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A Republican senator aligned with President Donald Trump has introduced a new bill aiming to criminalize pornography, warning against what he sees as its harmful impact on American society.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah, along with Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, unveiled draft legislation they are calling the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA), which seeks to stop the production and dissemination of pornographic material and and to empower prosecutors to act against it by redefining the notion of “obscenity” for the internet era.
According to the wording of the bill, which its authors say is consistent with the Communications Act of 1934, a piece of content is obscene if “taken as a whole, [it] appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion,” if it “depicts, describes or represents actual or simulated sexual acts with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person” and if it “taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
Publicizing IODA, Senator Lee warned: “Obscenity isn’t protected by the First Amendment, but hazy and unenforceable legal definitions have allowed extreme pornography to saturate American society and reach countless children.
“Our bill updates the legal definition of obscenity for the internet age so this content can be taken down and its peddlers prosecuted.”
Representative Miller said that their legislation “equips law enforcement with the tools they need to target and remove obscene material from the internet, which is alarmingly destructive and far outside the bounds of protected free speech under the Constitution.”
The congresswoman added that she and Lee see it as their mission to “safeguard American families and ensure this dangerous material is kept out of our homes and off our screens.”
Many prominent conservatives, often seen calling out cancel culture on TV and social media, typically make an exception when it comes to pornography and advocate for censorship, most recently framing the debate around its potentially harmful psychological impact on vulnerable younger people.
Lee and Miller’s bill corresponds with the Heritage Foundation think tank’s Project 2025 policy blueprint for the second Trump administration, much of which the president has already adopted despite his claiming during last year’s presidential campaign to be unfamiliar with it.
The foundation’s “Mandate for Leadership” describes pornography as “the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children” and accuses its purveyors of being “child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women” who sell a product “as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime.”
Its authors argue that porn should be outlawed, its producers and distributors jailed, librarians who stock it “classed as registered sex offenders” and tech companies that facilitate its spread shut down.
But despite the public disapproval, the MAGA movement has often struggled to disassociate itself from the subject of porn, from adult film actress Stormy Daniels playing a central role in Trump’s “hush money” trial last year to Texas Senator Ted Cruz accidentally “liking” steamy tweets and House Speaker Mike Johnson admitting that he and his son monitor each other’s devices for exposure to X-rated content.
English (US) ·