Porn sites must have government health warning in Texas from September 1st

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 331 points –
Texas Age Verification Bill Would Plaster Health Warnings On Porn Sites
techdirt.com

Porn sites must have government health warning in Texas from September 1st::Just when we didn’t think the state of Texas could get any more wacko on tech policy, this latest bill really suggests otherwise. House Bill 1181 is an age verification measure that is similar to what we’ve seen in the state legislatures across other red U.S. states. You have an age verification proposal that is similar…

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The party of small government sure does a lot of mommying.

I remember being VERY pissed about Obamacare requiring an individual having insurance by paying a for-profit company, else pay a penalty, because of the pro-corp "nanny state" implications, much like I despise legally-required auto insurance (without a government-funded baseline).

Yet here we are with "muh indivdulizm" republicans making the overreach far worse than Democrats ever would have.

Obamacare was invented by a Republican. It was done as a compromise because most Democrat legislators are right wing and don't want to see public healthcare enacted in the US.

This. In retrospect it's kind of amazing it even got passed, and that is the best we can do with democrats controlling 60% of the house and 58 senate seats. And unless republicans are somehow tricked into voting for national popular vote legislation and federally enforced fair districting, or we wait 25 years for all the boomers to die out and hope that millennials still want UHC, AND we also repeal citizens united, the ACA is probably the best we are going to get for some time.

What an insane, ahistorical take lol

It's basically true. The ACA drew a lot of support being compared to Massachusetts' healthcare when Romney was governor. The individual mandate, which was the necessary compromise to get it passed, was first proposed by The Heritage Foundation.

You ever notice how the republicans can't shut up about how much they hate Obamacare, but whenever they have enough seats to end it, they don't? It's because they secretly like it (because it's their plan) but they just don't want to give Obama or the other Democrats credit for passing it.

"basically true" that "all Dems wanted this instead of SP" because "all Dems are right wing??

No that is not "basically true" lmao

Why you put "all Dems are right wing" in quotes when what I said is that most are. Which is true. American politics are very far right of centre economically by the rest of the world's standards.

You can't backpedal from a lie by lying more lol

Except you're wrong? Most democrats are economically very right. Its why they're liberals and not leftists. The vast majority of US politics is right wing with the only difference being how much they hate minority groups.

US politics has people fucked up thinking reasonable policy is left.

Well they have us thinking politics is 1 dimensional. And have replaced the actual concept of left and right. The actual underpinning and economic organization. With the social axis. And just discard the notion that any economic model other than capitalism can exist. Acknowledging other systems brings up too many questions they can't adequately answer. It's so much easier to have us fight over whether we plebs deserve any rights.

Yes, most Democrats are right wing. They take money from medical, insurance, and banks who would very much like to prevent single payer. So instead we got ACA modeled on a Republican plan with a cop out mandate from a Republican think tank. (And the Republicans still lost their frickin minds). Yes, I vote Democratic but I have no illusions that they're left of center 'cept maybe Bernie.

Romneycare was what the basic concept of the ACA was called before it was called Obamacare. There are very few American politicians on either side of the aisle who favour single-payer healthcare.

After Obama campaigned on healthcare as a key issue, he ended up using a Republican healthcare reform as the framework for his federal reform in order to get the corporate crony faction of the Democrat party on side. The Republicans, in a classic example of American politics being literally the dumbest thing ever, decided that they couldn't be seen as agreeing with a Democrat (particularly a black one), even if it was their own idea, so they moved the Overton Window even further right and began claiming that even ACA was a bridge too far.

Obama's first proposal was for a single-payer system. That proposal lost by effectively 1 vote.

You don't need to link me anything, because I was a grown adult in 08.

"Obamacare" for instance, was coined when Obama won, because right-wing talk channels had been expecting Hillary Clinton to win the Primary and had already coined "HillaryCare" from her own single-payer proposal shed had since the 90s.

Fuckin weird that leftists try to distort recent history as if people weren't fucking alive in 2008 and can correct them.

Fuckin weird that you seem to think 'leftist' is a cogent insult.

It's not an insult - right-wing people don't do that. They make up different wholesale bullshit

Obama's first proposal was for a single-payer system. That proposal lost by effectively 1 vote.

Have you not noticed that this happens every time? They always manage to find that one vote to prevent anything truly progressive from happening. If we need 60 votes to make something change for the better in this country, there will be 59 yay votes, with 2 people voting "present."

They dont "find the vote" to do that lol. That's exactly backwards. Democrats are a loose coalition of "not Republican" and some regions of the country elect nominal democrats that are not on board with every party intention

You have Bernie Sanders one example, and Joe Manchin as another, to give a recent opposition.

I'm afraid yours is the a historical one. Democrats shelved things like the public option. Never putting them on the table convinced that they could win over Republicans support. They didn't even have the support in their own party for that. And never through the whole process ever won a single Republican over.

It is a simple fact that Democrats are economically right-wing. So I'm afraid you're the one that's in the wrong. They are at least loosely pro-social democracy. But they are solidly capitalist through and through.

This. I was too young for Obamacare to be something I knew a single thing about but as a car owner and leftist auto insurance has always rubbed me wrong.

It's just another means to keep people from being hireable by denying them jobs due to shitty public transit and the inability to legally drive their cars.

The parts of auto insurance meant to help you are optional. It's only the part that will help others in the event you cause damage or injury to them that is mandatory, which people who can't afford to drive because of insurance certainly wouldn't be able to afford.

Now change it to a system where there aren't executives and shareholders looking to extract a lot of money from that necessity and I'm all for it. But I'm vehemently against just removing the requirement entirely.

IMO if you can afford it, it's dumb to opt out of the optional ones, too, even with the profit going to the insurance execs and owners. Unless you have enough savings to easily replace your vehicle in the event you crash it or a tree falls on it that isn't covered by someone's homeowner's insurance.

Lol. So, you've never gotten into an accident with an uninsured driver then? Because you wouldn't be saying that if you had.

I have gotten into an accident with an uninsured driver. Twice. Both their fault (running reds out near Mulholland).

No it's a safeguard against someone destroying your fucking car and not having the means to pay for it.

If they can barely afford the insurance and hit you their insurance isn't paying.

I've been hit by red light runners thrice and while biking in a parking lot (ironically got more injured here) and only two times the drivers didn't have insurance..... not a single one paid out.

Insurance is a scam and defending it is akin to defending a Ponzi scheme imo.

Are you suggesting state run insurance or no requirement for insurance?

I think there should be no requirement or a govt funded baseline

It’s not inconsistent. They want to watch you j/o and only a small government can fit in your bedroom.

Pretty clear First Amendment compelled-speech case. The government may not compel a speaker to say a bunch of false things (the supposed "warnings" are lies; and arguably even defamatory ones) as a condition of being permitted to speak.

The 2018 NIFLA v. Becerra is the most recent Supreme Court case on compelled speech, and it does not look favorable to this sort of thing.

I doubt that. Cigarette companies have to include warning labels as per the courts and there’s a mountain of evidence that porn can be harmful to people.

Go look at what speech they're compelling. It's outright defamatory.

Yeah lol

Or, that exposure to porn “is associated with low self-esteem and body image eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.” Note how they use the term “exposure” as if a person watching porn was exposed to a real disease.

Not to mention

“The statements on science effects are just false, they have never been shown,” said Prause in an email to me. She elaborated that the “science” referred to in House Bill 1181 is “completely fabricated.” “APA and WHO both rejected sex and pornography as addictions because they are not. The bill flies in the face of scientific consensus.”

Everything is bigger in Texas. Including outright fabrication

APA and WHO rejecting sex and porn as addictions makes me more skeptical of them than porn addiction.

And I'm already side-eyeing WHO from how they handled covid. They are the ones where a lack of evidence had them supporting the "everything is fine" side of things rather than the "better safe than sorry". And also lying about the lack of evidence itself because there were already stories on the internet that indicated it was airborne when they were saying that there wasn't any evidence that it was.

WHO doesn't have much credibility IMO and this just further hurts it.

Comments like this are just sad.

Because of my stance against WHO or because I think porn might be addictive? Or maybe both?

Because a panel of scientists has done documented research to test whether porn addiction should be an illness, and through studies they have found that in most cases, compulsive porn usage is due to another underlying issue, and the porn itself is an avenue and not the source of the issue. Attacking the WHO because of your stance on COVID has nothing to do with this.

Argh, had a comment written out but Lemmy closed and erased it when I upvoted. But the gist of it was I read a meta study that included the WHO one, then read a study that was for porn addiction, and the for porn addiction one mistook correlation for causation and their description of their data was still consistent with what you said.

Thanks for not being a dick with this response like that other guy.

Hey I’m just trying to make sure the right info is what people see. If there really is a scientifically proven porn addiction, let’s make it known, but before that, and until that happens, let’s tackle the problem with evidence

💀

I can't tell if this is an insult or not. What kind of shoes do you have?

And if they have something more productive to say, could you put them on instead?

For the lazy:

HB 1181 would issue public health warnings including claims that porn use “increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography.” Claims that are included in the health warnings laid out by the bill suggest that porn use is “potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function.” Or, that exposure to porn “is associated with low self-esteem and body image eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.” Note how they use the term “exposure” as if a person watching porn was exposed to a real disease.

All of that is backed up by actual evidence though. It’s not really disputed that porn affects self esteem and body issues or desensitizes reward circuits of the brain.

Well, yes it is disputed. Those claims are just plain totally made up. The other bits about how watching porn makes you become a pedophile, even more so.

If they were going to totally make up claims they’d choose better ones to go with. These are actual topics based on evidence, even if inconvenient truths for those who support or oppose porn.

Not convinced. The claims being made are obviously parodies of tobacco health warnings, with reference to far-right sexual guilt propaganda.


Here's a hint: If you're a worker, and a politician tells you that your dissatisfaction with your lot in life is the fault of sex workers, probably of ethnic minorities ... that politician is a fascist.

You’re getting off topic by trying to bring up race or sex work.

I would love for you to provide a source for "all of that is backed up by actual evidence", and change my mind! I always want to learn.

I mean, you linked an entire website, I guess that's a bit better thank just linking google, but doesn't give me any specific info about your claims.

I specifically linked a list of resources that are well cited. The original topic is multiple points, so this is evidence for each one, unless you want to discuss a specific item.

Well, why don't you chose one or two items from your list, and then show me a peer reviewed study proving it!

I don't view "I made so many different claims that I can't bother proving any specific one" as a great argument.

As I just said above, there’s too many points in the original article. Texas requires multiple warning labels and each one has some backing. Why don’t you pick ONE topic and we can discuss it.

So, you make a claim, asked to provide any proof of any single one, and go "nah, you do it for me, I'm too lazy"

I'm sorry, that's just not a convincing argument!

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I’ll bite. Show us the evidence. Peer-reviewed, published studies in respectable journals.

From JAMA Psychiatry https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24871202/

The negative association of self-reported pornography consumption with the right striatum (caudate) volume, left striatum (putamen) activation during cue reactivity, and lower functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex could reflect change in neural plasticity as a consequence of an intense stimulation of the reward system, together with a lower top-down modulation of prefrontal cortical areas. Alternatively, it could be a precondition that makes pornography consumption more rewarding.

As OP said constantly stimulating your reward pathway with instant gratification like porn does have lasting changes in your brain.

But fuck Texas also I don't support this bill

Alternatively, it could be a precondition that makes pornography consumption more rewarding.

It could change your brain. Or it could not. They're just theorizing.

Interesting. The study seems to indicate a negative correlation between porn usage and gray matter. I’d love to see more research on this, perhaps over the course of several years. I’d also love to know what the r64 metric they kept using for correlation is.

Those claims are about porn addiction. Not the act of watching porn. On top of that, putting the burden of child trafficking and abuse onto the sites that would publicly host porn is like blaming climate change on people putting plastic in the wrong bin. Places that propagate the awful content mentioned by this warning are already against the law and flying under the radar. This is just BS that gets righteous Texan votes, not something that helps victims. It certainly doesn't accept that consensual adults make and watch porn in healthy ways. It's also why these folks get called out for their scandals, which wouldn't be news worthy if they didn't grandstand.

No, the claims are not about porn addiction, which is another issue. Legally the sites already have a burden to take down child abuse material and they do so. Complaining that the warning labels don’t account for healthy porn use sounds like the same whining that smoking warnings don’t also address people who occasionally smoke.

No clue why you have so many downvotes, I guess we got a bunch of weirdos in here. Porn is poison. It's what happens when patriarchy meets capitalism.

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Damn, people should stop having sex at all. Don't let people view media that shows examples of sex

Don't let people view media that shows examples of sex

Damn, what vanilla porn have you been watching?

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What in the hell is happening across the country right now? Why are we getting all of these short sighted, personal-liberty-violating, bullshit laws popping up?

Honest opinion: The republican party is flailing and trying to "accomplish" anything they possibly can regardless of the actual benefits to citizens.

The Supreme Court is heavily in favor of "states rights" now, so state politicians know they can cater to special interest groups (for donations of course) with impunity. States are heavily gerrymandered, so they have little risk of losing their position. In some cases, such as book, education, voting, and immigration laws, the goal is to further ensure the states remain Republican in the future (prevent children from growing up "woke," and prevent immigrants from living there, which tend to vote Dem). Democracy in the U.S. is pretty broken, and is slowly being dismantled further.

How does this help anyone? Have they got any actual problems to solve?!

It used to be that pushing positions based on morality was taboo on both the left and the right. Then the social left started pushing things that it wanted purely because of morals and the much larger, much better organized religious right realized there'd be no significant political pushback for doing so with things they've wanted.

In the past the religious right in the US had been kept in check by the fiscal conservative and neocon wings of the party. But after Trump, those wings no longer have the control they had before.

For retaliation, just block texas IPs. That shit will be fast tracked

Nah pornhub etc just need to release the number of ip pings they get from texas government locations.

They absolutely have this info

That's what PornHub does with IP addresses coming from Utah, Virginia, and Mississippi

Warning: Residency in the state of Texas may result in the inability to function as a decent human being.

More like 1/3 of the ppl in Texas are actively trying to hurt the rest. Lumping everyone under one bucket helps the Republicans.

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That's fine if we have a sign when entering Texas warning us of all the dangerous things there compared to where they were coming from

I saw a billboard on the way to Texas that read, "Going west? Arm yourself."

I hope it meant arm yourself with knowledge, because what this nation does not need more of is scared folks with firearms. We’ve enough of those as is.

Sadly, I’m guessing not.

Warning: the surgeon general has determined that this state contains government representatives whom are dangerous to your health.

What's an example of a health warning for looking at naked humans? Seriously someone explain what they mean because it doesn't make any sense.

"Those movies are performed by trained professionals, do not attempt to replicate at home."

Warning: Excessive rubbing can cause friction burns and it might fall off

I have years worth of proof that shows your statement to be false.

I don’t know why, but I started hhwackin’ it when I was about 3 years old.

I didn’t have anything in mind really. I just remember it felt good and for some reason (probably something my mom said) I just thought of the word “nasty” and that’s what got me going. Like, the word was my OG porn.

Well, I had this giant Clifford the Big Red Dog plush. It was huge. I was hiding behind it one day hwackin’ when my mom went looking for me to show her friend how cute I was. Well, her friend seen me hwackin’. She was embarrassed as hell. They wanted to put a stop to it, so my father decided he knew what would work.

“Son, you keep playing with that thing and it’s gonna fall off and you’ll turn into a girl.”

I thought, “Wait, girls don’t have a wee wee? Ohhhhhh!”

So now I had an image in mind that worked me up. It was girls, naked, nothing down there, walking without bending their knees. Kind of like walking a pair of scissors. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know.

So while I’m ranting. My mom got a new house. My aunt and my twin cousins came down with us to look at the place. The one said “mommy, I gotta pee.” The other chimed in, she had to pee too. I had a theory about how girls peed, but I really really wanted to know. I turned to my little brother, “littleseal, this is our chance. We can see how girls pee.”

So we snuck around the corner. My aunt was holding them up in the air, one hanging from one arm, one hanging from the other. We seen them from behind, and it appeared that the pee was coming from the butt. I grabbed my little brother by the shoulders. “LITTLESEAL! GIRLS PEE FROM THEIR BUTTS! I knew it!” We giggled about it for awhile. Like, way too long.

Fast forward a few years and I was living in a new neighborhood. Me and the girl next door were playing fetch with her dog. I had to pee. She said, “Can I watch? I want to know how boys do it.” I said, “Sure. We do it with our wieners. We don’t have to sit down so we can pee anywhere. I’m glad I don’t pee out of my butt.” She said, “Who pees from their butt?” She was laughing at me like I was crazy. I said, “Girls do! I seen it.” “Well I don’t know what girl you seen, but I pee from my vagina, I poop from my butt.”

She said, “come on. I’ll show you.”

I was blown away. Later on it hit me. “Oh my god! It makes sense. That’s why I have a wiener. It’s for sex!”

Sorry to go on. Your comment made me remember being afraid my wee wee would fall off and then took me down memory lane.

Get off my lawn. See you next time.

"Temporary blood pressure increases or decreases blood availability in the brain and other organs" should fit the bill

The penises featured in this film are capable of doing a lot of destruction. Your ass has been warned.

Porn is just not naked humans. It's not like art. And the behavior in those movies rubs off on teenage guys, so they start to behave like in the movies.

I mean, I still think adding health warning is stupid, but at the same time, we can't pretend porn doesn't influence people.

The behavior of the actors in porn does not "rub off on" (lol) on the viewer any more than violent movies rub off on the viewer.

I'd be more concerned about the guys watching the assholes on YouTube making videos about how to be an "alpha male".

You are actually wrong about that. Do some web searches on it and you will see.

That's not how it works. If you are making the claim, it's your responsibility to back that claim up with supporting information.

IMO it's everyone's responsibility to themselves to challenge and research things that they want to know the truth about. If the other poster is correct but has no desire to follow up with it, they will still be correct.

The burden of proof is on those who want to know the truth. Unless it's in a court of law, though even there, IMO the adversarial system is outdated and if someone is innocent, the prosecution and police should be working to determine that, not just trying to prove guilt at all costs.

The burden of proof is on those who want to know the truth

The burden of proof is on the one making the claim. No exceptions.

It's an internet conversion, there's no burden on anyone unless they have a goal. Wanting to convince others puts the burden on the one making the claim, but if they aren't interested in putting that much effort into it, that doesn't invalidate the claim, which talking about the burden of proof being on anyone else is trying to do.

Even if someone does make the effort to prove something, if knowing the truth is important to you, you should look at other perspectives.

This is exactly how I think about things also. Which is why I dropped this conversation. But it's a fact that porn changes the perception of sex to a huge degree. But young guys don't even see it because they don't have any previous experience to compare to.

Yeah I shouldn't have bothered engaging, but that line just annoys me. It's just a smarter sounding "nuh-uh!". A better way to go about it IMO would be to ask something like, "what makes you think that?"

I don't disagree with you, which is why I'm hoping the person I replied to, who told me to "do some searches" actually does some for themselves. So hopefully they can learn that there's hardly an epidemic of porn viewing related risks to physical/mental health. I'm not saying there are zero, I'm simply saying that it's not at all occurring at levels worthy of mandating warnings.

Fair enough. Personally I think it's hard to study because of how ubiquitous it is. There isn't really a control group that is representative of the general population. I do think it's physiologically addictive (just like everything else that is enjoyable or gives a dopamine reward), which could mean some will spend more time with it than they should. But for the rest, it's hard to say if behaviours and attitudes come from the porn or if they are in porn because that's just how some people approach sex.

And from a personal perspective, there's been plenty of times while watching porn that I've thought, "ok, this might be hot but holy fuck that guy is a piece of shit". Which I think indicates that there is some bad porn out there but also indicates I'm not some brainless drone that thinks, "I'm seeing this in a video, therefore it is good".

everything that gives a dopamine reward is addictive

You could just say you don't know what "addictive" means

There's chemical addiction and there psychological addiction. Both involve a strong desire to do something that doesn't benefit or even hurts you. Gambling addiction is a psychological addiction.

I'd even go so far as to say that most chemical addictions start as psychological addictions because withdrawal won't be that bad after the first time, but you want more because it feels good because most affect the dopamine pathway, some acting as dopamine itself (like cocaine), some increasing your sensitivity to it (don't know of any that do this but theoretically it would result in the same), and some encouraging your body to release it more readily (like meth).

Though porn and sex addiction (and heroin) might work on a different pathway, as I'm not sure if the orgasm hormone is dopamine or something else, though I do think that dopamine is involved in getting people engaged with sex before the orgasm. From some quick reading, it sounds like dopamine is involved.

Tldr: no, u

Buddy I'm not reading your half-understood bullshit when you think anything that gives you dopamine is addictive.

Watch out for those pleasant sunny days. They're addictive. Laugher of children? Addictive.

Maybe actually meet a few addicts and learn a bit about actual addictions.

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I think it's hard to study because of how ubiquitous it is

Ubiquitous things are the easiest to study. Unless you think there's a lack of a control group?

Doing a napkin-level study on this comment thread I think we can conclude that believing that viewing porn is somehow dangerous is a very unpopular opinion that isn't widely backed by evidence. Therefore, it is healthier to rub those anti-porn thoughts out and/or get some hard science pounded into you.

Yeah, I did mean the lack of a representative control group. And I never said I was anti-porn, I just don't outright reject the idea that there might be harmful aspects to it but don't think we'll be able to determine that one way or another due to the lack of representative controls. The people who think masturbating makes Jesus cry or some dumb shit like that aren't representative.

Pretty sure some universities have tried to do studies but, just like you said, they couldn't find enough people for the "does not watch porn" control group.

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Just because you thought something from a porn video was a good idea doesn't mean everyone else does.

LMAO seriously. Hope this guy doesn't watch any crime TV shows either holy fuck.

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Lol how exactly would you word this health warning? How utterly stupid

"Warning: Any activity or substance that causes a rush of dopamine, serotonin, and/or oxytocin may lead to behavioral or psychological dependence on said substance or activity." ?

Thats actually reasonable. I think people are largely unaware of their own brain plasticity and how much any type of input affects our outlook and actions.

Sure, but putting it on porn and not other things that make people feel good is just pathologizing sexuality in order to shame people.

Yea that's fair. I feel like the issue lies in education tbh. Our schools don't teach us much about practical things like the relationship between external and internal forces. I'm not for these types of warnings, I just thought that was reasonable compared to what I was expecting lol

Education for southerners!? Are you insane? You must be out of your mind!

the behavior in those movies rubs off on teenage guys, so they start to behave like in the movies.

I haven't seen a teenage pizza delivery driver in ages! They also aren't going into marine biology to train octopuses!

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about 😁

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There is room to talk about the handful parts of porn, but this certainly isn't the way to do it. Porn doesn't increase anyone's desire for a prostitute or pedophilia. That's just insane. There could be evidence that it reduces one's self esteem, but we'd have to study that. This is just Texas furthering the nanny state and actively requiring lying to people. Again.

Porn actually helped me further my skills in building automation. It gave me a target for learning to scrape websites. Of all the things I've built for myself, this was one of the most generous projects in that I had tons of room for refinement as my skills grew.

Texas is moving to protect against the Communist infiltration comming for our precious bodily fluids.

Could the Texas government also post a list of all the hazardous sites in one place so i know which sites to avoid?

Warning: masturbating may cause post nut clarity. Viewer discretion is advised.

The article is a couple months old. I’ve read a couple similar articles in the past, but more recent ones don’t seem to mention the warning. I’d have to look at HB 1181’s full text, but I suspect this language was removed before it passed.

Edit: nvm, Idk why I say shit before researching it. Looks like the language is in the bill as it was signed into law

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/HB01181F.pdf#navpanes=0

See middle of page 4

One of the health warnings:

...[exposure to porn] “is associated with low self-esteem and body image eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses..."

Ummmm but what about BBW? In all seriousness though, for these 'valid' health concerns associated with low self esteem ...isn't this the slippery slope towards modesty policing of women and women only in some of those fun countries??

Just ignore it in the same way you do with California's everything gives you cancer warnings.

CAs warnings are designed to force producers to make a version of their products that’s less likely to kill people available (and required in CA). That’s helpful to everyone.

The intention of this sort of warning label isn’t to make porn better, it is to build toward banning porn entirely. California isn’t trying to ban industrial production, so of course people are going to respond differently.

In response, I restate what I originally said. Ignore the message and watch porn. Not sure what you interpreted my comment to mean other than what I said.

Nah, I’ll just keep living in a place where we don’t make regulations to try to shame adults for having a sexuality, thanks.

In other words, you'll ignore the message as I originally suggested.

No. I won’t see the message, because I don’t live in a state that tries to shame adults for their sexuality. If you’re going to insist on having the last word, maybe try being right first, next time?

Bro, why are you arguing with me when we are going to do the same thing? My comment is about watching porn, nothing more. I was already in agreement with you from the beginning. Why are you so easily triggered that even if you're in agreement with me you want to argue? Look, you're right, I'm wrong. You're smart, I'm a dumbass. Feel free to reply with the last word if it makes you feel better. I won't reply to anything else. I hope you live happy and sorry if I ruffled your feathers.

I have lived in california more than a decade. Still waiting on that cancer.

Just give it another decade the air/water will take care of that.

And Cali has some of the better environmental protections in the US.

warning: beating off at least once daily may reduce your chance of prostate cancer

Pron is not what it used to be. Pron tubes are so full of crap these days that it indeed warrants some health warning. Those women are often exploited if nothing else.

How are they exploited? As far as I'm aware, porn actors and actresses sign a contract like you would in any other job.

Some models are exploited victims of sex trafficking. I have a feeling it's usually hard to tell if that's the case. I think that it's not that common, percentage-wise but it's gotta be nonzero. Very uncomfortable to think about but it's there...

I take your point, but you could apply that line of thinking to many other types of job, particularly roles that are unskilled or commonly filled by immigrants.

Well yeah and we should and some people do. We can (actually have a duty to) recognize a multitude of problems in the world.

Exploited in the sense that the current state of the world gives them little other choice than to resort to pron. Like before there were slaves, then peasants, now there are job contracts, but the person most likely deserves to have some better work than that.

Do you not think coal miners are more exploited? Let’s make that illegal too. How about meatpacking plants?

It’s remarkable how many people care deeply about workers, but only when those workers are primarily women they want to take choices from. You want to help people without choices? The way to do that is to give them more options. Taking away options doesn’t improve lives. That’s Puritan nonsense.

How about meatpacking plants?

Those workers are absolutely being exploited.

There are more possible solutions than banning certain types of jobs (which it seems that no one in this comment threat has actually suggested). I think UBI is a good one. Make sure everyone actually has the financial capacity to choose.

Sounds like a great start. I’ve never heard anyone who’s anti-porn suggest that. My goal is that all adults have freedom of choice in these matters, and to that end, I support eliminating economic coercion. There will still be porn. I support that too.