The People of Pornhub Too Have Individual Rights
Use Public Opinion, Not Immoral, Individual Rights Violating Government Force, to Limit Access to Online Porn
I’m an admirer of David French, the former head of FIRE (The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) and The Dispatch senior editor and contributor, and now New York Times columnist. As a Never Trumper conservative, he has been steadfast in his criticism of the conservative movement’s embrace of populism and nationalism at the expense of individualism and protection of individual rights. And as an evangelical Christian, he has tirelessly exposed the hypocrisy and contradictions of religious conservatives’ embrace of the immediate past President. He has faced a massive criticism and received personal threats for “betraying” both the conservative movement and the church.
Despite my admiration, we don’t see eye to eye on several fundamental issues. David is a devout Christian, I’m an atheist. He’s against abortion, I am pro choice. And recently, in Ban Online Porn for Kids, he is advocating for federal legislative action to prevent access to online porn for Americans under a yet to be determined age. I disagree, and here’s why.
But first a disclaimer: my exposure to online porn is limited to second-hand accounts. Growing up and coming of age in the 1970s’ Sweden, porn was primarily in print with the occasional X-rated movie of the softer variety sprinkled in. What takes place online today appears to be worlds away from what was available all those years ago. Back on Dec 4, 2020, Nicholas Kristof published “The Children of Pornhub” in the NYT, describing in some detail the online porn landscape:
Its [Pornhub’s] site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags. A search for “girls under18” (no space) or “14yo” leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos. Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are.
This is revolting and in many if not most cases illegal—or should be; to the extent consent is not given to taking part in an act or to its publication, or if the act involves a minor regardless of consent, the person(s) individual rights have been egregiously violated (I will leave my thoughts on how to determine what qualifies as a minor for another day). But if consent has been obtained, the government (federal, state and local) has no business applying legislative or regulatory force. Pornhub and similar sites, and their content producers and consumers are engaged in voluntary trade which may invade your “safe space” but violates nobody’s individual rights.
If legislative and regulatory means are not at your disposal, what are the options if you think online porn troubling or immoral, psychologically or physically unhealthy, a threat to children and adolescents, or all of the above? Let’s say you’re with David French and the 83% of Americans who think mandatory age verification would be a step in the right direction. The answer is not a federal government enforced national age verification mandate as both David and the 83% seem to think. Nor is legislative action by individual states appropriate, such as Texas’ recent attempt currently being blocked by a federal judge. No, the answer is to create a moral groundswell to turn up the public pressure on the online porn industry. Organize boycotts, recruit celebrities to your cause, raise money from corporations and non-profits, put pressure on hosting companies to remove online porn sites from their platforms, appear on the news and on podcast, get coverage in newspapers and blogs, etc. With public opinion already largely in favor of age verification, the online porn industry will be quick to take notice. In fact, they already are in some areas. Remember Nicholas Kristof’s 2020 exposure of Pornhub? In his article he offered three steps that may help stem the tide of individual rights violations associated with online porn:
1.) Allow only verified users to post videos
2.) Prohibit downloads
3.) Increase moderation.
Within days of the article being published, Visa and Mastercard announced they would investigate their relationship with Pornhub. And shortly thereafter, they stopped taking payments from the company. Obviously, they saw the relationship both as morally questionable and a threat to their reputation. Other actors such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube have since taken down Pornhub’s accounts for similar reasons. And Pornhub has taken steps to accommodate Kristof’s three suggestions. This is a good illustration of the marketplace of public opinion in action without the immediate threat of government force. Thanks to a single newspaper article serving as the tipping point, the different market participants modified their relationships to achieve a desired outcome, within the bounds of contract, and without violating anybody’s individual rights.
Based on what is still taking place in the online porn industry, more needs to be done. Nationwide age verification appears indeed to be a reasonable next step, but not at the cost of immorally violating the individual rights of the marketplace participants by applying government force. We have unfortunately become a society where our default all too often is “there ought to be a law.” Over the past 100 years, this has led to the explosion of rights violating laws and regulations that we currently labor under. Contrast this with responsible citizenship which entails rallying your fellow men and women to your cause and affecting change by swaying public opinion to put pressure on the perpetrators. Because, despite our revulsion, we—and David French—must remember that Pornhub—its owners, employees, and contributors—too has individual rights that must be respected and protected. If we compromise this by asking the government to step in, we only enable and indirectly sanction those who want to use government force to violate our individual rights in other areas.
Thanks for addressing this minefield. Legislating morality is rarely effective or moral.