Paul Rolly’s column “Utah may finally dump its porn czar” mischaracterizes the purpose behind Utah’s appointment of a pornography ombudsman. In discontinuing this “porn czar,” lawmakers realized that problems associated with pornography span beyond the reach of an office of such limited scope.
Problems of this magnitude require an attack of broader latitude, backed by the weight of the entire Legislature and attorney general’s office to create any meaningful pushback. Society continues to insufficiently grasp the connection between pornography and the sexual ills increasingly infecting our communities. Downstream effects of unchecked pornography consumption are child sex trafficking and tsunamis of “me too” revelations.
Pornography will continue to hide behind the broad First Amendment protections courts have regrettably granted it. Lawmakers should in turn continue to pierce the contours of those protections to enact reasonable limits.
The Legislature and attorney general’s office are the porn czars now, forced to spend their best energies fighting downstream effects of pornography because of continued societal blindness to upstream causes. The porn czar is still here; it just got broader and bigger. Pick up any newspaper to see how much it’s needed.
Adam Reiser, Salt Lake City