CORRECTIVE REPRINT
PRIOR PRINTER'S NO. 2475
PRINTER'S NO. 2723
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
519
Session of
2017
INTRODUCED BY BAKER, QUIGLEY, MURT, RYAN, JAMES, FEE, CUTLER,
RAPP, DUSH, SONNEY, DiGIROLAMO, MILLARD, SAYLOR, KAUFFMAN,
WARD, PICKETT, MARSICO, MENTZER, STAATS, B. MILLER, PHILLIPS-
HILL, GILLEN, WHEELAND AND WATSON, SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
A RESOLUTION
Recognizing pornography as a public health hazard leading to a
broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and
societal harms.
WHEREAS, Pornography is creating a public health crisis and
its harms are beyond the capability of the individual to address
alone; and
WHEREAS, Efforts to prevent pornography exposure and
addiction, educate individuals and families concerning its harms
and develop recovery programs must be addressed systemically in
ways that hold broader influences accountable in order to
counter the sexually toxic environment it perpetuates; and
WHEREAS, Pornography is contributing to the
hypersexualization of teenagers and prepubescent children in our
society; and
WHEREAS, Due to the advances in technology and the universal
availability of the Internet, young children are exposed to what
used to be referred to as hardcore pornography at an alarming
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rate, with 27% of older millennials reporting that they first
viewed pornography before puberty; and
WHEREAS, Viewing pornography at a young age leads to low
self-esteem, 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, Children and youths are exposed to pornography that
often serves as sex education and shapes sexual templates; and
WHEREAS, Pornography treats women as objects and commodities
for the viewer's use, teaching girls that they are objects to be
used and teaching boys that this is acceptable behavior; and
WHEREAS, Pornography normalizes violence and abuse of women
and children, treats women and children as objects and often
depicts rape and abuse as harmless; and
WHEREAS, Pornography equates torment and violence against
women and children with pleasure, increasing the demand for sex
trafficking, prostitution, child sexual abuse images and child
pornography; and
WHEREAS, Pornography has potential detrimental effects on the
user, including emotional, mental and medical illnesses, shaping
deviant sexual arousal, difficulty forming or maintaining
intimate relationships, brain development and functioning,
problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction; and
WHEREAS, Recent research indicates that pornography is
potentially biologically addictive, meaning the user requires
more novelty, which is often more shocking material, in order to
be satisfied, leading to increasing themes of risky sexual
behaviors, extreme degradation, violence, child sexual abuse
images and child pornography; and
WHEREAS, Pornography use has a detrimental effect on the
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family as it is linked to lessening desire in young men to
marry, dissatisfaction in marriage and infidelity; therefore be
it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize that
pornography is a public health hazard leading to a broad
spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal
harms; and be it further
RESOLVED, That, in recognizing the public health crisis
created by pornography, the House of Representatives acknowledge
the need for education, prevention, research and policy change
at the community and societal level in order to address the
epidemic that is harming the people of our State and our country
as a whole.
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