Note: Bills that change current law do not show the amended text correctly below. Please view Original PDF to see amended sections:
HJR 136 - Introduced - PDF
HJR136
187676-1
By Representative Mooney
RFD: Rules
First Read: 01-FEB-18
187676-1:n:07/25/2017:DSM*/tj LRS2017-2546
RECOGNIZING PORNOGRAPHY AS A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS IN
ALABAMA.
WHEREAS, the harms of pornography are beyond the
capability of an individual to address alone; efforts to
prevent pornography exposure and addiction, to educate
individuals and families concerning its harms, and to develop
recovery programs must be addressed systematically in ways
that hold broader influences accountable in order to counter
the sexually toxic environment pornography perpetuates; and
WHEREAS, pornography is contributing to the
hyper-sexualization of teens and prepubescent children in our
society; due to advances in technology and the universal
availability of the Internet, young children are exposed to
hard core pornography at alarming rates leading to low
self-esteem and eating disorders, an increase in problematic
sexual activity at younger ages, and an increased desire to
engage in risky sexual behavior as young adolescents; and
WHEREAS, because pornography treats women as objects
and commodities for the viewer's use, it teaches girls they
are to be used and boys to be the users;
WHEREAS, pornography normalizes violence and abuse
of women and children and often depicts rape and abuse as
harmless; it equates violence towards women and children with
sex and pain with pleasure, increasing the demand for sex
trafficking, prostitution, and child sexual abuse; and
WHEREAS, the detrimental effects on the pornography
user include emotional, mental, and medical illnesses, shaping
deviant sexual arousal, difficulty forming or maintaining
intimate relationships, brain development and function, and
problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction; and
WHEREAS, research indicates that pornography is
potentially biologically addictive and leads to increasing
themes of risky sexual behaviors, extreme degradation,
violence, and child sexual abuse; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH
HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That in recognizing the public
health crisis created by pornography in the State of Alabama,
we acknowledge the need for education, prevention, research,
and policy change at the community and societal level in order
to address this epidemic that is harming the people of our
state and our country as a whole.