SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 14

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2018

INTRODUCED BY

Bill Tallman

 

 

 

 

 

A JOINT MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING PORNOGRAPHY AS A PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD THAT LEADS TO A BROAD SPECTRUM OF INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETAL HARMS; EXPRESSING THE NEED TO ADDRESS THE POTENTIAL HARMS OF PORNOGRAPHY BY ENCOURAGING EDUCATION, PREVENTION, RESEARCH AND POLICY CHANGES; ADDRESSING THE PROLIFERATION OF PORNOGRAPHY ON THE INTERNET; CALLING FOR REGULATION OF PORNOGRAPHY ON THE INTERNET.

 

     WHEREAS, pornography is a public health hazard; and

     WHEREAS, pornography perpetuates a sexually toxic environment; and

     WHEREAS, efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction, to educate individuals and families concerning its harms and to develop recovery programs must be addressed systemically in ways that hold broader influences accountable; and

     WHEREAS, pornography is contributing to the hypersexualizing of teenagers and prepubescent children in society; and

     WHEREAS, owing to advances in technology and the universal availability of the internet, young children are exposed to what used to be referred to as hardcore, but is now considered mainstream, pornography at an alarming rate; and

     WHEREAS, the average age of exposure to pornography is now eleven to twelve years of age; and

     WHEREAS, this early exposure is leading 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 children's and youths' sex education and shapes their sexual patterns; and

     WHEREAS, because pornography treats women as objects and commodities for the viewer's use, it teaches girls that they are to be used and teaches boys to be users; and

     WHEREAS, pornography normalizes violence and abuse of women and children and often depicts rape and abuse as if such acts are harmless; and

     WHEREAS, pornography equates violence toward women and children with sex and pain with pleasure, which increases the demand for sex trafficking, prostitution, images of child sexual abuse and child pornography; and

     WHEREAS, the use of pornography can potentially negatively affect brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal and lead to problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction as well as difficulty in forming or maintaining intimate relationships; and

     WHEREAS, recent research indicates that pornography is potentially biologically addictive, which means the user requires more novelty, often in the form of more shocking material, in order to be satisfied; and

     WHEREAS, this biological addiction leads to increasing themes of risky sexual behaviors, extreme degradation, violence, child sexual abuse and child pornography; and

     WHEREAS, pornography use is linked to lessening desire in young men to marry, dissatisfaction in marriage and infidelity; and

     WHEREAS, this link demonstrates that pornography has a detrimental effect on the family unit; and

     WHEREAS, overcoming the harms of pornography is beyond the capability of the afflicted individual to address alone; and

     WHEREAS, it is important to recognize the threat to society that pornography poses when it is distributed carelessly over the internet with little regard for the devastating and long-lasting effects that exposure can cause and to begin to address the regulation of it to protect the state's residents, and youth in particular, from such exposure;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that it recognize that pornography is a public health crisis leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature recognize the need for education, prevention, research and policy changes at the community and societal level in order to address the pornography epidemic that is harming the people of the state and the nation; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor and the secretary of health.

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