Many of us recall a vulgar advertisement that a prominent Democrat-aligned group aired during the 2024 election cycle. The ad depicted a young man in his bedroom masturbating to pornographic materials, before a Republican politician suddenly appears and says: “Now that we’re in charge, we’re banning porn nationwide.” The message was simple: If you want to keep your pornography, you had better vote for Kamala Harris and Democrats.
In truth, no effort — then or now — to restrict access to even the most horrific forms of pornography among adults has gained significant political traction, whether in Congress or the states. Certainly, many of us would welcome moves such as a rollback of troubling judicial precedents that classify pornography as protected “free speech” under the First Amendment, investigations into the exploitative practices of pornography producers and host platforms, and other efforts to combat what has become a pornography epidemic among young people (boys and young men especially). But other than targeted policies focusing on minors (such as state-level age-verification laws), the political will to more comprehensively address pornography-related issues simply doesn’t yet seem to be there, even within much of the conservative movement.
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