passed to require that any child entering the U.S. with an illegal immigrant does a DNA test to ensure they are related and not being trafficked.
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“As many as 30% of children DNA tested were found not to be related to the illegal immigrants posing as family members. Meanwhile, drug cartels and gangs use minors to falsely present themselves as family units and seek asylum at our southern border,” said Senator Blackburn.
“The Biden administration’s decision to halt all DNA familial testing is a grave misstep that not only puts the safety of Americans at risk but also increases the number of migrant children being trafficked,” she continued. “My legislation would stop criminals in their tracks and help protect children from exploitation – an idea we should all be able to support.”
72% of detected trafficking victims in North America are trafficked for sexual exploitation according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
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As a result of the negative attention Pornhub and Mindgeek received, Jonathon continues, advertisers opted to stop advertising on Pornhub, several credit card companies have stopped doing business with the company, and the website was deplatformed from several major social media websites, including YouTube.
Jonathon also addressed what U.S. states have done in response to pornography, pointing out that 16 of them, and the Republican Party, have declared pornography a “public health crisis.” He also noted the reaction of porn sites to age verification laws, saying that they are “panicking” and have begun “begging their users to lobby on their behalf, stating in closed door meetings that age verification kills their traffic.”
Looking at the discussion abroad, Jonathon points out that the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Canada have all passed or are considering age verification laws. Looking at Canadian law in particular, Jonathon also posits that an outright ban of pornography is possible, opining that the country’s Supreme Court may uphold a ban of pornography in light of previous rulings with regard to obscenity.
He also discusses a 2018 article that appeared in The Guardian from an Indian human rights activist highlighting the negative impact that pornography has on Indian society, and a Nepalese pornography ban from the same year after experiencing a 300 percent rise in pornography in a decade.
Addressing the possibility of a ban in the United States, Jonathon, quoting from a 2018 article by Ross Douthat in the New York Times, states that the only thing necessary for a ban of pornography is the political will to do so. He also references interviews he did with U.S. Republican Senator J.D. Vance, in which Vance noted the same regarding a ban on minors accessing porn.
“The good news is I genuinely think that those of us who oppose pornography are winning the debate on this,” Jonathon concludes.
“We are winning the debate in public, we are winning the debate on public policy, and I do think [a pornography ban] is not unrealistic, it’s not outside the realm of possibility, that in the next decade we actually see the discussion escalate from age verification to ‘maybe we should just ban this garbage entirely.’”
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