{"id":316755,"date":"2024-08-06T16:49:53","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T21:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=316755"},"modified":"2024-08-06T14:23:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T19:23:58","slug":"guest-protecting-children-pornography-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/guest-protecting-children-pornography-important\/","title":{"rendered":"GUEST OPINION: Why protecting children from pornography is so important"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the guest author. Live Action News has made minor edits for clarity.<\/i><\/p>\n

Two members of the New Jersey General Assembly, Jay Webber and Michael Inganamort, have recently sponsored <\/span>Bill A4146 <\/span><\/a>and <\/span>Bill A3819<\/span><\/a> in their efforts to pass stricter regulation of sexual material on the internet. Bill A4146 \u201c\u2026would require electronics manufacturers to block access to sites with obscene material. Consumers over the age of 18 could pay a $20 per-device tax to disable it,\u201d and Bill A3819 would enact stricter age verification methods, and \u201c…would apply to social media platforms where at least a third of accounts host such content, or to any site where such content comprises at least one-third of all content on at least one user account.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These politicians\u2019 efforts are commendable, as children are exposed to pornography starting as early as elementary school. A <\/span>study by the University of New Hampshire found<\/span><\/a> that \u201c…the percentage of children (ages 10 to 17) who said they had an unwanted exposure to sexual material in the past year rose from 25% in 2000 to 34% in 2005; and 13% of these youth said they had \u2018gone to an X-rated site on purpose in the past year,\u2019 compared to 8% in 2000. Among 16- and 17-year old boys, 38% said they had visited X-rated sites on purpose in the past year. According to a survey conducted in 2004 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 45% of teens (ages 12 to 17) had friends who regularly view and download pornography from the Internet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n