HARRISBURG, Penn. — A Republican member of the Pennsylvania state legislature has introduced a new bill mandating default “porn filters” on phones and computers sold in the state.
House Bill 2865 was introduced by Rep. Jim Gregory (R-Blair) and has been referred to the House Consumer Affairs Committee.
Gregory’s bill would hold companies criminally liable for selling any computer, smartphone or tablet in Pennsylvania without a default filter, purportedly “to block children from accessing harmful content.”
Religious conservative GOP members and War on Porn crusaders in several state legislatures have introduced similar bills, which are copycat versions of the original “mandatory porn filter” bill that Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox signed into law in March 2021.
That bill only passed after it was amended with the odd mandate that it “will not go into effect until five additional states have adopted similar language. It gives a 10-year period for that to occur,” the Salt Lake City Fox affiliate reported in February 2021.
As XBIZ reported, a similar bill was defeated by more secular Republicans in Arizona in February 2022.
Rep. Gregory proudly admitted to the local ABC affiliate that his bill “mirrors legislation signed in Utah, which doesn’t go into effect until multiple states enact similar legislation.”
A Former TV Sports Journalist's Notions About 'Children's Brains'
Gregory, whose background as a TV sports journalist does not seem to involve any neuroscience expertise, claims that these unspecified “porn filters” would “shield children from the harmful effects pornographic material can have on developing brains by protecting them from inadvertent exposure to pornography or access they attempted themselves.”
Faith-Based Surveillance Apps
“Porn filters” such as Covenant Eyes have recently faced controversy after a Wired report revealed that they are in fact surveillance apps marketed to churchgoers across America by faith-based corporations.
Following the bombshell report, the Google app store dropped the apps after determining they were violating its policies. Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You are appealing the ban.
Republican operative and Mormon activist Dawn Hawkins, CEO of NCOSE — formerly Morality in Media — has claimed that “pornography can be highly addictive” and that research has “objectively identified a wide array of harms from pornography use.” However, scientists have found no basis for classifying pornography as an addiction; the idea seems instead to have arisen as a point of religious dogma in response to personal feelings of shame and guilt.
Hawkins has endorsed “porn filters,” telling the Baptist Press that she has “heard from hundreds of people who have struggled with pornography addiction and dependencies that the best way most of them have found to help is through an accountability model, similar to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and many successful gambling recovery programs.”
Ron DeHaas, president and co-founder of Covenant Eyes, chairs NCOSE's board of directors.
The LDS Church has also promoted “porn filters” in Utah and nationwide, based on church elders' theological belief that all porn — a term that for them encompasses all depictions of sexuality outside of the Mormon marriage — is a ploy by Satan to destroy Mormon households.
Main Image: Rep. Jim Gregory (R-Blair) (Photo: Twitter)
