ENROLLED
2017 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 100
BY REPRESENTATIVE EDMONDS
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To recognize and acknowledge the proliferation of pornography among Louisiana children
to be a public health hazard which leads to a broad spectrum of individual and
societal harms and denounce pornography as a corroding influence on childhood in
our state.
WHEREAS, the members of the Louisiana Legislature recognize that pornography
is creating a public health crisis and that it perpetuates a sexually toxic environment; and
WHEREAS, pornography contributes to the hyper-sexualization of teens and even
prepubescent children in our society; and
WHEREAS, due to advances in technology and the universal availability of the
internet, young children are exposed to what used to be referred to as hardcore pornography
but is now considered mainstream pornography; and
WHEREAS, the average age of exposure to pornography is now eleven to twelve
years; and
WHEREAS, research shows one-third of ten-year-olds and one-half of twelve- to
fifteen-year-olds regularly access hardcore pornography via the internet through computers,
smart phones, and other devices that give access to the internet; and
WHEREAS, this early exposure may lead to low self-esteem and body image
disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and an increased desire
among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior; and
WHEREAS, exposure to pornography often serves as sex education for children and
youth and informs their sexual templates; and
WHEREAS, pornography which depicts violence and abuse of women and children
tends to normalize such behavior; and
WHEREAS, pornography treats women and children as objects and often portrays
rape and abuse as if such acts are harmless; and
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WHEREAS, pornography equates violence towards women and children with sex,
and pain with pleasure, which increases the demand for sex trafficking, prostitution, child
sexual abuse images, and child pornography; and
WHEREAS, science indicates the brain is the only organ whose physiology actually
is changed by the information humans process; and
WHEREAS, potential detrimental effects on children and youth exposed to
pornography can impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and
medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or
maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promote problematic or harmful
sexual behaviors and addiction; and
WHEREAS, studies conclude exposure to pornography at an early age is especially
detrimental, causing addictions to instant gratification and greater impulses for increasingly
more shocking material, leading to engagement in progressively more risky sexual behavior;
and
WHEREAS, pornography use is linked to lessening desire in young men to marry,
dissatisfaction in marriage, and infidelity, and this link demonstrates that pornography has
a detrimental effect on the family, the fundamental social unit in our culture; and
WHEREAS, systematic examinations prove that the younger a boy is exposed to
images depicting rape, bondage, abuse of women, and other deviant behaviors, the more he
is prone to commit violence and force nonconsensual sex with others; and
WHEREAS, overcoming the emotionally and psychologically damaging effects of
childhood exposure to pornography is beyond the capability of the afflicted individuals to
address alone; and
WHEREAS, efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction, to educate
individuals and families concerning its harmful effects, and to develop recovery programs
must be addressed systemically in a manner that holds providers accountable; and
WHEREAS, it is important to recognize the cancer on society that pornography poses
when it is distributed carelessly over the internet with little regard for the devastating and
long lasting effects that childhood exposure to it can cause, and begin to address the
regulation of it to ensure compliance with the state's obscenity laws to protect the state's
citizens and children and youth in particular from such exposure.
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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
recognize and acknowledge the proliferation of pornography among Louisiana children to
be a public health hazard which leads to a broad spectrum of individual and societal harms
and denounce pornography as a corroding influence on childhood in our state.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature hereby expresses the need to
address the pornography epidemic by encouraging education, prevention, research, and
policy changes to address the proliferation of pornography on the internet in particular, and
call for regulation of pornography on the internet to ensure compliance with obscenity laws
of the state.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature hereby pledges to pursue every
possible course of action, including legal, educational, research, religious, and social means,
to prevent accidental exposure and deliberate access to pornography by those under eighteen
years of age.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature hereby urges the president of the
Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives to join with the governor in an
aggressive public campaign to protect children from exposure to pornography.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature hereby expresses support for
laws, programs and policies, and business practices, as well as urges religious, civic, and
community action, to prevent pornography from having a corroding effect on childhood.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
attorney general, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the
Department of Children and Family Services, and the secretary of state for awareness and
action as appropriate, as well as to the members of the House and Senate committees on
health and welfare and the House and Senate committees on education for development of
appropriate legislation to address pornography as a pernicious public health hazard in our
state with particular emphasis on protecting our children from inadvertent or intentional
exposure to online adult content.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENAT-E
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