The state of Utah officially declared a new public health crisis: pornography. Declaring porn a public health hazard has no practical impact, as the Salt Lake Tribune notes — the resolution doesn’t ban porn or earmark any money to combat it.

Instead it seems to be more of a “symbolic” victory, which makes no sense to me. While it’s true that the state House and Senate passed it with unanimous votes of approval, it should be considered they could also declare cookie dough a public health hazard and it would have the same results.

Pamela Atkinson, the chair of the Utah Coalition Against Pornography board states “the state is worried about 82 percent of sex offenders who started off by viewing pornography.” But makes no mention of the fact sexual assault crimes such as rape have been on the decline since porn became more widely available.

Some of the issues that porn creates, as identified by the resolution include  “Low self-esteem and body image in adolescents, who, according to the resolution, are exposed to porn at an average age of 11-12” s The resolution does not specifically state anything about teaching parents how to set parental control on their computers.

The resolution also makes no mention of the adolescents who had low self-esteem and body image problems before the invention of online pornography. Full resolution document can be read here.

This is not the first time Utah has attempted a statewide response to pornography. Fifteen years ago, the state appointed an “obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman” — more widely known as a “porn czar.”

It’s not ridiculous to believe that Utah might have a porn problem, as it was reported by a Harvard professor that Utah is the highest consumer of pornographic subscriptions in the United States. His full research can be read here.

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