AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Health and Human Services has declined to confirm or deny whether the “health warnings” mandated by the state’s recent anti-porn age verification law are supported by any official documentation or statement produced by that office.
As XBIZ reported, the Republican-authored HB 1181 was passed by the Texas legislature with bipartisan support in May and will go into effect September 1.
The new Texas age verification law — part of a state-by-state campaign by religious conservatives and anti-porn activists to outlaw all sexual material online — compels adult websites to post pseudoscientific anti-porn propaganda disclaimers declaring that “pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses and weakens brain function.”
HB 1181 is a much-augmented version of Louisiana’s age verification law and its many copycats, and echoes the debunked “porn addiction” language of faith-based anti-porn groups.
XBIZ asked the Press Office of the Texas Department of Health and Human Services if the department could provide any documentation or statement pertaining to those warnings, and clarify whether the language of the warnings has its basis in any documentation or statement produced by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
After requesting several days to provide a reply to the query, Press Officer Tiffany Young declined to answer, deflecting the questions with an invitation to contact “the authors of this bill for information about how it originated.”
XBIZ also contacted Texas Department of Health and Human Services Chief of Staff Kate Hendrix and the bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Matt Shaheen (R), but received no reply to the same questions.
Pseudoscientific 'Health Warnings' of Unclear Origin
HB 1181 would compel any website showing adult content to post the following pseudoscientific warnings:
"TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WARNING: Pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function."
"TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WARNING: Exposure to this content is associated with low self-esteem and body image, eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses."
"TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WARNING: Pornography increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography.”
The warnings must be posted “in 14-point font or larger” on adult sites’ landing pages, as well as on any advertisements for adult sites.
The websites are also compelled by the state to post the phone number of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s help line. However, there is no scientific basis for the belief — largely promoted by religious anti-porn activists — that there is any biological equivalence between watching adult content and actual substance abuse. Nor is "porn addiction" listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the authoritative diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric Association.
Free Speech Coalition (FSC) Director of Public Affairs Mike Stabile told XBIZ on Tuesday, “It’s shocking that the Department of Health and Human Services can provide no support, data or background for the pseudoscientific anti-porn warning that the state of Texas now requires to be posted on websites — in their name.”
Stabile added, “As we’ve long known, these warnings aren’t based on actual science or evidence, but on the moral and ideological objections of legislators. It speaks volumes that the Department will not defend the law in the slightest, and cannot explain where it came from.”
Earlier this month, FSC filed a legal challenge in Texas over HB 1181, and were joined as co-plaintiffs by an array of adult platforms and workers, including MG Premium, MG Freesites, Webgroup Czech Republic, NKL Associates, Sonesta Technologies, Sonesta Media, Yellow Production, Paper Street Media, Neptune Media, Mediame, Midus Holdings and Jane Doe, an adult content creator.