SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah legislature has passed a law establishing liability for any electronics manufacturer worldwide who fails to install and activate a default anti-porn filter on devices sold in the Mormon-majority state.
The law, SB 104, was introduced by Utah’s leading anti-porn crusader, Republican state Sen. Todd Weiler. Another persistent Republican anti-porn activist, Rep. Susan Pulsipher, sponsored the bill’s House counterpart. It is now awaiting Republican governor Spencer J. Cox’s signature.
SB 104’s intent was to “accelerate part of a porn-blocking bill passed in 2021, which required all new cellphones and tablets sold in Utah, meant for both children and adults, to come with pornography filters activated as a default setting,” the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.
As XBIZ reported, SB 104 is a follow-up to HB 72, signed by Gov. Cox in 2021. Members of Utah trade associations, tech company lobbies and free speech groups all advocated against HB 72 and SB 104. HB 72 only passed after language was included stating the law would not go into effect until five additional states have adopted similar measures, giving a 10-year period for that to occur.
Sen. Weiler introduced SB 104 this year to hasten that process.
“In the years since then, we’ve kind of made ourselves an outlier when it comes to social media and porn websites,” he said. “So it kind of begs the question, why are we waiting for other states on this one?”
Weiler added that SB 104 “is intended to protect children from developing an addiction to pornography,” though the pseudoscientific notion of porn addiction has been repeatedly debunked by public health scientists.
Utah has often led other states in implementing anti-porn legislation. In practice, the state has little separation between church, state, press, education and business, and the Mormon church — with which a majority of Utahns claim affiliation — has resisted scientific, evidence-based and parent-focused approaches to protecting children online.
Despite the national GOP’s laissez-faire philosophy regarding most business and regulatory issues, Utah’s Republican officeholders have relentlessly championed blanket mandates when it comes to default manufacturer-enabled filters or age verification systems.
The LDS Church has also promoted “porn filters” in Utah and nationwide, based on church elders’ theological belief that all porn — a term that for them encompasses all depictions of sexuality outside of the Mormon marriage — is a ploy by Satan to destroy Mormon households.
