Idaho is Doing Something about Porn

A Tool for Parents to Protect Their Children

 

When being interviewed, Senator Kevin Cook of the Idaho Senate was asked about his proposed anti-pornography legislation, “What is something you wish the critics of this bill would better understand?”

His response was immediate. “I wish they would better understand how pornography affects the development of a child brain. The development of not only their brain but their personality, everything about them. I don’t think any of us of have a full clue on what the adverse effect it has on children. I don’t think we know what it does, yet I think we do know that it affects the brain. They have proven that…but I don’t think we know what all it’s doing.”

Patrick F. Fagan, Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute and doctorate in psychology, wrote this, “Pornography, as a visual (mis)representation of sexuality, distorts an individual’s concept of sexual relations by objectifying them, which, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior. It is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children, and to individual happiness.”

How true are Senator Cook’s and Dr. Fagan’s words? Are they not just an antiquated view on sexuality, prohibiting the full scope of pleasure of which humans can achieve? Or, more terrifyingly, could they possibly be right?

The consumption and production of pornography is flooding every internet platform. More accessible now that at any other time, for as Jordan B. Peterson has said, “It’s now possible for young men to look at more beautiful nude women in one day than any man has ever seen, you know, prior to ten years ago- twenty years ago- than any man in history had ever seen. That’s not nothing. That’s something. And to think that doesn’t do anything to you, no, that likely does something to you.”

Maybe this is your call to take a deeper look into what could possibly be the greatest danger to your child right now.

The research shows that pornography adversely affects children, even adults, and not much legislation has been put forth to shield families from this disease.

A bill to protect your children

Senator Cook is entering into his second term and is prepared to weather the controversy of proposing the, “Parental Rights Protection of Minors Act”. A native from Utah, he received his degree from Weber State University in computer science, and later opened his own business as a software consultant, which he ran for twelve years. On a visit to Idaho for a job interview, he happened to visit during the potato harvest season and fell in love with it. With his wife and children, they moved to Idaho where he began working for the Idaho National Laboratory as a software engineer, which he still does in between legislative sessions.

Jumping into the political arena as a passionate advocate for the best education for children, Senator Cook soon educated himself on what he perceived to be a great danger to the youth of Idaho: pornography.

What horrified him the most was the complete innocence and lack of desire by most children exposed to pornography. Studies produced in the UK found that the average age of viewing pornography for the first time was at eleven. Another study stated that by the age of fourteen, your child has a 94% chance of having seen porn.

Keep in mind that this is not just soft porn that twenty years ago dominated racy magazines. Hard-core porn is just as easy to access and be exposed to these days.

Senator Cook wants to protect these unwilling viewers, whose brains could be forever warped by the images flashing before their eyes.

When asked about what pushed the issue to the forefront for him, Senator Cook said, “…we talked about how we could help these kids and what I found is a lot of the young men and young women that I talked to got introduced to pornography, not because they were searching for it, but… innocently they were on their moms or dad’s phone. They searched something and boom, some pornography popped up. And most of these kids had been warned over and over about that from their parents, ‘If you see pornography, come and talk to me,’ but most of them were so ashamed when they saw it, either ashamed or I guess intrigued-curious and the feelings that it stirred up in them and it was louder than their parents voices of, ‘Please come and tell us.’ And so, a lot of these kids at 8 years old were introduced to it and were hooked and didn’t know how to get out of it and so as we talked about this…”

Therefore, he crafted the “Parental Rights Protection of Minors Act”. Technology is developing at such a lightning speed; it is becoming impossible for parents to keep up. Being aware of every danger threatening children is not as easy as it was fifty years ago.

This bill hopes to return some of that power back to the parents; a weapon that they can utilize in combatting pornography. It is primarily meant to protect those who aren’t looking for porn. And just like Senator Cook said, “It’s a start,” and therefore it won’t be able to guard against every danger, but it is better than what most parents currently have.

Parental Rights Protection of Minors Act

Your phone has an ability you might not be aware of. Your phone, whether an Apple or android, can turn on Content and Privacy Restrictions, meaning you can block content such as pornography from your viewing.

The only problem is that to do so involves 10+ steps that could overwhelm some parents, as well as the requirement to do it manually means a lot of parents aren’t willing to put forth the effort.

Senator Cook wants to eliminate that. This act, if successful, will require phone manufacturers to automatically activate these content filters in the state of Idaho and eradicate the 10+ step process.

Just as your phone knows its location and can automatically update for time zones, so will it know if it is in the state of Idaho. This will not affect neighboring states, and it will not affect the retailers for smart devices. It will only affect manufacturers of smart phones and those who activate their phones in the state of Idaho.

If you decide that you do not want this for yourself or your children, a passcode will be supplied by your phone that easily turns off the filters.

When asked his response to those who will accuse this bill of being an encroachment on their first amendment rights, Senator Cook responded, “It’s not, it’s giving parents the ability to make choices for their children. And again, if I want my child to see pornography, great, here’s the passcode. I really believe it’s a parental rights bill.”

Although we, at United Families, are always on guard against any bill that could further strip away the right to free speech, we agree with Senator Cook. This does not inhibit your right to view or produce pornography, it only gives parents a better option for protecting their children. If individuals want that level of porn accessibility, the passcode is there to open that door.

Further Information

If you are still interested in knowing more about the effects of pornography, some great resources would include:

• Fight the New Drug
• Pornography’s Effect on the Brain: A Review of Modifications in the Prefrontal Cortex
• Educate Empower Kids
• Your Brain on Porn
• UFI’s Homefront topic on Pornography

As for the bill, Senator Cook would love to answer any questions and concerns. You can contact him through this email: KCook@senate.idaho.gov.

What can you do?

If you support this bill and think the state of Idaho needs it to better protect their children, Senator Cook has some great action items you can complete. He needs people to:

• Write their mayors and ask them to actively support this bill
• Be willing to testify in support of the bill when this goes to the floor
• Talk to their dentists, doctors, educators (occupations that work directly with the youth) to write legislators in support of this bill
• Talk to chiefs of police and get them to support the bill and speak up about the ways they see pornography affect the community
• Bring this bill up at community councils
• Send your personal experiences to Senator Cook

The future of the “Parental Rights Protection of Minors Act” is being decide, right now!

Contact your elected representatives and ask them to support the “Parental Rights Protection of Minors Act” (Bills: H0613 & S1261)

Find your Idaho representatives and their contact information, here.

These words from Senator Cook exemplify the goal of the bill: “…the kid was innocent, didn’t do anything. That’s the ones we want to save. Do we have the right to destroy the dreams of our children because of this [pornography] that they can see? And so, this will keep dreams alive. That’s what I hope.”

Let’s keep the hope of an intact, healthy family, and future relationships alive for our children.